EWEARL WILD In Concert 1973-1987

EARL WILD EWIn Concert The live recording gives the illusion of “actually being there.” It’s an experience that is not always assured in a recording studio, at which no audience is allowed. In one sense, a performance in a studio is a contradic- tion in terms. Like the proverbial tree falling in the forest: did it even exist if it wasn’t heard? There is a beguiling honesty about the live recording. A live-recording boom in the early 1970s, when the first wave of bat- tery-operated recorders emerged, enabled enthusiasts to record everything from passing trains, rivers, and parades, to grandpa snoring and cicadas courting. With similar devices musicologists have been able to record on-site countless forms of impromptu and improvisational folk music and instru- mental performances. Harvard University, for example, houses the Archive of World Music, which holds vast field recordings of, among other things, Indian and Turkish music, Chinese and Bulgarian songs, Byzantine and Orthodox music, Indonesian music, and male polyphony from Iceland. The archive ensures easy access to live music at distant times and places.

– 3 – The growing interest in live recordings of historic performances has become a sign of our own times. The legacy of the bel canto revival of the 1950s and 1960s, for instance, has been preserved for modern audiences through the remarkable live recordings of singers like Maria Callas, Montserrat Caballe, Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland, and Leyla Gencer. Likewise, all of Mr. Wild’s performances on this disc are worthy of “historic preservation.” In a real sense, no live recording can replace the actual experience. But with a live recording the ambience, the acoustics, and the atmosphere sur- rounding a performance become a tangible part of that performance, pin- pointing a recordable moment at a particular time and place. Not all pianists have appreciated audiences. The reclusive Glenn Gould, for instance, said that “to me the ideal artist-to-audience relationship is one to zero.” And the Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter coped with stagefright by playing on a darkened stage (except for a reading lamp on the piano) before an audience in full light, thus conjuring the illusion of invisibility. Mr. Wild, by contrast, clearly loves audiences. The intimacy of performer and audience–when things are going well–is like the achievement of an imaginary union. As the British actor Ian Holm has said, “There is brilliant intellectual clarity, a sense of boundless, inex- haustible energy as the chambers of the brain open up… Your whole exis- tence is lit up by a dazzling sense of potential.” Mr. Wild once said in an interview, “Sometimes my interpretation is affected by the lighting, some- times by the atmosphere, whether cold or warm, and sometimes by the – 4 – instrument itself. If you have that flexibility, the audience feels the ease at which the music is coming out.” You will enjoy the pieces on this disc! Von Weber’s Rondo Brilliante, com- posed during the summer of 1819 while he was convalescing in Hosterwitz, has frisky and frolicsome rondo sections, with vivacious twists and turns even in the intermediate sections, and sparkling passages with daunting par- allel writing. Composed specifically for Weber’s own use in public perfor- mances, the piece displays Mr. Wild’s formidable technique from one end of the keyboard to the other. Dubbed “La Gaité,” it is a brilliant opener to this program. A mazurka is a Polish dance in triple meter. Chopin (1810-1849) wrote fifty-one of them, achieving a remarkable variety within their simple texture. The first one heard here, the Mazurka in C, Op. 56, no. 2, enjoys dotted rhythms that give it a rustic and even coquettish feel, by turns saucy and sweet. Defining cadences punctuate the dance throughout, and there is a brief canon–a chase–toward the end. Commentators say that “Chopin him- self played [the Mazurkas] in a swing rhythm resembling a dance with two or four beats and with accents not indicated in the music.” We certainly hear these accents in this performance. Mr. Wild plays the three mazurkas as a set. Chopin’s Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 63, no. 3, has a single melody, wistful and melancholy, that appears in every measure of the piece (apart from a brief contrasting section based upon it), but its clever reaches into a variety of keys ensures the interest of its modest means. – 5 – Composed during the summer of 1842, Chopin’s episodic Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 50, no. 3, the longest of those recorded here, begins with a dark, unaccompanied line whose freedom at Mr. Wild’s hand brilliantly avoids the tyranny of the triple beat. Appearing again in the middle and at the end with some resemblance to recitative, it contrasts with a couple of extroverted chordal statements and light-hearted dance-like sections in a prominent three, the last of which ranges into splendidly ear-opening keys. Its snappy final cadence contrasts with everything that went before. The composer Eugen d’Albert (1864-1932), whose father was French- Italian and his mother English, was of Scottish birth but lived primarily in Germany. A pupil of Franz Liszt, he was a piano virtuoso, his performing career attaining its height in the last twenty years of the nineteenth century. He composed a symphony, several concertos, two string quartets, lieder, and many operas and piano works, and is perhaps best known for his opera Tiefland and his transcriptions of the music of Bach. The Scherzo in F sharp, Op. 16, no. 2 features dazzling arpeggiated runs, with the hands plummet- ing up and down the keyboard, repeated chords absolutely driven in their resolve, and long trills underlying legato twirls. The slow middle section, hinted at earlier in the left hand, is withdrawn but surprisingly vast, even cinematic, and leads to a repeat of the opening section. The sheer velocity with which Mr. Wild performs this piece is stunning. A solemn and dignified work, the Pavane pour une infante défunte, of Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), is full of pathos without sentimentality, and retains the courtly elegance of its sixteenth-century Italian predecessors. – 6 – Composed in 1899, when Ravel was studying composition with Gabriel Fauré, the piece was not intended for any real-life princess, but merely cap- tures the mood of the pavane. The work brought Ravel to wide public atten- tion and he orchestrated it in 1910. Its sturdy parallel octaves (after the influence of Chabrier), and the arpeggiations leading to dissonances, add to its freshness. Ravel complained that the work was usually played too slowly (It’s a “Pavane for a Dead Princess,” not a “Dead Pavane for a Princess,” he quipped). Ravel would surely applaud Mr. Wild’s tempo on this disc. If roy- alties are any indication, Ravel is France’s most popular composer. The origin of the eight volumes of Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without words) by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) is clouded in mystery. They may have emerged from a game that Mendelssohn played with his sister Fanny, in which they added words to piano pieces. Some have argued that the con- cept originated with A. B. Marx, who saw music as a higher form of com- munication than words. Similarly, Mendelssohn once wrote that “[words]” seem to me so ambiguous, so indefinite, so open to misunderstanding in comparison with real music, which fills one’s soul with a thousand better things than words.” Robert Schumann speculated that Mendelssohn com- posed the lieder with texts which he then suppressed. In the Spinning Song in C, Op. 67, no. 4, the very notion of the spinning wheel calls to mind cir- cular figures and repetitious patterns, and these we hear at the outset of the work, and indeed throughout, so that the circle and the wheel never leave our attention, though the real melody of the work lies subtly beneath. The painter Frederic Leighton has painted, and the composer Arnold Schönberg – 7 – has also composed Songs without words. Originally a folk song of Venetian gondoliers, barcarolles are almost always in a moderate 6/8 or 12/8 time. The Barcarolle in G-flat major, Op. 42, no. 3 (1885), one of thirteen by Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), the master of French mélodie, is in 6/8, with its first section in six flats and its second in six sharps. The piece combines a romantic tunefulness with a relaxed drift- fulness, but in Mr. Wild’s rendering the lines are always tautly drawn, in the service of an exquisite freedom, and the more intense and dramatic sections are played rather more intensely and more dramatically than we often hear from other hands. The ravishing charm of this “water music” makes it diffi- cult to believe that “Fauré was not interested in piano writing as such.” Indeed, his barcarolles are among the most impressive in the repertoire. A German composer and conductor of Polish descent, Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925) also enjoyed a reputation as a brilliant pianist. Ignaz Paderewski declared that “after Chopin, Moszkowski best understands how to write for the piano.” He is best known today for his fifteen Études de Virtuosité, Op. 72. Etincelles, Op. 36, no. 6, certainly lives up to its translat- ed name ‘sparks’. It ends almost as soon as it begins. It flashes about with never a moment’s diversion from its glittering patterns. Chopin’s Barcarolle in F-sharp major, Op. 60, one of his most harmoni- cally daring works, and his only contribution to this genre, is in 12/8 meter, unlike Fauré’s setting in 6/8. The work has been called “a mixture of quiet intimacy, melodic splendor, mounting eroticism, and dazzling explosions of joy.” Ravel admired the work, writing: “This theme in thirds, supple and – 8 – delicate, is continually clothed in dazzling harmonies. The melodic line is unbroken… One thinks of a mysterious apotheosis.” Certainly the charac- teristic trills in thirds are sheer magic. The Polish poet Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz wrote that this Barcarolle depicts a landscape not by describing it, but by “painting it impressionistically… its water and forest do not have clear con- tours.” Claude Debussy (1862-1918) composed the Danse in E major in 1890 after returning from the Villa Medici in Italy where he was studying on the Prix de Rome. Originally given the more evocative title Tarantelle styrienne, the piece is an exotic dance inspired by the Austrian province of Styria, southwest of Graz. It is robust and forceful, with lots of driven repeated notes, and a vigorous melody in the tenor, with a contrasting section featur- ing shades of the opening, concluding as it began, with drama. It alternates between a 6/8 meter (true to the Tarantelle) and 3/4 (in the manner of a waltz). Ravel orchestrated the piece in 1923 in homage to Debussy. The Hungarian Rhapsodies of Franz Liszt (1811-1886) are free fantasies based on Hungarian themes whose sources are probably Magyar folk tunes or amateur works in the dialect of the Hungarian gypsy. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12, in C-sharp minor–with no fewer than eight themes–opens with snarling unison statements in dotted rhythm followed by rumbling bass tremolos. But soon a gentler, more tragic air appears, being upended at times both by turmoil in the bass and a gypsy violin tune in the treble, and by a jaunty passage with almost guitar-like plucking in the bass. A trill leads to an Allegretto giocoso, and the work ends with a rousing climax that pulls three – 9 – of the themes together, drawing the cheers of the London audience. Liszt transcribed this work for orchestra, renumbering it Rhapsody No. 2 for orchestra, causing confusion for audiences ever since. The opening theme of Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4 in E flat–a Hungarian recruiting dance–leads to aggressive intrusions, with scale passages travers- ing the length of the keyboard and snappy chords toying with silence. The second theme and the theme of the fast section, in octaves, are dances by Antal Csermák. The very popular Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is the only one of the first fifteen rhapsodies not based on an earlier composition by Liszt. In fact, the themes have no known source. The piece begins simply enough, leading to the melody that has made it famous. We hear it in thirds and otherwise altered with flourishes before the beginning recurs. The sturdy melody appears in the tenor and it is traded to the soprano, where it appears ten- derly. After whirling passages, the pianist teases the melody through a vari- ety of catchy and syncopated rhythms, each more dramatic than its prece- dents, with a brief calm preceding the succinct but rousing conclusion. Mr. Wild maneuvers his way through the extremes of this piece, from tenderness to fury, with absolutely convincing control.

© James E. Frazier 2007

– 10 – EARL WILD EWBiography 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 inter- nationally as one of the last in a long line of great virtuoso pianist / composers. 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 exclu- sively 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 , .

– 11 – 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 playing, this three year-old would go to the family piano, reach up to the keyboard, find the exact notes, and play along in the same key. At this early age, he dis- played 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 (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 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 pianist, (1896-1951), and studied with Volya Cossack, a pupil of Isidore Philippe (1863-1958), who had studied with – 12 – 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 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 Otto Klemperer. With immense hands, absolute pitch, graceful stage presence, and uncan- ny 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 performance 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. 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 conduc- tor . In 1939, when NBC began transmitting its first com- mercial 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 – 13 – . It was the first performance of the Rhapsody for both con- ductor and pianist, and although Mr. Wild had not yet played any of Gershwin’s other compositions, he was immediately hailed as the major inter- preter of Gershwin’s music. The youngest (and only) American piano soloist ever engaged by the NBC Symphony, Mr. Wild was a member of the orches- tra, working for the NBC radio and television network from 1937 to 1944. During World War II, Mr. Wild served in the as a musician, playing 4th flute in the Navy Band. He performed numerous solo piano recitals at the 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 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 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. – 14 – 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 successful 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 Turquoise 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 con- ductor Joseph Giunta, gave the world premiere of Earl Wild’s composition Variations on a Theme of for Piano and Orchestra (‘Doo-Dah’ Variations) with Mr. Wild as the soloist. The composition was recorded 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 . 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, he was soloist in the world premiere performance of Paul Creston’s Piano Concerto in 1949. He gave the American premiere of the work – 15 – 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 composed 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 collab- orated 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: Maria Callas, 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 in 1931. In 1961 he was soloist with the National Symphony at the inauguration ceremonies of President John F. Kennedy in 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 con- – 16 – ducting 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 on the very popular TV program The Caesar Hour. During those years, he composed 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 ’s opera and also revised his six orig- inal 1950’s Virtuoso Etudes based on popular songs , Somebody Loves Me, Liza, , Fascinatin’ Rhythm, The Man I Love, 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 additional seventh Etude Fascinatin’ Rhythm. In 1989 he also composed an improvisa- tion 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 selected 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 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- – 17 – 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. 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 Marques of Londonderry’s family estate in Northern . The program won the British Petroleum Award for best musical documentary that year. Liszt is a composer who has been closely associated with Mr. Wild throughout 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 Carnegie Hall and many other recital halls through- out the world. Championing composers such as Liszt long before they were “fashionable” is part of the foundation on which Mr. Wild has built his long and successful career. He has also given numerous performances of works by neglected Nineteenth Century composers such as: Nikolai Medtner, Ignace Jan Paderewski, Xaver Scharwenka, Karl Tausig, Mily Balakirev, Eugen d’Albert, – 18 – 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 , Toho-Gakuen School of Music in , and the Sun Wha School in , as well as numerous US cities. Mr. Wild has been on the faculty of The Juilliard School 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 further 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 artistic director and pianist until 1982. – 19 – Mr. Wild is also one of today’s most recorded pianists, having made his 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 concertos, 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 thirteen 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 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.” Since its inception, IVORY CLASSICS has released over thir- ty 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 – 20 – 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 No. 1 in B flat minor, Chopin’s Four Impromptus, and Mr. Wild’s piano transcription 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 available in the CD format by as either original releases or remastered 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 featuring 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 Scherzos and Ballades 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, – 21 – and Op. 32, and the Piano Sonata No. 2. Ivory Classics is also looking forward 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 remastered utilizing the latest 24-bit technology. In 2005 Ivory Classics released a new disc celebrating Earl Wild’s nineti- eth birthday! For this special occasion, Mr. Wild selected to record repertoire 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 culminated with an official birthday recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City on November 29, 2005. 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: 614.761.8709 Mr. Wild’s official website: www.EarlWild.com

– 22 – CREDITS Track 1 recorded in Roy Thompson Hall, Toronto – March 1985 Tracks 2-4 recorded in YMHA, New York City – November 1977 Tracks 5, 7 & 9 recorded in Queen Elisabeth Hall, London – October 1973 Tracks 6 & 10 recorded at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio – Jan. 1987 Track 8 recorded at University of Maryland – July 1982 Track 11 recorded in Bunka Kaikan Tokyo – March 1983 Tracks 12, 13 & 14 recorded in Wigmore Hall, London – March 1986 24/88.2 Remastering using the SADiE High Resolution digital workstation Remastering Producer: Michael Rolland Davis Remastering Engineer: Ed Thompson Pianos: Baldwin (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 & 10), Steinway (12, 13 & 14), Bosendorfer (5, 7, 9 & 11) This recording was made possible through the support of The Ivory Classics Foundation Liner Notes: James E. Frazier 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] • www.IvoryClassics.com

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