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News Release |
MUSIC BY FRIEDRICH GULDA "Wolf-genius in sheep's clothing" 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. The Weinberger Vienna firm's Papageno imprint is publisher of much of Gulda's own music, almost all of it (including the two PIANO CONCERTOS for piano and band) 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. FÜR RICO The last published work of Gulda's is a short piano piece written for his then 8-year- old son, Rico, in 1977 and edited and revised from the autograph by Rico Gulda in March 2001. Here is the composer's comment on the piece, taken from the CD booklet of his Amadeo recording, "The Complete Musician": "... I have here a small piece of mine for my eight-year-old son Rico ... "Please, Daddy, write that down for me so I can play it myself", he said ... It is a kind of little dance with a musette-like middle section ... Modern? Old-fashioned? Timeless? ... After all, no people and no period can claim to own the A-B-A- form, it is rather an archetype ..." SELECTED OTHER WORKS (available on request): Klavier-Kompositionen (including 'Light My Fire' Variations) Suite and Other Pieces for Piano, Electric Piano and Drums Für Paul (solo piano) Fantasy for Four Soloists and Band Variations for Two Pianos and Band Contact Seán Gray for further information: seang@jwmail.co.uk, 00 44 (0)20 7927 7300 |