Beethoven and Bebop, Debussy and The Doors, Mozart and Mash-Ups. Such pairings are strange, even improbable bedfellows, yet the pianist Friedrich Gulda, one of 20th-century music’s most capricious rebels, managed to connect the dots and bring these disparate musical worlds together throughout his life, to the delight of many and perhaps the disdain of others. Gulda signed to Decca as a teenager, and his first recordings (presented in this set for the first time internationally) are indicative of the repertoire he would continue championing to the end. His complete recordings on Decca are brought together in one edition for the very first time, 40 years after he recorded his last recording for the label, the Beethoven Concertos with the Wiener Philharmoniker and conductor Horst Stein.This 41CD + Blu-ray Audio disc edition includes many benchmark recordings, including the Beethoven Piano Sonatas (Decca & Amadeo), the Decca cycle remastered at 24bit 96kHz and available on Blu-ray audio for the first time; Debussy’s Prludes Books I & II, Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Sir Adrian Boult, and Richard Strauss’ Lieder with the soprano Hilde Gueden; and a work Gulda wholeheartedly embraced – the youthful Burleske. The set also includes a collection of recordings made for the Amadeo label from 1960-1981, and a live recording of improvisations with Chick Corea.The booklet includes new liner notes by musicologist Jed Distler, rare photographs and facsimiles of the original LP cover art.