16 April 2007

friedrich gulda 'nachricht vom lande"1976, with cecil taylor, john surman, barre phillips, albert mangelsdorff, stu martin and ursula anders



hi all
heres an album ,thats been out of print a long time. Brain (Austria) 500.018 (lp) 1976)
those who know the ecentric austrian pianist only for his renown performances of the european classical repertoire,notably mozart and haydyn, will be surprised to know he was an innovative envelope pushing,master improvisor with a wry sense of humour,who delighted in challening his audiences, by playing in ever more outrageous contexts his collaboration in 1972 with the improvising trio of 'non musicians'ANIMA
was particularly enraging to 'classical purists" .
gulda seemed to want to find the commonality in all streams of music.

heres a short bio from wikipedia (although it doesnt mention his freer projects)
and not surprisingly few of those are in print.
one gets the impression that those who maintain his legacy would prefer to ignore
his more experimental side.

Friedrich Gulda (16 May 1930 - 27 January 2000) was an Austrian pianist who performed in both the classical and jazz fields.

Born in Vienna as the son of a teacher, Gulda began learning to play the piano from Felix Pazofsky at the age of 7; in 1942, he entered the Vienna Music Academy, where he studied piano and musical theory under Bruno Seidlhofer and Joseph Marx. After winning first prize at the International Competition in Geneva four years later, in 1946, he began going on concert tours throughout the world. Together with Jörg Demus and Paul Badura-Skoda, Gulda formed what became known as the "Viennese troika".

Although most famous for his Beethoven interpretations, Gulda also performed the music of J. S. Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Debussy and Ravel.

From the 1950s on he cultivated an interest in jazz, writing several songs and instrumental pieces himself and combining jazz and classical music in his concerts at times. Gulda wrote a Prelude and Fugue with a theme suggesting swing. Keith Emerson performed it on Emerson, Lake & Palmer's The Return of the Manticore. In addition, Gulda composed "Variations on The Doors' 'Light My Fire'". Another version can be found on As You Like It (1970), an album with standards such as "'Round Midnight" and "What Is This Thing Called Love?"

In 1982, Gulda teamed up with jazz pianist Chick Corea, who found himself in between the breakup of Return to Forever and the formation of his Elektric Band. Issued on The Meeting (Philips, 1984), Gulda and Corea communicate in lengthy improvisations mixing jazz ("Someday My Prince Will Come" and the lesser known Miles Davis song "Put Your Foot Out") and classical music (Brahms' "Wiegenlied" ["Cradle song"]).

It was this unorthodox practice that, among other things, earned him the nickname "terrorist pianist"; Gulda had a strong dislike of authorities like the Vienna Academy, the Beethoven Ring of which he was offered in recognition of his performances but which he refused, and even faked his own death in the late 1990s, cementing his status as the 'enfant terrible' among pianists. Nevertheless, Gulda is widely regarded as one of the most outstanding piano players of the 20th century.

Friedrich Gulda died on January 27, 2000 at the age of 69, following a heart failure.

Two of his three sons, Paul (with first wife Paola Loew, born October 25, 1961) and Rico (with his second wife Yuko Wakiyama, born April 9, 1968) Gulda, are also accomplished pianists.

tacklist
Einsamkeiten 17:58
Begegnung auf Moosham 5:10
Wechselnde Begegnungen auf Moosham 26:58
Mooshamer Begegnungen (Fortsetzung): "Das Gewitter" 19:18
Mooshamer Begegnungen (Schlus): "Nach dem Gewitter" 7:16
Nachklange - Ruckkehr - Zweisamkeit 13:30



this double album , features a killer line up

personnel
friedrich gulda-piano and percussion
ursula anders-percussion,objectsw
cecil taylor-piano on tracks 2,3,4
john surman-saxes, synth on 3,4,5
barre phillips -double bass on 1,3,4,5,
stu martin-drums on 3,4,5, albert manglesdorff-trombone on 3,4
Moosham Castle, Langau (Austria), August 20-22, 1976
note cecil taylor recorded his classic solo outin on enja air above mountains, earlier the sameyear at moosham castle

all the tracks seem pretty much improvised

ive split the double lp into two zipped files
(note the lp ,was really rather crackly)

part 1- http://rapidshare.com/files/25888093/nahricht_1.zip
part 2- trolled HOW Senseless

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much. I was at this festival in 1976 in an old castle in Austria and have sweet memories from it, but I have never heard or seen this record. The solo Cecil Taylor "Air Above Mountains" is from the same festival, a fantastic record.

SOTISE said...

sunship
its a pleasure,
bein there for that must have been a remarkable experience.
if you or anyone has some oop material you or they'd like to share please contact me at
dipmong@hotmail.com
cheers

The Ghost of Jerry Reed said...

Wow, another great post! Where do you find these LPs? Or were you lucky enough to buy them when they were originally released? Thanks, yet again....

Luis said...

Sorry, how can I download the link for the second part?

thank you

Luis

martin said...

I would also love to see a repost of Part 2. This recording is very hard to find.

Anonymous said...

never saw this before - much thanks for part 1!

Marmaduke's 'lil' Limbo said...

As MARTINI mentioned before .... is there a link for part 2?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Procrastinator said...

Outstanding blog and posts, really top notch choices! Possibly a re-up of the second lp? Thanx.

SOTISE said...

will re-rip and up Flacs soon!
S

Nick said...

FLACs

RS

GF

1f

Colin Green said...

Any chance of a re-up? Thanks

Mr Saxobeat said...

Echoing Colin.

shooby said...

would be wonderful to have a re-up of this, thanks!