Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000) was an Austrian pianist and composer, celebrated for Beethoven, Mozart, jazz interests and a fiercely independent musical personality. He was one of the most distinctive keyboard artists of the post-war period.

In the Pristine catalogue he appears in Chopin’s 24 Preludes, recorded in 1953.

Gulda’s playing could be lucid, rhythmically alive and sharply unsentimental, with a refusal to treat tradition as museum furniture. He brought classical discipline and improvisatory energy into uneasy but productive contact.

His page is justified by stature even from a compact catalogue footprint. Gulda played the piano as though the rules were real, but not necessarily in charge.