Gulda plays Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor”

There’s never been a musician quite like Friedrich Gulda, the maverick Austrian virtuoso and composer whose fearless cross-genre adventures outraged purists but arguably brought him closer to the living creative heart of the music than almost any pianist of his era. In this 1989 Munich Piano Summer Festival concert he walks out to play and direct Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto in skull cap and T-shirt before delivering a performance of life-affirming insight and integrity; the work (according to Gramophone) of “an artist entirely sure of his vision, challenging us to think again at the stylistic exclusion zones we place around music”.

Soloist: 

Friedrich Gulda (Piano)

Ensemble: 

Munich Philharmonic