Gulda Festkonzert = WAGNER: Prelude to Die Meistersinger; MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major; DVORAK: Symphony No. 8 in G
Major - Freidrich Gulda, piano/Rudolf Kempe/ Munich Philharmonic Orchestra - Scribendum

 

Recorded 29 November 1972 in Dusseldorf, this sensational concert features some brilliant collaboration between Friedrich Gulda (1930-2002) and Rudolf Kempe (1910-1976), the latter's having appeared as its primary conductor in 1967, to be succeeded by Rafael Kubelik. The concert had been arranged as a fund-raiser for the Heinemann Foundation. A rapt audience, of which you can now be a part, listens spellbound to first a muscular but singularly transparent rendition of Wagner's Prelude to Die Meistersinger, whose polyphonies shimmer in string, brass and woodwind lines. 

Then, with a piano sounding a cross between harp and harpsichord, Gulda makes deftly music-box sonorities in the last of the Mozart concertos, a crystalline chain of jeweled notes that will remind collectors of Gieseking, but with more girth and weight in the chords without loss of clarity. For those who well know this lovely work, there will be those magic touches of ensemble that manage to evoke a moment of awe that always remains in works that are, in the words of Schnabel, better than can be played. The Dvorak G Major receives a polished and sinewy reading, with the E-flat Adagio's having a vibrant pulse between strings and woodwind that keeps the flow of the piece moving even as the respective choirs luxuriate in the own sound. The third movement melancholy waltz in 3/8 and the last movement fanfare and variations resonate with enthusiasm and plastic rhythms, the various stretti and peroration no less exuberant than in the Wagner. A rousing and inspired concert, where the Mozart concerto will transport enthusiasts beyond their expectations. The contemporary audience goes wild after the Dvorak.

--Gary Lemco

---