Thewisemonkey9's video: Friedrich Gulda: Debussy - La cath drale engloutie The Sunken Cathedral

Friedrich Gulda (16 May 1930 – 27 January 2000) was an Austrian pianist and composer who worked 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 Wiener Volkskonservatorium, aged 7. In 1942, he entered the Vienna Music Academy, where he studied piano and musical theory under Bruno Seidlhofer and Joseph Marx. During WWII as teenagers, Gulda and his friend Joe Zawinul would go out and perform forbidden musics – like jazz, in violation of the then occupying Hitler regime's prohibition on the playing of such musics (this is mentioned in the documentary film "Friedrich Gulda: So What – A Portrait"). Gulda won first prize at the Geneva International Music Competition in 1946. Initially, the jury preferred the Belgian pianist Lode Backx, but when the final vote was taken, Gulda was the winner. One of the jurors, Eileen Joyce, who favoured Backx, stormed out and claimed the other jurors were unfairly influenced by Gulda's supporters. Gulda began to play concerts worldwide. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1950.[2] Together with Jörg Demus and Paul Badura-Skoda, Gulda formed what became known as the "Viennese troika". Although most famous for his Mozart and Beethoven interpretations, Gulda also performed the music of J. S. Bach, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Debussyand Ravel. His recordings of Bach's Well Tempered Clavier are well regarded by collectors.[3] Apart from the Well Tempered Clavier, Gulda performed very few other pieces by Bach and recorded even fewer. Gulda's later reliance on co-operating with companies whose recording techniques were primitive in comparison to those espoused by more sophisticated rivals stood him in very poor stead with regard to posterity. The rescued Mozart sonata tapes issued on DG are unbelievably bad in terms of recorded technical quality; likewise the Debussy Preludes and Bach recordings of the late 60s and early 70s. He died of heart failure at the age of 69 on 27 January 2000 at his home in Weissenbach, Austria. Gulda is buried in the cemetery of Steinbach am Attersee, Austria. He was married twice, first to Paola Loew and then to Yuko Wakiyama. His two sons, Paul and Rico Gulda, one from each of his marriages, are accomplished pianists. In 2007 a documentary film for television was made about his life, So what?! – Friedrich Gulda... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Gulda A link to this wonderful artists personal website: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/friedrich-gulda-mn0000207805/discography Please Enjoy! I send my kind and warm regards,