Earl Wild and Zaidee Parkinson at sessions, November 1975 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) AB

The three works presented on this recording have one thing in common: all require two pianists. But there the similarity ends because each of the works fea- tures a unique approach to dialog. In the Sonata in F Major for one piano four hands, K. 497, the two pianists sit next to each other at a single piano and look in the same direction. The work is less a duet than a piece for a single player hav- ing four hands, if such a thing were possible, inasmuch as one pianist plays the treble part of the piece while the other plays the bass. In the Sonata in D Major for two pianos, K. 448, the two players sit facing each other at opposing pianos, the one responding to the other in such a way that a single, coherent conversation results. And in the Piano Concerto in E-flat Major for two pianos, K. 365, the most complex arrangement of the three, the pianists interact with each other, but together they engage the orchestra in a larger conversation. Mozart’s interest in the concerto began when he was eleven. His earliest con- certos were merely groupings of sonata movements by Bach’s sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, among other composers, to which he added pas- sages for the orchestra. He composed his first completely original piano concerto (K. 175) in 1773 when he was seventeen, and wrote the double concerto No. 10 in E-flat, performed here by Mr. Wild and Ms. Parkinson, at the end of his Salzburg period, around 1775-1777, intending it for performance by himself and his older sister Nannerl. His work in this genre reached full flower after he settled

– 2 – in Vienna in 1781 at age twenty-five, though at first his career in the capital was primarily as a pianist, performing, teaching and organizing piano acade- mies. Thereafter he composed another seventeen concertos, not as abstract exercises, but in an effort to promote his academies and his own public renown. “Before Mozart’s time, concer- tos seldom figured in Viennese public concerts; regular concerts featuring concertos seem to have started with him” (Joseph Kerman). Michael Steinberg has written that the concerto is essentially a conversa- tion featuring some element of contest or conflict, and that a fundamental inequality between the participants Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart prevails. Part of the appeal is in the way the soloist dominates the many. At the same time, as Bernard Holland of the New York Times writes, in Mozart the balance is fair, unlike the concertos of later com- posers, such as Chopin and Rachmaninoff, who “stacked the deck against ‘the many’ by giving the orchestra much less to do and swelling the solos to gigantic dimensions.” Mozart’s developing interest in the piano concerto paralleled the emergence

– 3 – of the piano itself. The harpsichord was still prevalent in his early years, but grad- ually the power and versatility of the fortepiano made it the keyboard instrument of choice, Mozart’s favorite being those by Stein. The modern concert grand piano is still more powerful and colorful than the fortepiano, but as John Irving remarks, “Mozart is still Mozart, whether played on a Steinway or a Stein.” The broad range of piano concertos spanning Mozart’s entire career demon- strate how his style developed from the galant in his early years through to a grad- ually emerging classical style. With the maturing of his piano concertos, music history also reached new heights. Indeed, his concertos represent one of Mozart’s greatest achievements, through their formal excellence, their expanded role for the orchestra, their subtle dialogs between soloist and orchestra, and their balance between the piano’s virtuosic brilliance and its expressive lyricism. They remain among the most popular works in the western canon. The scoring for K. 365 was originally for the usual small orchestra of strings, oboes, bassoons and horns, but in 1781, for an outdoor concert in Vienna per- formed with his patron and pupil Josepha von Auernhammer, Mozart added tim- pani, clarinets and trumpets. The enlarged version is the one ordinarily used for modern performances. The composer provided cadenzas for the first and last movements, to be played by both pianists together (and heard here), but caden- zas have been written by other composers as well. Béla Bartók, for example, wrote a cadenza for the first piano at the end of the first movement, and one at the end of the third movement for the second piano. The two sonatas heard on this recording—whether or not it was intended by the performers in designing this program—have a special relationship to Mozart’s piano concertos. Composed in Vienna when the concerto form had reached its

– 4 – height in the composer’s oeuvre, they “reflect the fusion of orchestra and piano within a piano duet setting” that moves the genre beyond its previous orbits (Mario R. Mercado). “The earlier sonatas were also influenced by the orchestral idiom but the writing suggested rather an orchestral reduction; the later works are wholly pianistic, though shaped by a new symphonic ideal.” The Sonata in F has a pronounced symphonic quality—its slow introduction to the Allegro di molto is more characteristic of symphonies than of sonatas—and is Mozart’s most serious work for piano four hands. Its dramatic intensity puts it on a par with the string quintets. By contrast, the Sonata in D Major, composed in November 1781 for a performance with Auernhammer, the dedicatee, was writ- ten in a predominately antiphonal idiom, and represents a perfect example of the concerto ideal. Both works have a number of repeats, as if to maximize the tactile joys of the two players, but they are usually omitted in modern performances. Although he wrote the first of his five four-hand sonatas when he was nine years old (the Sonata in C Major, K. 19d), Mozart was not the inventor of the genre, contrary to persistent claims (first proposed by his father Leopold). But the bulk of his eighteen piano sonatas (for solo and duet) were written between late 1774 and mid-1790, representing his adulthood and his musical mastery, a late addi- tion to his oeuvre overall. Mozart composed his sonatas for a variety of purposes: for publishing, for teaching purposes, for dedications (and remuneration), and as demonstrations of his piano virtuosity. Four-hand piano music sometimes seems to give more pleasure to the performers than to the audience, being recreational music par excellence. The Germans call it Hausmusik to distinguish it from music for public perfor- mance. But the Sonata in F Major is considered by some to be one of Mozart’s

– 5 – most perfect and most mature works, while the earlier Sonata in D Major was considered by Alfred Einstein to be “one of the most profound and most mature of all Mozart’s compositions,” neither work falling to the level of mere domestic music-making. The sonatas constitute a diverse and significant arena of Mozart’s instrumen- tal output and have been a staple of the piano repertoire since early in the nine- teenth century. Mozart’s sonatas have sometimes—unfairly—been considered pedagogically preparatory to those of other masters. Indeed, the popularity and accessibility of Mozart’s sonatas have led audiences to think them easy…and they do enjoy an elegant simplicity. But seasoned professionals know the difficulties of interpreting them with subtlety and finesse. Catherine Kautsky has noted their endless melodic and formal inventiveness, their variety of harmonic movement, and their sheer power of characterization. Music has long been appreciated for the way it can entertain, motivate, calm, and inspire, and Mozart has been played in film and elevators alike. But his music has also been studied for how it can “make you smarter.” Researcher Gordon L. Shaw, in his book Keeping Mozart in Mind, presents scientific evidence that music can enhance learning. His study shows that college students improved their scores on spatial-temporal tests after listening to the Sonata in D Major for two pianos, demonstrating yet again, perhaps, that, in addition to the music itself, immortal truths lurk among the pages of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

© James E. Frazier 2006

– 6 – ZAIDEE PARKINSON AB

Peter G. Davis in The New York Times said of Zaidee Parkinson’s performance with Grayson Hurst in Schubert’s Die schone Mullerin, “Miss Parkinson was quite superb in every aspect. She knew precisely when to bring forward important details all of which she shaped with exquisite refinement.”

Born in New York, Zaidee Parkinson’s music education started early - she began to play the piano at age five and went on to study with the famed Rosina Lhevinne, Leon Fleischer and Beveridge Webster. She took up composition, with a zeal and seriousness highly unusual for someone her age and became a composi- tion student of Bohuslav Martinu and Stefan Wolpe. As a composer, she developed an understanding of musical relationships; one that in later years propelled her into fascinating innovative programming as well as the founding of the critically acclaimed concert series, ‘Song in Music’. This education gave Ms. Parkinson the solid foundation for developing into a fine performing artist; one with virtuosic skills and musical acumen. Zaidee Parkinson has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe and has been a guest soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Festival Orchestra of New York conducted by Alexander Schneider and the Gelders Orchestra, with whom she traveled throughout The Netherlands performing Mozart

– 7 – Concerti. She has appeared frequently at the Marlboro and Aspen Festivals both as soloist and in chamber ensemble and has toured the U.S. with members of the Guarneri String Quartet. In addition to this Mozart two piano disc recorded with Earl Wild in 1975, Ms. Parkinson also recorded an all Chopin disc for Austrian Radio and a Debussy Preludes, Book I and Janacek In the Mist CD for Connoisseur Records in 1994. “Zaidee Parkinson’s probing, poetic vision of music fully captures the mysteri- ous rapture and incandescence of every note played. Upon hearing the haunting- ly beautiful playing of Debussy and Zaidee Parkinson c. 1970s Janacek, I scribbled, Zaidee Parkinson’s CD has got to be the record of the year!” wrote Byron Belt in a review of her recording of Debussy’s Preludes, Book I and Janacek’s In the Mist. The American Record Guide said of Ms. Parkinson’s Debussy, “By skillful phrasing and with excellent use of touch and pedal she evokes a remarkable range of evocative effects in these enchanting ‘mood pieces’ (the composers own term for the Preludes). Her interpretations are consistently beautiful.” Stereophile magazine commended the performance of the Janacek, “The attrac- tiveness of her often gentle playing, warm and full of color, is also heard, but with suitably bittersweet overtones in the moody disc-mate, Janacek’s, In the Mist – a – 8 – work that has grown on me consider- ably each time I have heard Ms. Parkinson’s performance of it. Her disc is a real pleasure.” Zaidee Parkinson has been the recipient of press comments such as these in recognition of her distinguished work as solo pianist, collaborator, pro- grammer, chamber musician and recording artist over the years. Excerpts from press in The Netherlands show that Ms. Parkinson’s performances of a Mozart concerto delighted audiences. “The cooperation between the orchestra and Zaidee Parkinson was exceptional, so she did not have to force the sound. It was a perfectly balanced Zaidee Parkinson c. 1990s interpretation.” “Her playing distinguished itself by its intimacy, with an internal conviction.” “Brilliant Mozart interpretation by Zaidee Parkinson.” In an interview by Raymond Erickson of The New York Times in connection her concert series, ‘The Art of the Miniature,’ Ms. Parkinson talked about her series of concerts with vocal colleagues which linked three Schumann works: Kinderszenen for piano; Frauenliebe und Leben for soprano and Dichterliebe for tenor. Ms. Parkinson said, ‘The Art of the Miniature’ is, in a way, a joke, because – 9 – the totality of the small sections of a cycle becomes immense. I like the contrast that is natural in the variation of the media, at the same time you stay with the things that connect from one piece to another. There are passages in the Schumann piano cycles and songs that are almost identical. In Edward Rothstein’s review of ‘The Art of the Miniature’ series, he expressed his approval and underscored Ms. Parkinson’s remarks by saying, “This promises to be an interesting series for contemplating music. One senses a mysterious tran- sience in these miniatures that hides volumes of interior meditation. The art of the Romantic miniature, it seems, participated in the same impulse that led to the Romantic epic. It culminated in the arts of the gargantuan.” After hearing Ms. Parkinson in a concert at Carnegie Recital Hall performing a program of Slavic and Black music which coupled Rachmaninoff Songs with Spirituals, the critic Byron Belt remarked, “Who else would see the musical and emotional connection between certain Slavic works and black spirituals.” Ms. Parkinson also gave the New York premieres of Janacek’s ‘The Diary of One Who Vanished’ with tenor Curtis Rayam and Shostakovich’s Suite on Verses by Michelangelo, Op. 145 with bass-baritone Henk Smit. Edward Rothstein in the New York Times said, “The Shostakovich was given such an intense reading that the truth emerged with impassioned urgency.” The late Harriet Johnson, music critic for the New York Post, astute and direct as always, admired one of Ms. Parkinson’s Merkin Concert Hall performances and thought she “performed Martinu’s Sonata No.1, a most difficult piece to dramatize and to project, with color and expansiveness. She mastered the special problems with an enviable virtuosity, but even more important she gave us its motor energy, its Bach-like organ sonority.” Donal Henahan for the New York Times, described Janacek’s The Diary of One – 10 – Who Vanished as, “a marvelous curio that defies pigeonholing. It is more than a song cycle and less than an Opera. It consists of 23 intensely emotional poems, one a ‘silent song’ consisting of nothing but dashes in the score, meant to suggest that something steamy happens at that point. In this performance, presided over by Zaidee Parkinson, some basic problems were handled intelligently and effectively. Ms. Parkinson played with fearsome commitment from beginning to ecstatic end.” Ms. Parkinson also organized an of-the-moment chamber concert at Weill Recital Hall entitled, ‘The Slavic Soul” – an evening of music by Bohuslav Martinu, Karol Szymanowski, Leos Janacek and Serge Rachmaninoff. Zaidee Parkinson has two sons by her former husband, Basil Dufallo, a classics scholar, living in Seattle, and Cornelius Dufallo, a violinist in the Flux Quartet, liv- ing in New York City.

AB

– 11 – RICHARD DUFALLO AB

One of America’s leading exponents of twentieth-century music, Richard Dufallo conducted more than 80 major orchestras and festivals in the U.S., Canada, and twelve European countries and premiered a host of major works by acclaimed American and European composers. A former assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Dufallo worked closely with Leonard Bernstein from 1965 to 1975. During this time, he made his opera debut with the New York City Opera and succeeded Darius Milhaud as artis- tic director of the Conference on Contemporary Music at the Aspen Festival in Colorado. He performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Buffalo Philharmonic, with which he enjoyed a three-year association as assis- tant conductor. Richard Dufallo conducted more than 25 world premieres, includ- ing Stockhausen’s “Carre” in London, The Hague and Paris; Jacob Druckman’s “Lamia” with the Berlin Philharmonic, and Sir Peter Maxwell Davis’ opera “The Lighthouse” at the Edinburgh Festival. Other European performances include Robert Beaser’s “Piano Concerto” with the Philharmonique de Monte Carlo with his wife, Pamela Mia Paul, the Rome premiere of Elliott Carter’s “A Mirror on Which to Dwell,” the world premiere of “Trance Formations” by Robert Zuidam at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and the Polish premiere of Bruce MacCombie’s “Chelsea Tango.”

– 12 – He became permanent guest conductor of the Gelders Orchestra in Holland and made his European debut in 1970 in Paris with the Orchestra Telephonique Francais. Other major European orchestras that he has performed with include; the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony and Royal Philharmonic. Equally at home with Mozart and Mahler, Dufallo’s programming frequently included works by Bernstein, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Charles Ives, and Igor Stravinsky. In February 2000, Dufallo conducted the Dutch Radio Symphony as part of a 26-hr. series, “Of Beauty and Consolation,” which was taped by VPRO Dutch tele- vision and broadcast in Europe. The two-and-one-half-hour performance (with no intermission) included original text (by the conductor), which he spoke between each piece. Other appearances included tours with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, a tour of Holland and Belgium with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic, the world premiere of “The Food of Love” by Peter Schat with the Noord Nederlands Orkest, and debuts with the Orkest van het Oosten (1997-98), and Israel Sinfonietta and Limburg Symphony Orchestra (1998-99). His internationally acclaimed publication, “Trackings: Composers Speak with Richard Dufallo” (Oxford University Press), includes conversations with twenty-six of the world’s leading composers. A native of Whiting, Indiana, Richard Dufallo was born Jan. 30, 1933 and died June 16, 2000, of cancer. AB

– 13 – EARL WILD AB

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 is a legendary figure who has performed 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 tran- scriptions. He has been featured in TIME Magazine on two separate occasions, most recently 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 Earl Wild’s parents would often play opera overtures (such as the one from Bellini’s Norma) on their Edison phonograph. At three, he would go to the fami- ly piano, reach up to the keyboard, 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

– 14 – other feats labeled him as a child prodigy and led 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 / composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886). He was then placed into a program for artistically gift- ed young people at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Tech (the Institute of Technology) -- now Carnegie Mellon University. Enrolled Earl Wild c. 1970s throughout Junior High, High School, and College years, he graduated from Carnegie Tech in 1937. By nineteen, he was a concert hall veteran. He was invited at the age of twelve to perform on radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh (the first radio station in the United States). Mr. Wild had already composed many compositions and piano transcriptions as well as arrangements for chamber orchestra that were regularly performed on KDKA radio. At twelve, he made such an impression that he was asked to work for the station on a regu- lar basis for the next eight years. Mr. Wild was only fourteen when he was hired

– 15 – to play the Piano and Celeste in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under the batons of many different conductors; Otto Klemperer and Fritz Reiner being two of the more well-known personalities. Mr. Wild’s other teachers included the great Dutch pianist Egon Petri (1881-1962), who was a student of Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924); the distin- guished French pianist Paul Doguereau (1909-2000), who was a pupil of Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) and Marguerite Long (1874-1966), who studied the works of Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy with Jean Roger-Ducasse (1873-1954) - a pupil of Fauré’s, and was a friend and protégé of Maurice Ravel (1875-1937). Mr. Wild also studied with Helene Barere, the wife of the famous Russian virtuoso pianist, Simon Barere (1896-1951), and with Volya Cossack, a pupil of Isidore Philippe (1863-1958), who had studied with Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). With immense hands, absolute pitch, graceful stage presence, and uncanny facility as a sight-reader and improviser, Earl Wild was well equipped for a life- long career in music. During this early teenage period, Earl Wild gave a brilliant and critically well received performance of Liszt’s First Piano Concerto in E-flat with Dimitri Mitropoulos and the Minneapolis Symphony in Pittsburgh’s Syria Mosque Hall. Performing the work without the benefit of a rehearsal. In 1937, he joined the NBC 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 performing in the NBC Symphony Orchestra under conductor Arturo Toscanini. In 1939, when NBC began transmitting its first commercial

– 16 – live musical telecasts, Mr. Wild became the first artist to perform a piano recital on U.S. television. In 1942, Toscanini added a dimension to 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 to perform with the NBC Symphony and Maestro Toscanini, Mr. Wild was a member of the orchestra and worked for the NBC radio and television network from 1937 to 1944. During World War II, Mr. Wild served for two years in the United States Navy as a musician, playing 4th flute in the Navy Band. He also performed numerous solo piano recitals at the White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and played twenty-one different 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 Eleanor 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 his duties consisted of being staff pianist, conductor, and composer where he conducted and performed many of his own compositions – he stayed at ABC until 1968. During both his NBC and ABC affiliations he was also a traveling musician, performing and conducting many

– 17 – concert engagements around the world. In 1962, the ABC network commis- sioned him to compose an Easter Oratorio. It was the first time that a television network subsidized a major musical work. Mr. Wild was assisted by tenor William Lewis, who wrote the libretto and also sang the role of St. John in the production. Mr. Wild’s composition titled, 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 the- atrical 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 successful that it was entirely restaged and rebroadcast on TV once again in 1964. 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 France, in 1949, he was soloist in the world premiere performance of Paul Creston’s Piano Concerto. He gave the American premiere of the same work with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. the next year. In December of 1970, with Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony, Mr. Wild gave the world pre- miere of Marvin David Levy’s Piano Concerto, a work specially written for him. 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 inau- guration ceremonies of President John F. Kennedy in Constitution Hall – a leg- endary performance that has been historically preserved and made available through the National Symphony on their 75th Anniversary 4-CD set.

– 18 – A common element among the great pianists of the past and Earl Wild is the art of composing piano transcriptions. Mr. Wild has taken his place in history as a direct descendant of the golden age of the art of writing piano transcriptions. Often called “The finest transcriber of our time,” Earl Wild and his numerous 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 legendary composer’s music. Liszt is a composer who has been closely associated with Mr. Wild through- out his long career - he has been performing Liszt recitals for well over sixty years. Championing composers such as Franz Liszt, Nikolai Medtner, Ignace Jan Paderewski, Xaver Scharwenka, Karl Tausig, Mily Balakirev, Eugen d’Albert, Moriz Moszkowski, Reynaldo Hahn and countless others long before they were “fash- ionable” is part of the foundation on which Mr. Wild has built his long and suc- cessful career. In addition to pursuing his own concert and composing career, Earl Wild has actively supported young musicians all his life. Over the years he has taught at Eastman, Penn State, Manhattan School, Ohio State and The Juilliard Schools of Music. He currently holds the title of Distinguished Visiting Artist at his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon has honored Mr. Wild with both their Alumni Merit Award and their more prestigious Distinguished Achievement Award.

– 19 – Mr. Wild has appeared with nearly every orchestra and performed countless recitals in virtually every country. In the past ninety years he has collaborated 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 per- formed 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 singers: Maria Callas, Jenny Tourel, Lily Pons, Marguerite Matzenauer, Dorothy Maynor, Lauritz Melchior, Robert Merrill, Mario Lanza, Jan Peerce, Zinka Milanov, Grace Bumbry, and Evelyne Lear. Highlights include a March 1974 joint recital with Maria Callas as a benefit for the Dallas Opera Company and a duo recital with famed mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel in New York City in 1975. In 1960, at the Santa Fe Opera, Earl Wild conducted the first seven perfor- mances of Verdi’s La Traviata ever performed in that Theatre, as well as conduct- ing four performances of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi on a double bill with Igor Stravinsky (who conducted his own opera Oedipus Rex). From 1952 to 1956 Mr. Wild worked with comedian Sid Caesar on the very popular TV program The Caesar Hour. During those years, he composed and per- formed 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. In 1986 Mr. Wild was asked to participate in a television documentary titled,

– 20 – “Wild about Liszt,” which was filmed at Wynyard, the Marques of Londonderry’s family estate in Northern England. The program won the British Petroleum Award for best musical documentary that year. Mr. Wild is one of today’s most recorded pianists, having made his first disc in 1939 for RCA. His discography of recorded works includes more than 35 piano concertos, 26 chamber works, and over 700 solo piano pieces. In 1997, he received a GRAMMY Award for his disc devoted entirely too vir- tuoso piano transcriptions titled, Earl Wild - The Romantic Master (an 80th Birthday Tribute). For the first official release of the newly formed IVORY CLASSICS label in 1997, Earl Wild recorded the complete Chopin Nocturnes (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 - even better than Rubinstein’s.” Since its inception, IVORY CLASSICS has released twenty-five newly record- ed or re-released performances featuring Earl Wild. In May of 2003 the eighty-eight year-old Dean of the Piano recorded a new CD of solo piano material he had never recorded before: Mozart – Sonata K.332; Beethoven - 32 Variations; Chopin – Four Impromptus; Balakirev – Sonata No.1 and Earl Wild – Mexican Hat Dance, all performed on the new limited edition Shigeru Kawai Concert Grand EX piano. For the year 2005, in which Earl Wild celebrated his ninetieth birthday, he recorded a new CD of four major works (Bach – Partita No.1, Scriabin – Sonata No.4, Franck – Prelude, Chorale & Fugue and Schumann - Fantasiestucke Op. 12).

– 21 – His historic year tour culminated with an extremely well-received 90th birth- day recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City on November 29, 2005. Ivory Classics is proud to present several newly remastered CDs (such as the works on this disc) all of them featuring Mr. Wild’s performances of some of the world’s greatest repertoire for piano. Recent re-releases were the “Earl Wild Legendary Rachmaninoff Song Transcriptions” released in 2004 and discs of Chopin’s Scherzos and Ballades and solo works by Nikolai Medtner which were both released in 2005. In 2006 Ivory Classics re-released Mr. Wild’s Complete Chopin Etudes, Op. 10, Op. 25 and the Trois Nouvelles. Ivory Classics is also looking forward to re-releasing Mr. Wild’s own compo- sition Variations on a Theme of Stephen Foster for Piano and Orchestra (“Doo-Dah” Variations) originally recorded in 1992. Mr. Wild is currently working on his memoirs.

Earl Wild’s compositions and transcriptions are published by Michael Rolland Davis Productions, ASCAP [email protected] Telephone: 614.761.8709 Mr. Wild’s official website: www.EarlWild.com

– 22 – A CREDITS PAGE B

Recorded at Kingsway Hall, London November1975 Original Producer: Charles Gerhardt Transfers: Soundbyte Productions, NYC Remastering Producer: Michael Rolland Davis Remastering Engineer: Ed Thompson Pianos: Bosendorfer This recording was made possible through the support of The Ivory Classics Foundation and Ms. Zaidee Parkinson Photos of Ms. Parkinson by: Christian Steiner Liner Notes: James E. Frasier Design: Samskara, Inc.

To place an order or to be included on our mailing list: Ivory Classics® • P.O. Box 341068 • Columbus, Ohio 43234-1068 Phone: 888-40-IVORY or 614-761-8709 • Fax: 614-761-9799 [email protected] • For easy and convenient shopping online, please visit our website: www.IvoryClassics.com

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