Now this is a phenomenal set of the 48, Gulda is one of my favourite interpreters, there's a gentleness and insight which is amazing, some Pianists throw muscularity into their playing, as if decibels means deepness, there's a simplicity about his playing, just let Bach do the talking, instead of pushing aside Bach and projecting your own ideas into the music, i listened to this set over four days [12 a day], and each day i so looked forward to hearing some more, it's an endless discovery of music, there's so much to take in, so many pieces to fall in love with, on this listen i crossed some new lines, and i now know this great work a smidgen more than i did last week, this set has appeared in my Blog twice before, at the beginning and end of 2011 [2nd December 2011 & 11th January 2011].
Friedrich Gulda [1930-2000] was Austrian, he recorded these discs in 1972-1973, it's a wonderful fatbox set of four discs, now re-issued as two volumes of two discs, but this is the original, and presented in this way it's absolutely fantastic, the front cover photograph [by Pim Westerweel], is also an incredible visual statement, a side profile of Gulda, the nearside of his head darkened, but his face lit superbly, a black & white shot showing contours and and outlines, with a jet black background it creates a stunning visual statement, this is a set to be treasured, but ultimately the worth of the set grows as you put some 'listening milage' into it.
There's so much to enjoy here, to even begin to describe the 'discoveries' in this listen is just so overwhelming, the many pieces which were a sure thrill were 1P, 3P, 6-7P, 9-10P, 13P, 17P, 19F, 29-31P, 36P&F, 37P, 39P & 45P [where P = Prelude, and F = Fugue], certainly too many pieces to adequately talk about, so i will just concentrate on three pieces, the three that really touched me the deepest, as you can see from my 'shortlist', the Preludes far outweigh the Fugues, however the three that astounded me the most were the Fugue of 19, and the Prelude & Fugue of 36, so here's a synopsis of both,
Fugue 19 [BWV 864], Only 1:39 long, and in A Major, of course as a Fugue goes, one voice follows another, then another, and so on, there's a climbing figure right from the start, a single note stab, then up the keyboard we go, it gets more and more complex, until the treble right hand starts running wild [0:40+], and the other hand starts to copy, quite breathtaking really, Gulda paces it really fast, but it works superbly.
Prelude & Fugue 36 [BWV 881], In contrast Gulda plays this Prelude real quiet and slow, and again creates a real magic with it, this one's in F Minor, it's later in the Prelude that it's best section comes out [2:30+ & 4:01], a sort of change into the treble, and the developing of a more lyrical melody, it's a magical moment, the opening notes keep coming back from time to time, and really add to the spell, the Fugue by comparison is really jerky, very repetitive, Bach gets the Keyboardist to constantly stammer on the same note before moving on, it's a lovely effect, i like the way it gently quiets for one of these episodes [0:38-0:48], [& 1:12+ & 2:25+], a great fugue that really weaves a magic.
There's so much to enjoy here, to even begin to describe the 'discoveries' in this listen is just so overwhelming, the many pieces which were a sure thrill were 1P, 3P, 6-7P, 9-10P, 13P, 17P, 19F, 29-31P, 36P&F, 37P, 39P & 45P [where P = Prelude, and F = Fugue], certainly too many pieces to adequately talk about, so i will just concentrate on three pieces, the three that really touched me the deepest, as you can see from my 'shortlist', the Preludes far outweigh the Fugues, however the three that astounded me the most were the Fugue of 19, and the Prelude & Fugue of 36, so here's a synopsis of both,
Prelude & Fugue 36 [BWV 881], In contrast Gulda plays this Prelude real quiet and slow, and again creates a real magic with it, this one's in F Minor, it's later in the Prelude that it's best section comes out [2:30+ & 4:01], a sort of change into the treble, and the developing of a more lyrical melody, it's a magical moment, the opening notes keep coming back from time to time, and really add to the spell, the Fugue by comparison is really jerky, very repetitive, Bach gets the Keyboardist to constantly stammer on the same note before moving on, it's a lovely effect, i like the way it gently quiets for one of these episodes [0:38-0:48], [& 1:12+ & 2:25+], a great fugue that really weaves a magic.
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