Gulda, Friedrich

All Works

The Austrian pianist, Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000), was one of the most distinctive musical personalities of his era, certainly from the point of view of the classical world. Winning First Prize in the Geneva competition in 1946 helped launch his career and he made his debut at the Carnegie Hall in 1950, winning a reputation particularly as an interpreter of Beethoven and Mozart. In 1967, he recorded the complete Beethoven sonatas for Amadeo. He was, though, something of an anti-establishment figure, wearing casual suits in his concerts, including his own jazz works in his recitals and rejecting the Beethoven Ring sent him by the Vienna Academy in protest at its authoritarianism.

Weinberger Vienna’s frim, Papageno Imprint, is publisher of much of Gulda’s own music, almost all of which (including the two concerti for piano and band) is jazz-influenced. The invigoratingly outrageous Cello Concerto for cello and wind band (written for Heinrich Schiff) has been performed most widely in recent years, particularly in Scandinavia and Holland.