JOSÉ ITURBI the Victor and HMV Solo Recordings CONTENTS

JOSÉ ITURBI The Victor and HMV solo recordings CONTENTS

TRACK LISTING page 4

ENGLISH page 8

JOSÉ ITURBI His complete solo repertoire on RCA Victor & HMV 1933–1952

COMPACT DISC 1 (73.15) DOMENICO SCARLATTI (1685–1757)

1. Sonata in B minor Kk27 (L449) ...... Victor 4256 (matrix BS 81013) (2.15)

2. Sonata in C major Kk159 (L104) ...... Recorded on 29 December 1933 (1.05) JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750)

3. Fantasia in C minor BWV906 ...... Victor 18126 (matrix CS 65349), recorded on 12 May 1941 (5.11) PIETRO DOMENICO PARADIES (1707–1791)

4. Toccata from Sonata No 6 in A major ...... Victor 4256 (matrix BS 81014 [part]), recorded on 29 December 1933 (1.15) WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) Piano Sonata in A major K331 5. Tema (Andante grazioso) con variazioni ...... Victor 11593/4 (matrices CS 77525/8) (6.41) 6. Menuetto ...... Recorded on 22 August 1933 (6.11) 7. Alla Turca (Allegretto) ...... (3.23) Piano Sonata in F major K332 8. Allegro ...... Victor 15440/1 (matrices CS 13272/4) (4.23) 9. Adagio ...... Recorded on 2 September 1937 (5.10) 10. Allegro assai ...... (4.44) LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)

11. Andante favori in F major WoO57 ...... Victor 11670 (matrices CS 81015/6), recorded on 29 December 1933 (8.54) 12. Piano piece in A minor ‘Für Elise’ WoO59 RCA Victor LM-1167 (matrix E0-RB-4890), recorded on 5 July 1950 (2.42) ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810–1856)

13. Arabesque in C major Op 18 ...... RCA Victor LM-1167 (matrix E0-RB-3708/9), recorded on 11 July 1950 (6.24)

14. Romance in F sharp major Op 28 No 2 ...... RCA Victor LRM-7057, recorded on 5 August 1952 (3.38) FRANZ LISZT (1811–1886)

15. Liebesträume No 3 S541 No 3 ...... RCA Victor LM-1167 (matrix D9-RC-1279), recorded on 9 September 1949 (4.05)

16. Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este S163 No 4 ...... RCA Victor 12-0921 (matrices D6-RC-5642/3) (7.12) Recorded on 17 October 1946 4

COMPACT DISC 2 (72.35) FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810–1849) 1. Polonaise in A flat major Op 53 ... RCA Victor LM-87 (matrices D9-RC-1277/8), recorded on 9 September 1949 (6.38)

2. Fantasy Impromptu in C sharp minor Op 66 ...... Victor 10-1140/1 (matrices D4-RB-461/2 [part]) (4.59)

3. Waltz in D flat major Op 64 No 1 ..... Victor 10-1141 (matrix D4-RB-462 [part]), recorded on 6 December 1944 (1.56)

4. Waltz in C sharp minor Op 64 No 2 ...... Victor 10-1141 (matrix D4-RB-463), recorded on 6 December 1944 (3.18)

5. Mazurka in B flat major Op 7 No 1 ...... Victor 10-1140 (matrix D4-RB-464), recorded on 6 December 1944 (2.22)

6. Nocturne in B major Op 32 No 1 ...... RCA Victor LRM-7057, recorded on 14 August 1952 (4.44)

7. Prelude in E major Op 28 No 9 ...... RCA Victor LRM-7057, recorded on 5 August 1952 (1.10)

8. Prelude in C sharp minor Op 28 No 10 ...... RCA Victor LRM-7057, recorded on 5 August 1952 (0.34)

9. Étude in C minor Op 10 No 12 ‘Revolutionary’ ...... RCA Victor LM-87 (matrix D9-RB-742) Recorded on 7 September 1949 (2.43) PYOTR TCHAIKOVSKY (1840–1893)

10. June (Barcarolle) No 6 from ‘The Seasons’ Op 37b ...... RCA Victor 12-0242 (matrix D7-RC-6930) (4.22)

11. November (Troika) No 11 from ‘The Seasons’ Op 37b ....(matrix D7-RC-6931), recorded on 5 September 1947 (3.17) SERGEI RACHMANINOV (1873–1943)

12. Prelude in C sharp minor Op 3 No 2 ...RCA Victor 11-9514 (matrix D6-RC-5639), recorded on 15 October 1946 (4.08) IGNACY JAN PADEREWSKI (1860–1941)

13. Minuet in G major Op 14 No 1 ...... RCA Victor 11-9514 (matrix D6-RC-5638), recorded on 15 October 1946 (4.23) FILIP LAZAR (1894–1936)

14. Marche funebre from Piano Sonata in A minor, Op 15 ...... Victor 15441 (matrix CS 19843) (4.03) Recorded on 2 September 1937 CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835–1921)

15. Allegro appassionato Op 70 version for solo piano ...... RCA Victor 10-1315 (matrices D6-RB-3105/6) (5.19) Recorded on 17 October 1946 CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918) 16. Clair de lune from ‘Suite Bergamasque’ RCA Victor LM-1167 (matrix D9-RC-1276), recorded on 9 September 1949 (3.50)

17. Rêverie ...... RCA Victor LM-1167 (matrix E0-RB-5850), recorded on 11 July 1950 (3.33)

18. Arabesque No 1 in E major ...... RCA Victor LM-1167 (matrix E0-RC-367), recorded on 11 & 14 July 1950 (3.52)

19. Arabesque No 2 in G major ...... RCA Victor LM-1167 (matrix E0-RC-368), recorded on 11 & 14 July 1950 (3.31)

20. Jardins sous la pluie from ‘Estampes’ ...... RCA Victor LRM-7057, recorded on 5 August 1952 (3.53) 5

COMPACT DISC 3 (65.56) CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918) 1. Arabesque No 1 in E major ...... Victor 18237 (matrix CS 31843), recorded on 29 January 1939 (3.54)

2. Arabesque No 2 in G major ...... Victor 18237 (matrix CS 31844), recorded on 29 January 1939 (3.28) ISAAC ALBÉNIZ (1860–1909)

3. Sevilla No 3 from ‘Suite Española’ Op 47 ...... Victor 11562 (matrix CS 77530), recorded on 22 August 1933 (3.59)

4. Córdoba No 4 from ‘Cantos de España’ Op 232 .....Victor 1844 (matrices BS 11790/1), recorded on 27 August 1937 (6.06)

5. Malagueña No 3 from ‘España’ Op 165 ...... RCA Victor LM-1167 (matrix D9-RB-741) (3.20) Recorded on 7 September 1949 ENRIQUE GRANADOS (1867–1916)

6. The Maiden and the Nightingale from ‘Goyescas’ ...... Victor 11562 (matrix CS 77529) (4.46) Recorded on 22 August 1933 7. Spanish Dance No 2 in C minor ‘Oriental’ ... RCA Victor LRM-7057, recorded on 18, 19 & 27 August 1952 (4.28) 8. Spanish Dance No 5 in E minor ‘A n d al u z a ’ HMV DB 6573 (matrix 2EA 12540), recorded in November 1947 (4.11)

9. Spanish Dance No 10 in G major ‘Danza triste’ ...... HMV DB 6573 (matrix 2EA 12541) (3.57) Recorded in November 1947 EDUARDO LÓPEZ-CHAVARRI (1871–1970) 10. The Old Moorish Castle No 5 from ‘Cuentos y Fantasias’ RCA Victor LRM-7057, recorded on 13 August 1952 (3.01) MANUEL DE FALLA (1876–1946)

11. Dance of Terror from ‘El amor brujo’ ...... RCA Victor LM-1167 (matrix E0-RB-3736), recorded on 21 July 1950 (1.55)

12. Ritual Fire Dance from ‘El amor brujo’ .... RCA Victor LM-1167 (matrix E0-RB-5601), recorded on 21 July 1950 (3.48) MANUEL INFANTE (1883–1958)

13. Sevillañas ...... RCA Victor LRM-7038, recorded on 13 August 1952 (7.25) JOSÉ ITURBI (1895–1980)

14. Canción de cuna ...... RCA Victor LRM-7057, recorded on 9 August 1952 (3.50)

15. Pequeña Danza Española under the pseudonym ‘J. Navarro’ .... Victor 4256 (matrix BS 81014 [part]) (1.47) Recorded on 29 December 1933 MORTON GOULD (1913–1996)

16. Blues No 3 from ‘Interplay’ ...... Victor 10-1127 (matrix D4-RB-415), recorded on 6 December 1944 (3.47)

17. Boogie Woogie Etude ...... Victor 10-1127 (matrix D4-RB-416), recorded on 6 December 1944 (2.13)

Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn Executive Producer: Michael Spring Special thanks to Nathan Brown, Donald Manildi, Charles Niss and the International Piano Archives at the University of Maryland (IPAM)

JOSÉ ITURBI The complete Victor and HMV solo recordings HE AMERICAN JAZZ MAGAZINE height of his powers via recordings containing Metronome had a regular column by his complete solo repertoire for RCA Victor and TStanley Dance where he would ask the HMV is most welcome. same twenty questions to different musicians. Born in Valencia, Spain, on 28 November Dance interviewed the composer/pianist/band- 1896, José Iturbi was the third of four children. leader Thelonious Monk for the April 1961 His father Ricardo Iturbi worked part-time, issue. Asked to name his favourite classical tuning, repairing and restoring musician, Monk said ‘José pianos, while his mother, Teresa Iturbi’. Given Monk’s icono- Báguena, was an avid music clastic and uncompromising lover. The boy often accompanied demeanour, one might not have his father on jobs, and eventually expected such an answer. Yet learned how to tune pianos considering his forthright and himself. ‘I was not a concertising insightful comments elsewhere child prodigy,’ Iturbi told Dean in the interview, Monk’s admira - Elder in a 1964 interview, ‘but I tion of Iturbi suggests that he have been told that I played could see past the pianist’s little tunes when I was three.’ At erstwhile Hollywood and popu - five he began lessons with a list persona to focus on his local teacher, Maria Jordán, musicianship. and progressed rapidly. Soon Iturbi’s reputation has been the boy went to work, playing in eclipse since his death in 1980. up to fourteen hours a day There are several reasons for without breaks in Valencia’s first silent movie this. One is that he recorded relatively little in theatre, Cinema Turia. After the cinema, Iturbi the decades after his Hollywood heyday. The would visit late-night cafés and play into the other is that critics tend to look upon classical morning. pianists who achieve immense popular appeal Following his graduation from the Valencia and box office power as lightweights, including Conservatory of Music at thirteen, Iturbi went luminaries such as Ignace Jan Paderewski, Van to Barcelona for three months to study with Cliburn and, closer to our time, Lang Lang. Joaquín Malats, the highly regarded pianist for How can anyone take a pianist who’s a matinee whom Isaac Albeníz composed at least part of idol, radio celebrity and avid amateur pilot his Iberia suite. Back in Valencia, the Liszt seriously? Time, however, brings perspective, pupil Emil von Sauer was in town for a concert; and makes it easier to evaluate such artists in Iturbi played for him. ‘[Sauer] found certain a more judicious and objective manner. With qualities in me,’ recalled Iturbi, ‘and suggested that in mind, a re-evaluation of Iturbi at the I play a semi-private concert in Valencia so

that I might obtain a subsidy from the proper authorities to continue my studies in Paris.’ Iturbi headed for the Paris Conservatory in 1911, accompanied by his father. While waiting for the term to begin, he had lessons with Wanda Landowska. Her strong inﬂuence not only informed Iturbi’s penchant for clear articulation but also his occasional harpsichord forays. Victor Staub was Iturbi’s principal teacher at the Conservatory, where he gradu- ated in 1913 with highest honours. ‘I was chosen to play at the graduation exercises in the concert hall. Gabriel Fauré was then Director, and I played his Thème et variations . I have a copy, which I treasure highly, of the published edition of this work on which Fauré himself wrote in certain corrections.’ With the outbreak of World War I, Iturbi left France and returned to Valencia, giving piano lessons as a side line. One pupil, Maria Giner de los Santos, caught more than just her teacher’s musical attention, and the two were married in 1916. They moved to Geneva, where Iturbi headed the city conservatory’s Depart- ment of Piano Virtuosity. By all accounts he was a strict teacher, and some students Union and South America. In 1926 he made nicknamed him, behind his back, ‘The Spanish his ﬁrst recordings for the Duo-Art piano roll Inquisition’. Iturbi’s friendship with Igor company. Two years later, however, tragedy Stravinsky began during this time. Although struck, when Maria suddenly died, after mis- Stravinsky dedicated his Piano-Rag-Music takenly ingesting poison for cough medicine. to Arthur Rubinstein, it was left to Iturbi to Despite his bereavement, Iturbi had no choice present its world premiere in Lausanne in but to honour a concert commitment in November 1919, as Rubinstein disliked the Amsterdam, substituting Beethoven’s Fourth work and refused to play it. Concerto for the Tchaikovsky First. ‘We By the 1920s the Iturbis had settled in watched him closely throughout the perform- Paris, while his career as a touring virtuoso ance,’ wrote pianist André Benoist, ‘and could was in full swing, criss-crossing Europe, Africa see clearly his tears rolling on the keyboard. and the Middle East, the Far East, the Soviet But he played like a hero, one of the most

unforgettable performances I have ever heard. Afterwards we sat up with him most of the night, trying as well as we could to console him.’ Iturbi’s first North American tour caused a critical and public sensation that ultimately laid the groundwork for his greatest fame in the decades ahead. ‘Mr Iturbi showed that practically none of the central phases of piano music is outside his ken, either as regards style or technique or projective power,’ wrote Olin Downes in his New York Times review of Iturbi’s 16 December 1929 Carnegie Hall recital debut, citing the pianist’s rendition of Brahms’s ‘Paganini’ Variations for special praise. One month later Iturbi returned to Carnegie Hall, warming up with Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ Sonata, followed by what may have been the first complete Carnegie Hall performance of all twelve Liszt Études d’exécution transcendante. In early 1933, the pianist’s first tour of Mexico yielded a significant career by- product – that of Iturbi as conductor. While in Mexico, Iturbi’s manager Ernesto de Quesada placed a newspaper advertisement for musicians. Auditions were held, and by the end of the tour, Iturbi had amassed his first orchestra. Word got around, and offers from major orchestras followed, including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics. Leopold Stokowski went so far as to invite Iturbi to guest-conduct his Philadelphia Orchestra. And when Eugene Ormandy became the orchestra’s music director in 1936, his chief rival for the post had been Iturbi. That same year Iturbi took over the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, where he would remain as music director until 1944.

Frequent radio appearances helped Not surprisingly, Iturbi’s recordings were increase Iturbi’s popularity in the late 1930s best sellers, with his 1946 Chopin A flat and early 1940s. Nearly everything about him Polonaise, Op 53, edging around Billboard made good copy: his leading-man looks, his magazine’s No 1 chart position in November charisma, and his then-uncommon passion 1946. In 1933 Iturbi joined RCA Victor’s for air travel. Iturbi eventually obtained a illustrious roster of pianists and remained with pilot’s licence and often flew his own planes on the label for the next two decades. Given his tours (he survived two plane crashes as a formidable public presence, Iturbi’s solo output passenger). It only made sense that Hollywood proved relatively modest in comparison with beckoned. Film musicals peaked in the 1940s, those of RCA pianists like Vladimir Horowitz, and often served as morale boosters during Arthur Rubinstein and Alfred Cortot. For the wartime, including the 1943 Thousands Cheer, most part, the only large-scale compositions in where Iturbi played a portion of Liszt’s Iturbi’s discography are concertos, while the Hungarian Rhapsody No 11. He usually solo works primarily encompass commercially appeared as himself on screen. In the 1945 orientated encore-type fare and Romantic Anchors Aweigh, Iturbi leads a multi-keyboard favourites. ensemble from the piano at the Hollywood Bowl It’s not clear if this repertoire agenda in a rather tacky arrangement of Liszt’s rested with Iturbi or with RCA. However, Hungarian Rhapsody No 2, and also conducts according to producer Charles O’Connell’s the United States Navy Band in the title tune. memoir, The Other Side of the Record, the Iturbi would appear with co-star Kathryn artist could be quite a handful in the studio. Grayson again in That Midnight Kiss (1949), On one occasion, O’Connell put three Baldwin the film that introduced another ‘crossover’ grands and one harpsichord, painstakingly star to the masses – tenor Mario Lanza. regulated by Iturbi’s tuner, at the pianist’s Perhaps the only film in which Iturbi disposal with unlimited studio time. Iturbi assumed a starring role, Three Daring turned up slightly under two hours late. ‘He Daughters (1948), best displays this musician’s walked over to the first Baldwin, struck a eclectic performing persona. In a way, it was a thunderous chord out of which he selected one miracle that Iturbi got through the film, as note to pound with machine-gun rapidity and shortly before production, his twenty-eight- violence; after which he slammed down the lid, year-old daughter Maria, with whom he had turned to me apparently speechless with rage, aturbulent relationship, committed suicide. and went on to the next piano, where the same By contrast, Iturbi remained close to his thing occurred. He walked to the third piano, pianist sister Amparo (1898–1969), and played delicately touched one note, spat contemptu- numerous duo recitals with her. She was ously, and went to the harpsichord. I did not featured in four of her brother’s films, and suppose so frail a mechanism could withstand pursued a notable concert and teaching career his assault, but it did. There were no records in her own right. made that day.’

At the same time, O’Connell rightly claimed that ‘the Spaniard’s insistence upon clarity, precision and vitality’ contributed to the distinction of his Mozart playing, as exemplified in his recordings of the K331 and K332 Sonatas. When Mozart spoke about how a phrase ‘should flow like oil’, he could have been speaking about Iturbi’s glittering yet graceful runs in the Allegro assai finale of K332. Hearing the insidiously integrated and elegantly phrased first-movement variations of K331, one understands why Julius Katchen, in a 1967 Gramophone interview, called Iturbi ‘the greatest Mozart pianist of his time’. Even the unimpressionable William Kapell revered Iturbi’s Mozart, describing it as ‘the evenest JOSÉ AND AMPARO ITURBI playing I know’. A formed personality and serious musician minted, seventy years after it was recorded. equally manifest themselves in Iturbi’s other Without question, Iturbi is completely at early recordings. Notice, for example, his more home in Granados, Albéniz, Falla, Infante and reflective than usual vision of Scarlatti’s B other Spanish composers, including his own minor Sonata, Kk27, the strong left-hand Pequeña Danza Española and Canción de presence in the Bach C minor Fantasia, cuna, not to mention the idiomatic flair and and the knowing proportion and nuance in understanding that inform the Morton Gould Beethoven’s Andante favori. While there’s ‘Blues’ from Interplay and Boogie Woogie some truth to the frequently held view that Etude. Iturbi’s Chopin and Debussy became harder During his last decades, Iturbi continued toned and less subtle as his Hollywood tenure to concertise worldwide and seek out new ran its course, taste and authority never musical vistas. He gave no fewer than three deserted the man. Granted, one cannot concerted works in a 1966 Los Angeles honestly claim Iturbi’s somet imes slapdash programme conducted by Franz Waxman: reading of Liszt’s Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain, d’Este matches the breadth and refinement Debussy’s Fantaisie and Mozart’s Piano of Claudio Arrau’s 1929 reference recording. Concerto in D minor, K466. Over the next Conversely, Iturbi’s generous tone and aristo- two years he took on three music director cratic phrase-shaping in the same composer’s positions, with the Bridgeport Connecticut Liebesträume No 3 purges decades of treacle Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Orchestra from this warhorse, and makes it sound newly and the Albequerque Symphony. At eighty he

was reunited with the Rochester Philharmonic piano playing. He may have been speaking for a marathon programme at New York’s scripted lines in Three Daring Daughters, yet Lincoln Center, leading four substantial works one memorable quote clearly has its basis in for piano and orchestra by Haydn, Franck, Iturbi’s life experience: ‘Every day I practise. Mendelssohn and Mozart from the keyboard. Every day in the week, and every week in the Iturbi planned to celebrate the ﬁftieth anni ver- year. And all the time I worry. Maybe I’m not sary of his Carnegie Hall debut in 1979 but good enough. You see, there is one thing about health problems prevailed, and he died of heart music. You always feel there is so much more failure on 28 June 1980. than you know. Maybe there is some wonderful For all of his celebrity and acclaim, Iturbi secret you haven’t quite captured.’ remained the craftsman to the end, and always © 2016 Jed Distler believed technique to be the sine qua non of

Producer’s Note José Iturbi began his recording career with Victor (later RCA Victor) and continued to work exclusively with them, with one exception, until 1952, after which he recorded for the French branch of Columbia. For Victor he recorded several concertos, works for piano duo (which he performed with his sister Amparo), and the solo repertoire included in this set. A word of explanation is in order as regards the contents. While this set represents all the solo repertoire he recorded, there are a group of pieces he recorded twice in quick succession, first at the end of the wax-matrix era of 78s, and then as early taped recordings with a view to LP release. As the performances are so similar, and the taped versions are in superior sound, we have included only the later versions made in 1949/50. For those interested, the works in question are: Beethoven – Für Elise; Chopin – Polonaise, Op 53; Debussy – Clair de lune & Rêverie; Falla – Dances; Liszt – Liebesträume No 3; and Schumann – Arabesque. These earlier versions were all recorded between 1944 and 1946. He also recorded the Debussy Arabesques twice, but as there is a wider interval and bigger stylistic difference between the interpretations, we have included both versions. Finally, the one exception from his Victor years is also included. This is the disc of two Granados Spanish Dances made for Victor’s then British affiliate, HMV, in 1947, and only issued in the UK.

MICHAEL SPRING

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