Let me first remind readers that the (Super budget price) in the heading signifies ''super-bargain-price'', which is to say a recommended cost of not more than £4.99. That's important to remember, for here the reproduction of the piano is decidedly less than first class. With a synthetic quality in the tone, it's sometimes clangy, while sometimes the reverberance of the venue (the Moyzes Hall of the Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava) blurs fuller texture. As for the playing itself, I confess to having hoped for something more persuasive from an Austrian of 31 whose teachers have included not only his distinguished father, Friedrich Gulda, but also Rudolf Serkin.
In Kreisleriana, the main work, there is no mistaking Paul Gulda's awareness of the music's very personal motivation, and equally his appreciation of its many points of 'horizontally' conceived cunning. But I thought his rubato too obtrusively applied, notably in the assuagingly beautiful recurrent main theme of No. 2 and to a slightly lesser extent in the middle section (in the major key) of No. 1. And not all his tempo changes for the contrasting sections within each piece seem to cohere quite as smoothly and inevitably as they can. At moments of heightened excitement, such as in No. 7 in particular, Gulda's playing also loses an essential elegance, with some coarsening of tone too. The nine endearing Waldszenen pose fewer problems, and are for the most part straightforwardly acceptable. Best, perhaps, is ''Haunted Spot'' (No. 12), with its tellingly inflected detail. But I would have liked more lyrical grace in one or two others, not least ''The Wayside Inn'' (No. 14). Greater purely pianistic finesse and charm would not have come amiss in the Blumenstuck either, though I welcomed Gulda's pursuit of variety in a piece whose repetitiveness can sometimes sound a little bland.'