Although the repertoire of the recordings presented on this CD is rather “conventional”, you can nevertheless understand – even after several decades – why his listeners must have been hugely impressed by Gulda’s drastic, lucid and rhythmically innovative playing.

Gulda played the Concerto in C Minor (K491) for the first time in Buenos Aires in 1952 under Igor Markevich. It is one of the piano concertos which recur in the 1980s, conducted by Harnoncourt. In the recording from the 1959 Ludwigsburg festival, included on this album, Gulda already captures the melancholy aura of this work.

Beethoven’s Op.58 with its highly imaginative outer movements and the tête-à-tête between soloist and orchestra in the second movement is virtually made for Gulda’s incredibly nuanced touch. This concerto was to accompany Gulda throughout his life – starting in Geneva in 1946 until his performance with the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg (1993).

Sometimes Gulda played two piano concertos at a single evening performance, testament to his boundless energy. In those years Haydn’s concerto appeared in his programmes off and on. Gulda’s crystal clear and rhythmically brilliant technique never ceases to fascinate the listener and makes his performance of this highly virtuoso piece a special experience.

“I shall take the important representatives of jazz as well as Bach and Mozart as my examples”, Gulda wrote in 1954, a statement that gives you an idea of how important Mozart was to him right from the start. Gulda played the Concerto in E flat Major (K449) for the first time in September 1954. Afterwards K449 appears in Gulda’s concerts again and again. The Concerto in A Major (K488) is one of Mozart’s first three piano concertos Gulda rehearsed (1948). He played this piece for the first time during his 37-city tour of South America in 1949.