Great Pianists of the 20th Century - Friedrich Gulda
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel
Label: Great Pianists of the 20th Century
Magazine Review Date: 3/1999
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 158
Mastering:
ADD
Catalogue Number: 456 817-2PM2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Danseuses de Delphes |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Voiles |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Le vent dans la plaine |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Les sons et les parfums |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Les collines d'Anacapri |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Des pas sur la neige |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Ouest |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: La fille aux cheveux de lin |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: La sérénade interrompué |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: La cathédrale engloutie |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: La danse de Puck |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Minstrels |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (L') Isle joyeuse |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (6) Images, Movement: Reflets dans l'eau |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (3) Estampes, Movement: Soirée dans Grenade |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| Suite bergamasque |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| Pour le piano |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| Sonatine for Piano |
Maurice Ravel, Composer
Friedrich Gulda, Piano Maurice Ravel, Composer |
| (8) Valses nobles et sentimentales |
Maurice Ravel, Composer
Friedrich Gulda, Piano Maurice Ravel, Composer |
| Gaspard de la nuit |
Maurice Ravel, Composer
Friedrich Gulda, Piano Maurice Ravel, Composer |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Brouillards |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Feuilles mortes |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: La puerta del Vino |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Les fées sont d'exquises |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Bruyères |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Général Lavine eccentric |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Les terrasses des audiences |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Ondine |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Homage à S. Pickwick Esq., PPMPC |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Canope |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Les tièrces alternées |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
| (24) Préludes, Movement: Feux d'artifice |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Friedrich Gulda, Piano |
Author:
Friedrich Gulda is one of those fascinating players whose recording career is punctuated by more than one interpretative change of heart. He prepared at least three sets of Beethoven sonatas; all are quite different, with the last of them (for Amadeo) having been briefly issued in the UK via Philips (on LP and CD). Debussy, too, has been scrutinized and thoroughly re-thought, initially for the Decca recordings reissued here, and then for a second recording of the Preludes in 1969 (BASF, 10/72 – nla; Philips’s annotator makes mention of the set but I have personally never encountered it).
In terms of overall interpretative balance, the early Debussy recordings strike me as fairly similar to Gulda’s Beethoven recordings from the same period: unfussy, musically sensitive, textually conscientious, and what one might tentatively label ‘objective’. Decca’s small-scale piano sound falls pleasantly on the ear, with a realistic treble but a relatively weak mid-range; background levels are high, the transfers have been well managed and one soon adapts to the set’s sonic limitations.
I greatly liked Gulda’s unbuttoned, rumbustious reading of the Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales, even if the ‘Epilogue’ is a little lacking in perspective. Gaspard de la nuit hasn’t Michelangeli’s mesmerizing control, but the Sonatine is delightful, especially the opening Modere and the phrasally flexible Menuet.
In Gulda’s hands, Debussy’s music works best where the colours are boldest, inL’isle joyeuse, the two suites (Suite bergamasque is especially good) and at least two of the Preludes: ‘Minstrels’ from Book 1, and ‘General Lavine – excentric’ from Book 2. ‘Voiles’ are quietly hypnotic, and ‘Les collines d’Anacapri’ elegant, playful and teasing. Generally speaking, however, the Second Book is more successful than the First, possibly because there Debussy’s radical harmonic innovations lean more towards the jazz idiom that Gulda himself would shortly embrace. I think in particular of ‘La Puerta del Vino’ and ‘La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune’, both of which seem viewed very much as from the inside.
In other respects, this is an interesting glimpse of a notable artist at a crossroads in his career. One senses a major musical personality in embryo, sometimes searching, occasionally hitting the nail on the head but more often than not stymied by a set of performing traditions that did not serve him well. Had he not moved on, I doubt he would have been more than a fondly remembered footnote to recorded pianistic history. In the event, he went far, and his later work conveys a fuller, more re-creative and more compelling musical personality than is on offer here.'
In terms of overall interpretative balance, the early Debussy recordings strike me as fairly similar to Gulda’s Beethoven recordings from the same period: unfussy, musically sensitive, textually conscientious, and what one might tentatively label ‘objective’. Decca’s small-scale piano sound falls pleasantly on the ear, with a realistic treble but a relatively weak mid-range; background levels are high, the transfers have been well managed and one soon adapts to the set’s sonic limitations.
I greatly liked Gulda’s unbuttoned, rumbustious reading of the Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales, even if the ‘Epilogue’ is a little lacking in perspective. Gaspard de la nuit hasn’t Michelangeli’s mesmerizing control, but the Sonatine is delightful, especially the opening Modere and the phrasally flexible Menuet.
In Gulda’s hands, Debussy’s music works best where the colours are boldest, in
In other respects, this is an interesting glimpse of a notable artist at a crossroads in his career. One senses a major musical personality in embryo, sometimes searching, occasionally hitting the nail on the head but more often than not stymied by a set of performing traditions that did not serve him well. Had he not moved on, I doubt he would have been more than a fondly remembered footnote to recorded pianistic history. In the event, he went far, and his later work conveys a fuller, more re-creative and more compelling musical personality than is on offer here.'
Great Pianists of the 20th Century - Friedrich Gulda
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