Brilliant Classics makes Friedrich Gulda's 1967 Amadeo Beethoven cycle available on the American market for the first time since Philips' mid-1980s reissue. Amadeo's own CD edition was marred by fake reverb and only one access track per sonata. Happily, Brilliant Classics leaves the closely miked, slightly dry, yet full-bodied and viscerally impactful engineering as is, and provides tracks for each individual movement. The performances contrast to Gulda's recently reissued 1950s Beethoven cycle: they're tougher-skinned, more rhythmically compact, brisker, and leaner. Don't expect tonal warmth and inward expansiveness; that's not Gulda's "m.o".

The pianist's headlong, concentrated treatment of the Op. 10 sonatas typifies his Beethovenian aesthetic (the C minor's finale couldn't be more Prestissimo if it tried!), as does his unconventionally brisk and terse way with the Op. 26 "Funeral March" sonata. Similarly, the Op. 31 triumvirate takes no prisoners as Gulda rubs the music's ruthless dynamic contrasts and unpredictable accents upside your ears. You'll never hear so relentless, unyielding, and unromantic an Appassionata, which, depending on your taste, is either good or bad. Such an interpretive gambit works better for Op. 101's fugal entanglements, but the lyrical Op. 110 proves too tense and unpoetic for my taste (his rapid, severe "Hammerklavier" sonata slow movement is more convincing). By contrast, Gulda's relatively free treatment of the Moonlight's famous opening Adagio sostenuto plays against type, and his flexibly phrased, imaginatively nuanced Op. 54 is one of the best on disc.

One performance truly baffles. Gulda arrogantly flexes his bravura muscles throughout the "Waldstein" first movement, plays the introduction to the rondo in a flip, insensitive manner that is anything but the Adagio Molto Beethoven specifies, and fusses with the Rondo's basic tempo to the point where the music runs into the ground. Despite its quirks and occasional miscalculations, Gulda's Beethoven remains a stimulating, provocative experience that weathers the inroads of time and fashion well. In this respect, Gulda deserves serious consideration alongside Beethovenian individualists as dissimilar as Schnabel, Kempff, and Arrau. A classic set.

--Jed Distler