The Music Salon: Friedrich Gulda: Beautiful Eccentric

Friday, November 8, 2019

Friedrich Gulda: Beautiful Eccentric

Friedrich Gulda is a wonderful pianist, one of my favorite players. Decades ago I owned his box of vinyl LPs of the Beethoven piano concertos with the Vienna Philharmonic and I still think it is the best recording. I have his box of the Beethoven piano sonatas on my shelf and his Bach Well-Tempered Klavier--the latter I have described as being for those people who find Glenn Gould's Bach too romantic!

Anyway, I just ran across this film of him playing Mozart in Munich in, I think, 1995. Could you imagine any of today's stars playing a concert wearing that shirt?

Why do I call him a beautiful eccentric? He once faked his own death just to publicize a concert.

No comments:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Quotes

"I have been reading over your blog the past few months and I find it an absolute treasure, thank you Bryan for sharing your vast knowledge with us all!

--commentator Anonymous

"You are a teacher, a stimulating conversant, and an intellectual I find engaging because yours is not a formulaic or ideological approach, but rather combining contemplation with an unfinished and authentic quest for truth, and that in the human experiential rather than religious dogmatic sense."

--commentator Will

"Your blog is invaluable not just as a remarkable archive on musical subjects, but as a place where one can find genuinely interesting opinions on music, both from you and commenters."

--commentator Steven

"I always find plenty to disagree with on Bryan's blog but I always find it a stimulating place for discussion and I seem to learn something new every time I visit this site."

--commentator Anonymous

"Your "blog" is priceless to me and many others."

--commentator Archilochus

I am so thankful for obsessive thinkers and writers like yourself who give us something interesting and intellectually nourishing to chew on almost every day. And your discussions have clarified and expanded many of my views about art and music in particular.

Bravissimo!

--commentator Jives

Congratulations for running a comments section full of enlightening aesthetic debates.

--commentator Jack

Thanks for your devotion and hard work on this blog. It should be required reading for anyone with love of, or interest in, classical music.

--commentator David

Great writing here at the music salon by the way - I just found the site recently and have been really enjoying it. Within the last year, I've started exploring the western classical tradition and your writing here has been a recent springboard to so much good music!

--commentator Jon

"I've been reading your blog for nearly a year now, and as a college student new to the world of classical music I have to say it's been incredibly informative."

--Matthew Briehl

"This is the most consistently engaging and instructive music blog of which I am aware."

--Craig, culture blogger

"Your opinion of Thile's Bach is . . . outrageous."

-- a commentator