Gulda Remastered: Stuttgart Piano Concertos

courtesy of Naxos of America

The second of the five albums of Stuttgart performances by the Austrian pianist and composer Friedrich Gulda was released on the SWR>>classic label in December of 2019, about three months after the Solo Recitals album discussed this past Friday. The second collection consists of only three CDs, again involving remastered tapes recorded by Südwestrundfunk (SWR, southwest broadcasting), the public radio service for the southwest of Germany. The content involves both concert and studio performances of concertos originally recorded between 1959 and 1962.

Two orchestras were involved in accompanying Gulda. The first two CDs present performances by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra with two of the concertos conducted by the founding chief conductor, Hans Müller-Kray, and one conducted by Joseph Keilberth. The final CD consists of two concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart led by Hans Rosbaud leading the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, for which he was founding chief conductor.

Mozart receives the most attention in this collection, not only from Rosbaud (conducting K. 449 in E-flat major and K. 488 in A major) but also from the only Keilberth recording (K. 491 in C minor). The other two concertos involve two other First Viennese School composers, Joseph Haydn (Hoboken XVIII/11 in D major) and Ludwig van Beethoven (Opus 58, the fourth, in G major). The Haydn offering is the only concerto on the second CD.

It is followed by Richard Strauss’ “Burleske” in D minor, which should probably be described as a single-movement concertante composition for piano and timpani, making it a bit of a pity that the timpanist is never named. Both the Haydn and the Strauss selections were recorded at a single concert in the Stuttgart Liederhalle, the ensemble’s primary performance venue, which took place on January 10, 1962. Since the CD amounts to a concert recording, it also includes Gulda’s encore performance of Claude Debussy’s “Feux d’artifice” (fireworks), the final prelude in the composers second book of twelve.

All of these performances took place at a time when only a handful of musicians were presenting “historically informed” performances of music from any period. Nevertheless, both pianist and conductors served up satisfyingly coherent interpretations of the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. From a personal point of view, however, I have to confess that I seldom warm up to recordings of Mozart piano concertos, regardless of whether or not they are “historically informed.”

The “real history,” so to speak, of any of these concertos involves Mozart himself behind the keyboard, probably also leading the ensemble; and each concerto was a showcase for his own highly imaginative virtuosity. This was not just a matter of exploiting every cadenza as an opportunity for flamboyant display. In all likelihood Mozart would be playing around with any number of twists and turns in his phrasing even when he was engaging with the thematic material coming from the orchestra.

The good news is that I have enjoyed opportunities to experience many fine pianists channel Mozart’s provocative spirit in performances of his concertos; and it would not surprise me to learn that Gulda tried to do the same, even at a time when “polite” approaches to Mozart were more fashionable. However, even if Gulda did know how to do justice to Mozart’s spirit (or even channel it), that spirit tends to get abstracted away by the recording process.

As a result, the one selection in which justice is done to the spirit of the performance itself is that of the Strauss composition. Under Müller-Kray’s leadership, the attentive listener can appreciate the frequently obstreperous relationship between piano and timpani. Initial reactions of mild chuckles will eventually lead to overt belly-laughs.

Gulda’s following encore performance has its own way of manipulating listener attention. Most important is that it reminds the listener familiar with Gulda’s broader repertoire of his affinity for jazz improvisation. There is a spontaneity in his approach to the Debussy prelude that at least mildly hints that the score may have originated in improvisation (which the composer subsequently refined).

The one element that puzzles me is the minimal attention paid to Beethoven. Mind you, like many, I tend to place Opus 58 on the higher plane than the four published concertos on either side of it. However, as I previously observed, my first knowledge of Gulda came from his recording all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas. I would have thought that this rich context would have also served Gulda’s concerto repertoire. However, that does not appear to be the case, at least where the SWR archives of his performances are concerned.