Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 / Mozart: Fantasia and Sonatas: Beethoven 5. Piano Concerto Mozart Sonata K. 333 and K. 576, Fantasia in d minor. Friedrich Gulda, Piano. Frederich Gulda performs and conducts Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major op. 73 with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. This performance was recorded in 1989 in Munich, Germany. In a performance captured in 1995 Friedrich Gulda plays two pieces composed by Mozart; Sonata in B flat major, K 333 and Sonata in D major K 576. This is the first time any of these recordings has been released on video. Includes the unique feature of optional on-screen analysis of the music being performed as well as subtitle display of the mood and tempo. Biographical information about Gulda and the Munich Philharmonic is included as are on screen liner notes, a glossary of musical terms and contemporary history of the compositions. 5.1 Dolby Digital and non-compressed stereo. A recital …or another analogous 4’33″ thing “event” ?! – Anthony J. Lomenzo – Fort Ann, New York
I couldn’t help noticing the reviewer “Meqabeilin” and the rendered analogy of Gulda coming off as a sort of “spastic Joe Cocker at Woodstock” which, alas, I not only must concur forthwith but it seemed to me to be more of an amalgam consisting of Harpo Marx with the horn, ‘Curly’ Howard and the ‘machine-gun derby’ routine [You know, bop, bop, bop, bop, left hand derby 'bop' to the head and concurrent criss-cross right arm thing] all followed by the vocalized TAH, TAH, TAH, TAH mutterings of a Glenn Gould on a particularly bad ‘chair’ day as it were. What’s that? Louder! Oh, I agree! Clarabell and the seltzer bottle too! Double whew!
The attempt at ‘conducting’ [!?] while playing was a complete and total farce! I mean the guy is literally trotting back and forth to the piano bench at times to hit the correct notes after his rotating arm swings [think Apollo Creed in the Rocky flick when the Rock was against the ropes and Apollo, wearing the Uncle Sam hat, made with the old full arm rotation thing for the 'here it comes' knock-out punch !] to the orchestra and then when the clinkers show up after Gulda’s rush back to the piano, he simply smiles! So too, I do think the ‘classical’ recitals mandate some semblance of a classical recital demeanor so when the pianist shows up looking more like the piano ‘mover’ versus the ‘interpreter’, well, hey, and to those who would immediately counter, ‘but what about the playing!’, I can’t say it was pleasing.
Between the antics, the mutterings, the ‘conducting’ [!?], the running around the stage, the sometimes ‘been on the pipe’ look and those clinkers a la mode in a constant struggle between key positioning and arm swinging, nah. And again nahhhh! I honestly think the orchestra was ‘embarrassed’ by the performance and, quite frankly, I don’t think Gulda could have cared less! Note too when the 3rd movement of the 5th piano concerto was concluded came the rather sparse applause and Gulda makes with the sort of palm of the hand wave-off as if to say, hey, take it or leave it!
What’s that? That’s me! The one who did ‘not’ embrace 4’33″ or the “prepared piano” thing with the spoons, bolts, marbles, et al , on the piano ‘strings’ as the veritable ‘wave of the future’ or ‘imagined voice [!?] of the Muse itself” or, as another wag put it, the ‘Second Coming’, so call me a traditionalist but as duly distinct from an ‘ultra purist’! There ‘is’ a difference! Switching: It also helps to know something about Friedrich Gulda [1930-2000] and his background where along the way on the initially more traditional path he simply said ‘the hell with it’ [sic] and, IMO, acted accordingly! In effect, a demeanor of ‘take it or leave it’ with a follow up on-stage caveat of ‘like it or lump it’, stage antics inclusive. OK, fine, to each their own thing … so I ‘lumped’ it!
Doc Tony
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