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Home , Arthur Rubinstein, Emil von Sauer, Minuet (horse), Theodor Kullak, Xaver Scharwenka

Disc I - IGNACE JAN PADEREWSKI (1860-1941)

1 Theme and Variations Op. 16, No. 3 8:32 Recorded July 15, 1964 in , Baldwin in A minor, Op. 17 2 I. Allegro 15:35 3 II. Romanza 9:15 4 III. Allegro motto vivace 7:29 London Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, conductor • Recorded September 6, 1970, Barking Town Hall, London, England • Recording Engineer: Robert Auger Steinway Piano 5 Fantaisie Polonaise in G minor, Op. 19 19:10 London Symphony Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, conductor • Recorded September 7, 1970, Barking Town Hall, London, England • Recording Engineer: Robert Auger Steinway Piano

Disc II - (1850-1924)

Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 32 1 I. Allegro patetico 10:24 2 II. Scherzo: Allegro assai 7:00 3 III. Allegro non tanto 10:35 Boston Symphony Orchestra, , conductor • Recorded January 20, 1969, Symphony Hall, Boston, MA • Producer: Peter Delheim * Engineer: Bernard Keville Baldwin Piano

4 Polish Dance in E flat minor, Op. 3, No. 1 3:44 Recorded April 1976, RCA Studio A, New York City • Producer: Joseph Habig * Recording Engineer: Bernard Keville • Baldwin Piano

– 3 – Paderewski Scharwenka HEROESY “-as-Hero” has long been an idée fixe, even if this concept is necessar- ily limited to only a handful of artists per generation. Audiences at large, regard- less of degree of musical training, seem to instinctively (and inexplicably) recog- nize greatness – in spite of what some opinionated journalists might decree. The “King of Keyboard Heroes” has always been the concerto-playing com- poser-pianist. As performing soloist, he garnered admiration for his twofold tal- ent, and, bathing in the public’s adulation, encouraged to press forward with new creations. This was good for his coffers; too, since performances helped sell his latest “hot” scores and exposure inspired commissions. Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven come to mind as early examples, and the nineteenth century is replete with this species – think of Herz, Kalkbrenner, Hummel, Chopin, Litolff, Liszt, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Scharwenka, Saint-Saëns, to name but a few. As twentieth century examples, we may cite Rachmaninov, Medtner, Prokofiev, Khrennikov, Bowen, Dohnányi, Beach, and Gershwin. During the past few decades, however, specialization has set in – composers

– 4 – are composers, are pianists, and hardly ever the twain shall meet as a single mortal in performance of a concerto. Usually the soloist is the pianist who commissions the work or the one for whom the work is written – , for example, who premiered Marvin David Levy’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1970 with Sir and the Chicago Symphony. There are a small number of excep- tions, of course. One that instantly comes to mind is Earl Wild’s own wonderful Doo-Dah Variations for piano and orchestra, premiered in 1992 with the Des Moines Symphony and recorded with the same forces in 1993, composer Wild again at the piano. Before the advent of television, concerto-playing heroes and heroines amused or inspired us in many an old Hollywood movie. The 1940s exhibited the most memorable ones. José Iturbi appeared in several during that decade, and Arthur Rubinstein performed a new nine-minute concerto by Leith Stevens in a 1947 film called “Nightsong.” In the 1946 movie, “I’ve Always Loved You” (also known as “Concerto”), we suffer a silly plot. The actress with faking fingers at the keyboard tries to dominate the conductor – she really loves him, you see – during Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto. The film is redeemed, though, by its sound track which features Arthur Rubinstein at the piano. Most startling of all these musical machinations is Bernard Herrmann’s chilling Concerto Macabre, heard during the final moments of the 1945 motion picture, “Hangover Square.” There, the keyboard protagonist is a schizophrenic murderer who plays his con- certo while he and everything around him are engulfed in flames. He puts Brünnhilde’s immolation to shame. Yes, many influences affect our perception of the composer as performer. The manipulative power of and its practitioners cannot be overestimated. Indeed, the world of young, aspiring pianists is irrepressibly, if not inevitably,

– 5 – crowded with fantasies of virtuoso performances as soloist in brilliant concertos. They may perceive this as achievement of a goal, as the pinnacle of success, or as an aspect of power. Auto racing, bungee jumping, sky diving – these activities cannot compare to the thrill of performing as star pianist with an orchestra.

PADEREWSKIY AND SCHARWENKA The life and work of Xaver Scharwenka (1850-1924) and of Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) exhibit such remarkable parallels that it seems incum- bent to speak about them vis-à-vis. Both were born in small towns in – Xaver in Samter (then in Prussia) and Ignace in Podolia. Although Xaver played piano by ear at age three, it was not until age fifteen, when his family moved to , that he began serious study when he entered ’s Academy. Ignace began studies at the Warsaw Conservatory at age twelve, worked there under Paul de Schloezer and Natalie Janotha (a pupil of Clara Schumann), and then in his early twenties stud- ied with the esteemed Theodor Leschetizky in . Both XS and IJP taught piano over a long period to aspirants from many different countries. Among Scharwenka’s best-known pupils were Gustav Becker, Halfdan Cleve, Isidore Luckstone, and José Vianna da Motta. Disciples of Paderewski include Harold Bauer, Witold Malcuzynski, Ernest Schelling, and Sigismund Stojowski. Scharwenka edited quite a bit of other composers’ music for publication and in 1881 established his own successful conservatory in Berlin, with a branch in New York City to open a decade later. He wrote valuable technical exercises

– 6 – and a “Method of Piano Playing.” On the other hand, Paderewski’s noteworthy contri- bution in an area that is obliquely related to pedagogy is his supervision in the prepara- tion of a scrupulous, new edition of the complete works of Chopin for Warsaw’s Fryderyk Chopin Institute (issued 1949- 1962). Let’s examine the parallels that the cat- alogs of musical works of Scharwenka and of Paderewski reveal. In each list we find many short piano solos, extended piano works (two sonatas and some variations by XS; a sonata and variations by IJP), songs, Xaver Scharwenka instrumental and , a sym- phony, and concerted works with piano solo (four by XS; two by IJP). Each man also managed to write a full-length opera – Scharwenka’s “Mataswintha” was performed in 1896-97, once at Weimar and once at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, while Paderewski’s “Manru” was premiered in Dresden in 1901. Almost all of their compositions were published. Sadly, most of them are now out of print. It seems ironic that the most famous works of Scharwenka and of Paderewski, those that sold the greatest number of copies, were innocent little piano pieces – the former’s Polish Dance in E-flat minor, Op. 3, No. 1, and the lat- ter’s Minuet in C, Op. 14, No. 1. These early charmers so caught the public’s fancy

– 7 – that literally millions of copies were sold, both as individual fascicles and in an endless series of anthologies of the “best-loved” sort. Naturally, the composers recorded these favorite pieces (more than once) and were repeatedly called upon to play them throughout their performing careers. Speaking of recordings, each of our sub- ject composers cut around forty piano rolls, but only Paderewski recorded on flat disc. Also, in the 1936 film, “Moonlight Sonata,” Paderewski plays the Beethoven work and Chopin’s A-flat Polonaise. Even though produced in the master’s latest years, we’re mighty lucky to be able to experience this historic document. Scharwenka composed his Polish Dance in Ignace Jan Paderewski E-flat minor, mentioned above, in 1869, when he was only nineteen years old. He was no doubt unable to foresee the popular response this early work would achieve, as he sold it for a flat fee, depriving himself of what surely would have been massive roy- alties. Someone estimated that in the alone he could have made over $90,000 from its sale. At the same time, Scharwenka feared that its popu- larity would threaten his destiny as a composer, perhaps rightly so. Indeed, when he and Liszt eventually met in person, Liszt already knew of Scharwenka through this piece. But that did not prevent Liszt from admiring the younger man’s piano concerto. Paderewski began writing his Theme and Variations in Strasbourg. Its actu-

– 8 – al title is Thème varié, and it is the third piece from his Miscellanea: Serié de morceaux, Op. 16. Dated 1887, the work is dedicated to Madame Alina Weber-Schlumberger. The “lovely, light and lyrical” andantino theme is followed by seven variations: A tempo; Piu mosso; Allegretto; Lento; Non troppo vivo; In tempo; and Finale: Allegro molto vivace. Bohdan Pociej had this to say about the piece: “The Variations charm us with their multitude of variants, excite us with the brilliance of their pianistic texture and their shimmering colours, give the impression of having arisen from the pure joy of composing, which is transmitted to us, the listeners.” The first , with its trills in the right hand, has some resemblance Paderewski at to eighteenth-century French classic keyboard Royal Albert Hall, 1891 writing. Both Scharwenka and Paderewski had highly successful careers as per- forming artists on both sides of the Atlantic. As only a small taste of the acco- lades they earned, witness Vienna’s famous music critic, Eduard Hanslick, who called Scharwenka “a wholly outstanding pianist, dazzling but without charla- tanry,” and William Mason (American pupil of Liszt) who insisted that Paderewski was “the finest living exponent of Liszt.” And they each received numerous awards, medals, and honors. Occasionally they conducted, but their greatest fame came as keyboard giants. “Paderewski” became such a ubiquitous

– 9 – household name that mothers automatically urged their children to practice: “Don’t you want to grow up and play like Paderewski?” Scharwenka and Paderewski also had good looks – XS, handsome with his moustaches and proud bearing, and IJP with a reddish mop of hair that became a veritable halo under stage lighting. Unparalleled: Paderewski set aside his musi- cal career for about two years for some special duties. In 1919 he was nominated Prime Minister of Poland, and it was he who signed the Versailles Treaty on behalf of his native country. The genesis of Scharwenka’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 32, in B-flat minor, was a fantasy for Paderewski and Carl piano solo that he began to sketch sometime Stasny, 1915 around 1870. Unsatisfied, he added an orchestral part and in 1875 played this single movement fantasy in Berlin. Still unsatisfied, he expanded it to form the present concerto which was performed for the first time in Hanover in 1877 with the composer as soloist. Its form is unusual. There is no separate slow movement, just an ada- gio intermezzo in the first, and, rather than an extended orchestral introduction, we find one of only thirteen measures. (It’s amusing to realize that the first six notes of this concerto exactly match the octave passages at measure 7 of the famous Polish Dance. Was this accidental or a pun-like conceit of the composer?) The massive cadenza appears in the finale. Scharwenka often performed this concerto to great success in programs that

– 10 – also included Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto. Hans von Bulow called it “original, ami- able throughout, perfect in form... [with] admirable instrumentation.” Such illus- trious pianists as Constantin von Sternberg, , , and Eugen Head of State, Marshal Pilsudski and Prime d’Albert had this concerto in Minister Paderewski, February 10, 1919 their repertory. But it was missing for many decades until Earl Wild happily revived it in 1968 with the Boston Symphony and then performed it, as well, to huge success throughout the world. Mr. Wild’s recording is the first ever of this work. The score of Scharwenka’s Piano Concerto No. 1 was originally published in Bremen by Praeger & Meier. The work is dedicated to . The reprint edition of the two-piano score (New York: Music Treasure Publications, 1971) contains extensive prefatory remarks by Charles Suttoni that include translations of much of this composer’s German-language autobiography, “Notes from My Life: Reminiscences of a Musician” [Klange aus meinem Leben: Erinnerungen eioes Musikers; , 1922]. The concerto’s scherzo movement was also pub- lished separately in an arrangement for two ; this arrangement, though, differs from the two-piano reduction of the full concerto, in that the piano parts are more equitably distributed between the players. In January 1891, Scharwenka played his piano concerto to a packed house at the Metropolitan Opera. The conductor was Anton Siedl. He then performed

– 11 – at the White House and toured the continent to popular acclaim, always favoring his audiences with the inevitable Polish Dance. Paderewski’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 17, was written in 1888-89 in Vienna. The soloist in its first performance (1890) was the Russian-born pianist, Annette Essipova, the second of Leschetizky’s many wives and earlier his pupil. The orchestra was the Vienna Philharmonic under the fabled Hans Richter. Although Paderewski later performed this concerto many times, he felt that he had not studied the concerto sufficiently to appear as soloist at the premiere. The piece is in Autographed photo traditional three-movement form with an extended of Paderewski orchestral introduction. The wondrous cadenza is in the first movement. When Paderewski asked Saint-Saens for his opinion, the Frenchman called the andante “delightful,” asked to hear it again, and generously stated that “There is nothing to be changed.” The first recording of this work, in 1939, fea- tures the Puerto Rican pianist, Jesus Maria Sanromá, on 78-rpm discs, conduct- ed by Arthur Fiedler. As fate would have it, Wild and Fiedler united thirty years later to revive the work and to record it in up-to-date sound. Paderewski dedicated his Piano Concerto to Theodor Leschetizky. Concerning Earl Wild’s additions: no structural or harmonic alterations are made, and only a slight reinforcement of some orchestral tutti passages and a small bit of filling out in the cadenza may be found. And in the G minor Fantaisie

– 12 – Polonaise sur des thèmes orig- inaux, as Paul Hume notes, Mr. Wild extended “various arpeggio figures through a higher octave, played the repetition of a given passage an octave above its initial statement, and began some display work with a more dazzling outburst than is written.” He also doubled the orchestra in the tutti pas- sage that introduces the change of tempo leading into Funeral cortege down Fifth Avenue in NYC carrying Paderewski’s body, 1941 the second section of the work. Hume notes that the composer himself might well have indulged himself in such ways for his own performances of the work. Hume notes further that “the demands on the pianist [in the Fantaisie] are notably greater technically and more spectacular in effect than in the concerto. Double glissandos occur frequently, and complex intricacies for the fingers are considerably more in evidence, as if Paderewski, now hailed as one of the giants of his instrument, was taking special delight in showing off his own brilliant control in meeting all kinds of demands.” The scores for the Concerto and the Fantaisie were published in Berlin by Bote & Bock. The Fantaisie Polonaise – its original French title indicates that the themes are original with Paderewski – was written in 1893 while the composer was

– 13 – vacationing in Yport, a small hamlet in Normandy, and is dedicated to Princess R. Bassaraba de Brancovan. It took him only five weeks to complete. Though a single movement, the piece has three basic episodes. Paderewski played its first public performance on October 4, 1893 at the Norwich Festival in England, under the direction of Alberto Randegger, with a reported 8,000 people in atten- dance. Henry E. Krehbiel has written that “in it are to be found proclamations of great pomp and pride, ebullitions of the most unconstrained merriment, tender plaints, dreamy musings and wild outpourings of passion.” It is certainly among his finest and most satisfying works and, in fact, it fully confirmed his reputa- tion five years after the success of his piano concerto. Both Scharwenka’s and Paderewski’s concertos come out of the Schumann- Chopin-Liszt tradition, but how different they are from each other. Scharwenka’s is generally more dramatic and its piano part very demanding. Paderewski’s Concerto in A minor has a bit more sentiment and a folkish third movement, though it is certainly not without brio. And his Fantaisie Polonaise, especially in Mr. Wild’s performance of it, is conspicuous for its sheer velocity and a rhap- sodic breadth befitting a piece rooted in nationalistic fervor. Perhaps the American composer, Ned Rorem, is right in his thought-pro- voking, essence-rendering statement that “All music is either French or German.” If we agree, then Scharwenka is “German” and Paderewski is “French.”

© 1995 Donald Garvelmann © 2007 James E. Frazier

– 14 – Earl Wild Biography

Earl Wild is a pianist in the grand Romantic tradition. Considered by many to be the last of the great Romantic pianists, this eminent musician is known internationally as one of the last in a long line of great virtuoso pianist / com- posers. Often heralded as a super virtuoso and one of the Twentieth Century’s greatest pianists, Earl Wild has been a legendary figure, performing throughout the world for over eight decades. Major recognition is something Mr. Wild has received numerous times in his long career. He was included in the Philips Records series entitled The Great Pianists of the 20th Century with a double disc devoted exclusively to piano transcriptions. He has been featured in TIME Magazine on two separate occasions; the most recent was in December of 2000 honoring his eighty-fifth birthday. One of only a handful of living pianists to merit an entry in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Mr. Wild is therein described as a pianist whose technique “Is able to encompass even the most difficult virtuoso works with apparent ease.” Earl Wild was born on November 26, 1915 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a child his parents would often play opera overtures (such as the one from Bellini’s Norma) on their Edison phonograph. As the recordings were play- – 15 – ing, this three year-old would go to the family piano, reach up to the key- board, find the exact notes, and play along in the same key. At this early age, he displayed the rare gift of absolute pitch. This and other feats labeled him as a child prodigy and leading immediately to piano lessons. At six, he had a fluent technique and could read music easily. Before his twelfth birthday, he was accepted as a pupil of the famous teacher Selmar Janson, who had studied with Eugen d’Albert (1864-1932) and Xaver Scharwenka (1850-1924), both students of the great virtuoso pianist / com- poser Franz Liszt (1811-1886). He was then placed into a program for artis- tically gifted young people at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Tech (the Institute of Technology) -- now Carnegie Mellon University. Enrolled throughout Junior High, High School, and College, he graduated from Carnegie Tech in 1937. By nineteen, he was a concert hall veteran. Mr. Wild’s other teachers included the great Dutch pianist Egon Petri (1881-1962), who was a student of Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924); the dis- tinguished French pianist Paul Doguereau (1909-2000), who was a pupil of Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860-1941), Marguerite Long (1874-1966), studied the works of Gabriel Fauré and with Jean Roger-Ducasse (1873-1954 - a pupil of Fauré’s), and was a friend and protégé of (1875-1937). Mr. Wild also studied with Helene Barere, the wife of the famous Russian pianist, Simon Barere (1896-1951), and studied with Volya Cossack, a pupil of Isidore Philippe (1863-1958), who had studied with Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). As a teenager, Mr. Wild had already composed many works and piano transcriptions as well as arrangements for chamber orchestra that were regu- larly performed on the local radio station. He was invited at the age of twelve

– 16 – to perform on radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh (the first radio station in the United States). He made such an impression that he was asked to work for the station on a regular basis for the next eight years. Mr. Wild was only fourteen when he was hired to play Piano and Celeste in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under the baton of . With immense hands, absolute Arthur Fiedler & Earl Wild at pitch, graceful stage presence, and Paderewski recording session, 1969 uncanny facility as a sight-reader and improviser, Earl Wild was well equipped for a lifelong career in music. During this early teenage period of his career, Earl Wild gave a brilliant and critically well received perfor- mance of Liszt's First Piano Concerto in E-flat with Dimitri Mitropoulos and the Minneapolis Symphony in Pittsburgh’s Syria Mosque Hall. He performed the work without the benefit of a rehearsal. Arthur Fiedler meeting In 1937, he joined the NBC Ignace Jan Paderewski c. 1930s

– 17 – network in New York City as a staff pianist. This position included not only the duties of playing solo piano and chamber recitals, but also per- forming in the NBC Symphony Orchestra under conductor . In 1939, when NBC began transmitting its first commercial live musical telecasts, Mr. Wild became the first artist to perform a piano recital on U.S. television. In 1942, Toscanini helped Earl Wild’s career when he invited him to be the soloist in an NBC radio broadcast of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. It was the first performance of the Rhapsody for both conductor and pianist, and although Mr. Wild had not yet played any of Gershwin’s other compositions, he was immediately hailed as the major interpreter of Gershwin’s music. The youngest (and only) American piano soloist ever engaged by the NBC Symphony and Maestro Toscanini, Mr. Wild was a member of the orchestra, working for the NBC radio and television network from 1937 to 1944. During World War II, Mr. Wild served in the United States Navy as a musician, playing 4th flute in the Navy Band. He performed numerous solo piano recitals at the White House for President Roosevelt and played twenty- one piano concertos with the U.S. Navy Symphony Orchestra at the Departmental Auditorium, National Gallery, and other venues in Washington, D.C. During those two years in the Navy he was frequently requested to accompany First Lady Roosevelt to her many speaking engagements, where he performed the National Anthem as a prelude to her speeches. Upon leaving the Navy in 1944, Mr. Wild moved to the newly formed American Broadcasting Company (ABC), where he was staff pianist, conduc- tor, and composer until 1968. During both his NBC and ABC affiliations he was also performing and conducting many concert engagements around the

– 18 – world -- at ABC he conducted and performed many of his own compositions. In 1962, ABC commissioned him to compose an Easter Oratorio. It was the first time that a television network subsidized a major musical work. Earl Wild was assisted by tenor William Lewis, who wrote the libretto and sang the role of St. John in the production. Mr. Wild’s composition, Revelations was a religious work based on the apocalyptic visions of St. John the Divine. Mr. Wild also conducted its world premiere telecast in 1962, which blended dance, music, song, and theatrical staging. The large-scale oratorio was sung by four soloists and chorus and was written in three sections: Seal of Wisdom, The Seventh Angel, and The New Day. The first telecast was so suc- cessful that it was entirely restaged and rebroadcast on TV again in 1964. Another composition by Mr. Wild, a choral work based on an American Indian folk legend titled The Horse, was commissioned by the Palm Springs Desert Museum for the official opening and dedication ceremonies of their Annenberg Theater on January 11, 1976. On September 26, 1992, the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Joseph Giunta, gave the world premiere of Earl Wild’s composition Variations on a Theme of Stephen Foster for Piano and Orchestra (‘Doo-Dah’ Variations) with Mr. Wild as the soloist. The composition was recorded by Mr. Wild a year later with the same orchestra and conductor. Pianist / composer Earl Wild wrote this set of variations using Stephen Foster’s American Song Camptown Races as the theme. The melody is the same length as the famous Paganini Caprice theme that Rachmaninoff used in his Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini and that Brahms used in his set of Variations for piano solo. Mr. Wild thus became the first virtuoso pianist / composer to perform his own piano concerto since .

– 19 – Earl Wild has participated in many premieres. In 1944 on NBC radio, he performed the Western World premiere of Shostakovich’s Piano Trio in E minor. In 1949, he was soloist in the world premiere performance of Paul Creston’s Piano Concerto in France, later giving the American premiere of the work with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. In December of 1970, with Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony, Mr. Wild gave the world premiere of Marvin David Levy’s Piano Concerto, a work specially com- posed for him. Mr. Wild has appeared with nearly every orchestra and performed count- less recitals in virtually every country. In the past ninety years he has col- laborated with many eminent conductors including; Toscanini, Stokowski, Reiner, Klemperer, Horenstein, Leinsdorf, Fiedler, Mitropoulos, Grofe, Ormandy, Sargent, Dorati, Maazel, Solti, Copland, and Schippers. Additionally, Earl Wild has performed with violinists: Mischa Elman, Oscar Shumsky, Ruggerio Ricci, Mischa Mischakoff, and Joseph Gingold; violists: William Primrose and Emanuel Vardi; cellists: Leonard Rose, Harvey Shapiro, and Frank Miller: and vocalists: , Jenny Tourel, Lily Pons, Marguerite Matzenauer, Dorothy Maynor, Lauritz Melchior, Robert Merrill, Mario Lanza, Jan Peerce, Zinka Milanov, Grace Bumbry, and Evelyn Lear. Highlights include a March 1974 joint recital with Maria Callas as a ben- efit for the Dallas Opera Company and a duo recital with famed mezzo-sopra- no Jennie Tourel in New York City in 1975. Mr. Wild has had the unequaled honor of being requested to perform for six consecutive Presidents of the United States, beginning with President Herbert Hoover in 1931. In 1961 he was soloist with the National Symphony at the inauguration ceremonies of President John F. Kennedy in

– 20 – Constitution Hall. In 1960, at the Santa Fe Opera, Earl Wild conducted the first seven per- formances of Verdi’s La Traviata ever performed in that theatre, as well as conducting four performances of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi on a double bill with (who conducted his own Opera, Oedipus Rex). From 1952 to 1956 Mr. Wild worked with comedian Sid Caesar on the very popular TV program, Caesar’s Hour. During those years, he com- posed and performed all the solo piano backgrounds in the silent movie skits. He also composed most of the musical parodies and burlesques on operas that were so innovative that they have now become gems of early live television. It was in 1976 that Mr. Wild wrote his now famous piano transcription based on George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess and also revised his six orig- inal 1950’s Virtuoso Etudes based on popular songs I Got Rhythm, Somebody Loves Me, Liza, Embraceable You, Fascinatin’ Rhythm, The Man I , and Oh, Lady be Good. Mr. Wild’s Etude No.3 The Man I Love was originally written for left hand alone but was revised for two hands in 1976 along with an addi- tional seventh Etude, Fascinatin’ Rhythm. In 1989 he also composed an improvisation for solo piano based on Gershwin’s Someone To Watch Over Me in the form of a Theme and Three Variations. In 1981 Mr. Wild composed thirteen piano transcriptions from a select- ed group of Rachmaninoff songs: Floods of Spring, Midsummer Nights, The Little Island, Where Beauty Dwells, In the Silent Night, Vocalise, On the Death of a Linnet, The Muse, O, Cease Thy Singing, To the Children, Dreams, Sorrow in Springtime, and Do not Grieve. A common element among the great pianists of the past and Earl Wild is

– 21 – the art of composing piano transcriptions. Mr. Wild has taken a place in his- tory as a direct descendant of the golden age of the art of writing piano tran- scriptions. Earl Wild has been called “The finest transcriber of our time.” Mr. Wild's piano transcriptions are widely known and respected. Over the years they have been performed and recorded by pianists worldwide. In 1986, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the death of Franz Liszt, Earl Wild was awarded a Liszt Medal by the People’s Republic of Hungary in recognition of his long and devoted association with this great composer’s music. Liszt is a composer who has been closely associated with Mr. Wild through- out his long career as he has been performing Liszt recitals for over fifty years. In New York City in 1961, he gave a monumental solo Liszt recital celebrating the 150th anniversary of Liszt’s birth. More recently in 1986, honoring the 100th anniversary of Liszt’s death, he gave a series of three different recitals titled Liszt the Poet, Liszt the Transcriber, and Liszt the Virtuoso in New York’s and many other recital halls throughout the world. Championing composers such as Liszt long before they were “fashionable” is part of the foun- dation on which Mr. Wild has built his long and successful career. Also in 1986 Mr. Wild was asked to participate in a television documen- tary titled “Wild about Liszt,” which was filmed at Wynyard Park, the 9th Marquess of Londonderry’s family estate in Northern England. The program won the British Petroleum Award for best musical documentary. Mr. Wild’s three Liszt recitals performed at Wynyard, as well as the documentary, are now available on a new DVD released by Ivory Classics in 2007 – DVD-77777. He has given numerous performances of works by neglected Nineteenth Century composers such as: Nikolai Medtner, Ignace Jan Paderewski, Xaver

– 22 – Scharwenka, Karl Tausig, , Eugen d’Albert, Moriz Moszkowski, Reynaldo Hahn and countless others. In addition to pursuing his own concert and composing career, Earl Wild has actively supported and young musicians all his life. He has taught class- es all over the world. Highlights include the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Toho-Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, and the Sun Wha School in Seoul, as well as numerous US cities. Mr. Wild has been on the faculty of The of Music, University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, Penn State University, Manhattan School of Music and The Ohio State University. He currently holds the title of Distinguished Visiting Artist at his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In 1996, Carnegie Mellon honored Mr. Wild with their Alumni Merit Award, in the fall of 2000 they fur- ther honored him with their more prestigious Distinguished Achievement Award and in 2007 he was given an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts. In 1978, at the suggestion of Wolf Trap’s founder and benefactor Mrs. Jouett Shouse, Earl Wild created the Concert Soloists of Wolf Trap, a chamber music ensemble based in Vienna, Virginia at the famous National Park for the Performing Arts (Wolf Trap Farm Park). Mr. Wild’s idea in forming of the Concert Soloists was to combine mature seasoned performers with talented young musicians. Other Wolf Trap members included violinists: Oscar Shumsky, Aaron Rosand, Lynn Chang and David Kim; cellists: Charles Curtis and Peter Wyrick; harpist Gloria Agostini; guitarist Eliot Fisk; and flutist Gary Schocker. Mr. Wild served not only as the group’s founder but also as artis- tic director and pianist until 1982. Mr. Wild is also one of today’s most recorded pianists, having made his

– 23 – first disc in 1939 for RCA. Mr. Wild has recorded at least one CD per year since 1964 and has recorded with over twenty different record labels such as: CBS, RCA / BMG, Vanguard, EMI, Nonesuch, Readers Digest, Stradavari, Heliodor, Varsity, dell’Arte, Quintessence, Whitehall, Etcetera, Chesky, Sony Classical, Philips, and IVORY CLASSICS. His discography of recorded works includes more than 35 piano concer- tos, 26 chamber works, and over 700 solo piano pieces. In 1997, he received a GRAMMY Award for his disc devoted entirely to virtuoso piano transcriptions titled Earl Wild - The Romantic Master (an 80th Birthday Tribute). The thirteen piano transcriptions on this disc comprise a wide range of composers from Handel, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, J. Strauss Jr., Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Kreisler, Fauré, and Saint-Saëns. Of these thir- teen transcriptions, nine were written by Mr. Wild (eight are world premiere recordings). This disc is now available in its original HDCD encoded sound on Ivory Classics (CD-70907). For the first official release of the newly formed IVORY CLASSICS label in 1997, Earl Wild recorded the complete Chopin (CD-70701), which the eminent New York Times critic Harold C. Schonberg reviewed in the American Record Guide saying, “These are the best version of the Nocturnes ever recorded.” Since its inception, IVORY CLASSICS has released over thirty newly recorded or re-released performances featuring Earl Wild. In May of 2003 the eighty-eight year-old Dean of the Piano recorded a CD of solo piano works that he had never recorded before. Using the new limited edition Shigeru Kawai Concert Grand EX piano, the disc includes Mr. Wild’s piano transcription of Marcello’s Adagio, Mozart’s Sonata in F Major K. 332, Beethoven’s Thirty-Two Variations in C minor, Balakirev’s Piano Sonata

– 24 – No. 1 in B flat minor, Chopin’s Four Impromptus, and Mr. Wild’s piano tran- scription of the Mexican Hat Dance (Jarabe Tapatio). This disc was released in November of 2003 by IVORY CLASSICS and titled, ‘Earl Wild at 88 on the 88’s’ (CD-73005). Earl Wild’s lengthy career as a performing artist began long before his ini- tial Ivory Classics release in 1997; many of his recordings were made avail- able in the CD format by Chesky Records as either original releases or remas- tered re-releases. These discs included Mr. Wild’s historic 1965 recordings of Rachmaninoff’s complete piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Other Chesky releases which feature Mr. Wild appearing as soloist with orchestra include the piano and orchestra works of: Chopin, Dohnányi (Variations), Fauré, Grieg, Liszt, MacDowell, Saint-Saëns, and Tchaikovsky. Ivory Classics is proud to present several newly remastered CDs featur- ing Mr. Wild’s performances of some of the world’s greatest repertoire for solo piano. These re-releases began with “Earl Wild’s Legendary Rachmaninoff Song Transcriptions” released in 2004, discs of Chopin’s and and solo piano works by Nicolai Medtner were released in 2005 and Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, the Complete Chopin Etudes, Op. 10, Op. 25 and the Trois Nouvelles as well as a disc of Mozart for Two Pianos were all released in 2006. Future releases will include: Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Variations on a Theme by Corelli, Complete Preludes, Op. 23, and Op. 32, and the Piano Sonata No. 2. Ivory Classics is also looking for- ward to re-releasing Mr. Wild’s own composition Variations on a Theme of Stephen Foster for Piano and Orchestra (“Doo-Dah” Variations) originally recorded in 1992. Each of these original digital recordings will be remas- tered utilizing the latest 24-bit technology.

– 25 – In 2005 Ivory Classics released a new disc celebrating Earl Wild’s nineti- eth birthday! For this special occasion, Mr. Wild selected to record reper- toire by Bach (Partita No. 1), Scriabin (Sonata No. 4), Franck (Prelude, Chorale and Fugue) and Schumann (Fantasiestucke Op. 12) (CD-75002). Earl Wild celebrated his ninetieth birthday by performing recitals in many U.S. cities as well as in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. The tour culmi- nated with an official birthday recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City on November 29, 2005. In 2007 Ivory Classics released its first DVD, ‘Wild about Liszt’, a two DVD set - DVD-77777. Mr. Wild is currently working on his memoirs which he hopes to publish soon.

Earl Wild’s compositions and transcriptions are published by Michael Rolland Davis Productions, ASCAP [email protected] Telephone: 614-286-3695 Mr. Wild’s official website: www.EarlWild.com

To place an order or to be included on our mailing list: Ivory Classics® • P.O. Box 341068 • Columbus, Ohio 43234-1068 Phone: 614-286-3695 [email protected] Please visit our website: www.IvoryClassics.com

– 26 – Reviews Paderewski Piano Concerto “Earl Wild plays...with the flash and glitter and the sense of indomitable panache that would surely have pleased the composer, and he is exuberantly accompanied by Fiedler and the LSO.” – Gramophone Scharwenka Piano Concerto No. 1 The concerto is a period piece – a bravura work in the late 19th-century rhetoric...one can have fun tracing the various composers who play a part in this work. Greig is there, and Tchaikovsky, and Liszt and Schumann, and Chopin, and , and Saint- Saëns. Toward the end of the last movement there is a theme that prefigures Rachmaninoff and the “Warsaw” Concerto, which is something of a feat considering that Scharwenka’s was composed in 1877....It is a wing-ding of a romp, one in which the pianist starts with a great splurge and scarcely removes his hands from the keys for the next half hour. It has pretty melodies, and it has a fiendishly difficult solo part....Period composers do reflect their age, and Scharwenka did, completely. It was a comfortable age, an age when the virtuoso was king, an age where sentiment ruled....And so the Scharwenka B flat minor Concerto was a charming, lightweight and exhibitionistic work....the way Mr. Wild played it was actually startling. It was sheer control all the way through with a feathery touch, minimum pedal and absolute clear articulation....Mr. Wild played it like a romantic hero of the keyboard, and he had a fine accompaniment from Mr. Leinsdorf. – Harold C. Schonberg, , 1969

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