JOSÉ ITURBI

Historic Performances of Mozart

José Iturbi (1895-1980)

José Iturbi was born on November 28, 1895 in Valencia, Spain, one of four children. Hisfather, who was a bill collector for a Valencia gas company by day, built and tuned pianos bynight and in his spare time. As a result a rehabilitated second hand piano existed in the Iturbihousehold. At the age of 3 Iturbi began to play tunes on the old family piano. His father, sens-ing talent, began to teach him to play. At the age of 5 he became a pupil of Dona MariaJordan, who taught him solfeggio and piano. She was also his sister’s, Amparo’s, first teacher.Amparo also became a world-famous concert pianist. At the age of 7 Iturbi began teachingothers to play.

Iturbi graduated from the Valencia Conservatory of Music, and continued giving lessonsand playing in the local cinema, cafés and at a voice academy. At the age of 11 he studied sev-eral months in Barcelona with Joaquín Malats, for whom Albéniz wrote Iberia. It was therethat Albéniz heard Iturbi play and gave him part of his newly composed Iberia to perform.When Iturbi was 15 the City of Valencia, spurred on by the local music critic, Eduardo LópezChavarri, collected a purse to send Iturbi to Paris to study at the Paris Conservatory. Duringthe time he was a student there he spent his nights playing in a Parisian cafe to support him-self. The modest sum given to him by Valencia was dissipated on the trip to Paris. Iturbi grad-uated from the Conservatory with the highest of honors.

In spite of his stellar conservatory awards and recognition, after graduation the musicalworld did not immediately embrace him as a star, so Iturbi went to Zürich, where he playedin the famous Hotel Baur-au-Lac and at the Café des Banques. To make ends meet he con-tinued his studies while giving lessons to others. His work was not in vain. The Head of theGeneva Conservatory heard of this remarkable pianist and offered him a teaching position –a post, which was also held once by the great Franz Liszt.

While at the Geneva Conservatory Iturbi began concertizing in Europe. When hisengagements became too numerous he was forced to leave the Geneva Conservatory and

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embark on the career of a concertartist. He became a concert star ina short time and toured all ofEurope, the Middle East, Africa,the Far East, Russia, and SouthAmerica. In October 1929 hemade his American debut with thePhiladelphia Orchestra under thebaton of Leopold Stokowski, play-ing Beethoven’s G Major Concerto.He followed this concert with aNew York debut as soloist with thePhilharmonic, playing the DMinor Concerto of Mozart andLiszt’s Hungarian Fantasia.

Despite his magnificent suc-cesses as a concert pianist Iturbiwas aspiring to conquer anotherfield of music: that of conducting.He was on a concert tour inMexico when his ambition firstreached realization. On May 25,1933 he conducted an orchestra ofa hundred musicians at the TeatroHidalgo in Mexico City, with suchsuccess that he conducted elevenadditional concerts.

Returning to New York, Iturbiwas invited to conduct two con-certs at the Lewisohn Stadium.New York music lovers welcomed him. In March 1934, he was a guest Conductor of thePhiladelphia Orchestra. During that summer he conducted concerts at Robin Hood Dell,the Hollywood Bowl and the Lewisohn Stadium. During the 1935-1936 season he was

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José Iturbi

invited to conduct the Rochester, Detroit and Philadelphia orchestras. This apprenticeshipwas the preparation for his first important assignment. During the 1936-1937 season Iturbiwas appointed permanent conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in Rochester,New York.

Besides his post in Rochester, Iturbi conducted the major orchestras of Detroit, Chicago,Minneapolis and Philadelphia many times. When the Philadelphia Orchestra went on atranscontinental tour, Iturbi shared the conductor’s stand with Eugene Ormandy, directingtwenty-five concerts. Iturbi frequently conducted symphony concerts over the air for the FordSunday Evening Hour and the General Motors Hour. He was also guest conductor of the RoyalPhilharmonic and the B.B.C. orchestras in Great Britain.

“Iturbi’s stick technique like his piano technique serves a musical purpose,” wrote RobertA. Simon, “and that purpose is a fine respect for the composer. Iturbi knows one of the prin-cipal secrets of Toscanini: that music must sing.”

For 8 years (from 1935 until 1943) Iturbi was permanent conductor and Music Directorof the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He conducted all of the world’s leading orchestras,including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, London Philharmonic, RoyalPhilharmonic, Concertgebouw, London Symphony, Colonne of Paris, Colon of BuenosAires, Detroit Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Filarmonica of Mexico City, La Scala Milan,et cetera. He also conducted opera in Cincinnati, New York City Center, and the Liceo Operaof Barcelona, Spain, and was honorary permanent conductor of the Valencia Orchestra,Valencia, Spain. He took the Valencia Orchestra on tour of England and France in 1950 tosold-out engagements everywhere.

As a composer, he wrote a number of works, among them, for orchestra: “Seguidillas,”“Soliloquy,” and “Fantasia” (for piano and orchestra), and for piano alone: “Pequeña DanzaEspañola” and “Cradle Song.”

He appeared as a star in seven Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical pictures and played thepiano score for Columbia Pictures’ life of Chopin, entitled A Song to Remember. He also madeeducational musical short films and appeared extensively on radio and television throughoutthe United States, Europe, and South America.

Two of his phonograph records, “Polonaise in A Flat” and “Clair de Lune,” sold over onemillion copies each on the RCA Victor label.

José Iturbi unquestionably made his mark as a piano virtuoso and as an orchestra conduc-tor. On occasions he had been both at the same time, performing the unusual feat of acting

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as soloist with the orchestra he was conducting.In July 1941 Iturbi made the headlines by refus-

ing to appear on the same program with BennyGoodman in Robin Hood Dell. The program asscheduled was to include Wagner, Weber, Liszt, andBenny Goodman’s performance of the MozartClarinet Concerto, all to be conducted by Iturbi.Goodman was then to take the baton and lead thesymphony orchestra in Stravinsky’s Tango. After thatthe Goodman Sextet, “a hot jazz experimental labo-ratory,” was to perform. The management offered torelease Iturbi, but Iturbi preferred to have Goodmanreleased. The Dell manager felt that the attractionwas Goodman and his Sextet and not Iturbi. Theconductor later explained his stand on the groundsthat although he did not disapprove of jazz, he didnot wish to mix the two on one program. He point-ed out that he had appeared on Bing Crosby’s pro-gram, and had been quoted as saying that he enjoyedswing. Some time later he explained his stand insome detail: “If you are a clear-cut artist you canplay anything. It is like arranging a menu. You canarrange for a picnic with hamburger, but when youhave a stiff shirt and white tie dinner, you servecaviar, is it not so? It is the same in music.Boogie-woogie for picnics. Beethoven for white tie.”

Iturbi was frequently a subject for controversy;his name was often on the front pages of the news-papers because of his provocative remarks andbehavior. In 1936 he cancelled his appearance withthe Cleveland Great Lakes Symphony Orchestra

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José Iturbi by cartoonist Osés

(holding up the scheduledconcert by almost an hour)prompted to do so by hisvolatile temperament. Earlyin 1937, he was severelycriticized by womenthroughout America be-cause, in an interview, hewas quoted as having saidthat “all women are physi-cally limited from attainingthe standards of men, andare limited temperamentallybesides.” Once again, in1937, his name appeared asa news item when hestopped a national broad-cast of the PhiladelphiaOrchestra because heobjected to some of thepopular music featured onthe program. In the summerof 1938 he gave his concertsat the Lewisohn Stadium tothe accompaniment ofshouts from pickets outsidewho branded him as apro-Franco fascist, and whourged the boycott of hisconcerts.

José Iturbi

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One newspaper article characterized Iturbi as a swarthy, suave, speedster with style. “JoséIturbi was short and plump; his hair was dark, and his eyes intense. He looked more like abank clerk or a successful stockbroker than a musician. His passion was speed. For a long timehe and his automobile were inseparable. He would travel everywhere at breakneck pace. Laterin life he changed his devotion to the airplane and frequently flew his private plane himself.Many sports appealed to him. He boxed, played tennis and enjoyed bullfighting. He preferredthe simple life, but simple living did not preclude good food and excellent Havana cigars.Occasionally, he used perfume – a brand which his friend, Mme. Chanel made for his per-sonal use.”

Despite the fact that he gave more than a hundred recitals a year, he was usually nervousbefore a performance. Before a performance he ate nothing except a raw apple and a cup ofcoffee. Several hours before a concert, he would slip into bed and try to relax. When thisproved unsuccessful, he would go to a piano and do finger exercises. He did not dress for theconcert until the last possible moment, and usually arrived at the hall breathless.

Once asked by an interviewer how he studied a piece of music, he answered: “Just as awoman buys a dress. First she sees that the dress fits her how it is cut, the color, the line, thematerial. Well, first I study the score until I know it by heart, until it fits exactly phrasing,harmony, everything. Then, what must a woman do to get a dress? She must pay for it. I paymy money, too. My money is practice . . . mastering the technique demanded. The lady wearsher dress and is proud. I wear my music and am happy.”

José Iturbi passed away in Los Angeles on June 28, 1980.Although Iturbi’s repertoire was vast, from Bach to Liszt, Beethoven to the Spanish com-

posers, it is generally agreed that he was best at Mozart. Here his style acquired its greatestpurity and refinement. “He plays Mozart,” once wrote Lawrence Gilman, “as Mozart himselfmust have played it; with consummate taste, poise, a patrician style.”

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Amparo Iturbi (1899-1969)Amparo Iturbi, younger sister of José Iturbi, was born in Valencia on March 2, 1899. Her

brother, José was her teacher. At the age of fifteen she gave her debut concert in Barcelona;Granados, who attended the concert, was very impressed and predicted a bright future for hercareer, praising her musicality and virtuosity. In 1925 she gave her first important concertoutside of Spain - in Paris, at the Salle Gaveau. Soon after followed duo-piano recitals withher brother not only in France but also in Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, and England.On May 2, 1937, she was first heard in America in a performance of the Haydn PianoConcerto in D Major over the Columbia Broadcasting System. Her American concert debuttook place on May 24, at which time one critic said of her that she is “an artist of gifts abovethe usual, and those gifts have been brought to splendid maturity.” On July 7, 1937, she madeanother important appearance - when she performed the Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos withher brother at the Lewisohn Stadium. Since then she gave many two-piano recitals with herbrother, and appeared in numerous solo concerts. Her repertoire was enormous, from Bach,Haydn and Mozart, to romantic concertos by Grieg, Chopin and Schumann, to contempo-rary Spanish and French music, as well as new compositions by Shostakovich and her broth-er, José. She recorded many works for two pianos with José Iturbi and also several, muchpraised albums of solo works, including a complete recording of Granados’ Goyescas. She diedin Beverly Hills California on April 21, 1969 of a brain tumor. She was 70; her brother Joséwas at her side when she passed away.

Biographic information edited from printed materials written by David Ewen, David G.Rubin, Schima Kaufman, and historic materials and photographs provided by MusicalAmerica Archive.

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Amparo and José Iturbi

Amparo and José Iturbi– 10 –

Iturbi’s Performances of MozartOver thirty concertos and other works for piano and orchestra are listed in Köchel’s cat-

alogue of Mozart’s compositions. It may be assumed that he composed others which havenot survived. When he was four, he was discovered putting notes on paper by his PapaLeopold and the court trumpeter Schachtner. “And what do you imagine you are doing?”the child was asked. The answer was prompt and unembarrassed: “Composing a concertofor piano.” We are told in history books that this fledgling effort was ‘correctly written butimpossibly difficult!”

It is therefore not difficult to understand that the most personal form of Mozart’s musicis the piano concerto. For Mozart was a pianist, and his greatest concertos were the ones hewrote for himself. From the sparkling little concertos he fashioned for himself, as a childprodigy, out of piano sonatas of his beloved Johann Christian Bach, to the autumnal beau-ty that is close to tears of his last, the concerto accompanied Mozart his entire career. It washe who established the classical piano concerto on the most exalted musical level, surpassingeven his own finest symphonies in brilliance, depth, variety of expression and individualityof form.

“Concertos,” Mozart once explained to his father, “are a happy medium between what istoo easy and too difficult: they are very brilliant, pleasing to the ear, and natural, withoutbeing vapid. There are passages here and there from which connoisseurs alone can derive sat-isfaction; but these passages are written in such a way that the less learned cannot fail to bepleased, though without knowing why.”

The dates of Mozart’s great Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor, K.466 can be traced withcertainty through letters by the composer’s father. Old Leopold Mozart, writing to hisdaughter, from Salzburg, on January 22, 1785, stated: “I have this moment received ten linesfrom your brother...” Nearly a month later – the letter is dated February 14-16 – again tohis daughter, and writing this time from Vienna, Leopold says: “We drove to Wolfgang’s firstsubscription concert, at which a great many members of the aristocracy were present... Theconcert was magnificent and the orchestra played splendidly. In addition to the symphoniesa female singer of the Italian theater sang two arias. Then we had a new and very fine con-certo by Wolfgang, which the copyist was still copying when we arrived, and the rondo ofwhich your brother did not even have time to play through as he had to supervise the copy-ing.” It is astonishing to note that it took less than a month – about three weeks – for Mozart

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to write one of his most pas-sionate concertos!

The D minor is one of twoconcertos by Mozart in aminor key. K.466 is a master-piece from first note to last –restless, explosive, broodingand dramatic. In his introduc-tion to the Eulenberg score,Friedrich Blume asserts that“In the history of musical soci-ology the D minor Concertorepresents, for Mozart, anespecially striking case ofrenunciation of the baroqueconception of music as repre-sentative of a social class andthe seizure of the species bythe spontaneous will toexpression of the artisticindividuality; it exists notbecause it depicts the volitionof a social class, but because itexpresses the lonely world ofthe soul.” In short, there is nodoubt that this concerto isromantic music at its best.Passion permeates the first

movement. The Romanza which begins and ends with one of the most tranquil themesMozart ever invented has a volcanic upheaval in the central section. It is followed by a thirdmovement that opens in a darting, dark mood. But this is Mozart, and good spirits finally dobreak through at the end when he has some fun with the bassoons and trumpets. As one criticso sagely stated, “the ominous mood is dispelled and can discern tears through the laughter.”

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

No original cadenzas for this work survive, though they are mentioned in the family corre-spondence. On March 31, 1795, Mozart’s widow, Constanza, arranged a performance of LaClemenza di Tito at the Hofburgtheater in Vienna, in which her sister, Alousia Lange, sangthe role of Sextus. “After the first intermission,” it stated in the announcement, “Herr Ludwigvan Beethoven will play a piano concerto of Mozart’s composition.” Most musicologists todaybelieve that Beethoven performed the beloved D minor Concerto and composed both of thenecessary cadenzas for this work. On this recording, José Iturbi performs the two Beethovencadenzas, which were published as WoO58 in the Beethoven complete catalogue.

The Concerto for Two Pianos in E flat Major, K.365 is Mozart’s only original work for thiscombination of instruments. The only other, is his own arrangement of the Concerto for ThreePianos (K.242) for the reduced forces of two pianos. According to most current sources, theconcerto was written in early 1779. It is believed that the concerto was originally written withthe idea that Mozart should play it in concert with his sister, Maria Anna, affectionatelyknown as Nannerl), but there seems to be no record of its ever having been thus performed.The first recorded performance took place in Vienna on November 23, 1781 when Mozartwas joined by Josepha Aurnhammer, a talented pianist with whom Mozart performed two-piano music frequently. In his many letters to family and friends, Mozart wrote aboutAurnhammer: “The young lady is a fright, but plays enchantingly, though in cantabile play-ing she has not got the real delicate singing style. She clips everything. She has told me (as agreat secret) of her plan, which is to work hard for two or three years more and then go toParis and make music her profession. She said: “I am no beauty – au contraire, I am ugly. I have no desire to marry some chancery official with an income of three or four hundredgulden and I have no chance of getting anyone else. So I prefer to remain as I am and to liveby my talent.” And there she is right!”

The Concerto in E flat Major, K.365 is scored for a relatively simple orchestra consistingof two oboes, two bassoons, two horns and strings. Additional parts for two clarinets and twotrumpets were added, supposedly for the May 26, 1782 Vienna performances. The concertois one of Mozart’s most joyous creations. The first movement is vigorous and contains moremelodic material than the composer actually develops. These beautiful melodies emerge astransitional or episodic moments of great loveliness. The second movement is gorgeous andtranquil, and the finale is a typically fast-stepping Mozartian rondo. José and Amparo Iturbiperform this concerto incorporating into the outer two movements cadenzas composed byJosé Iturbi. Extensive and virtuosic, these candezas blend seamlessly both stylistically and

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musically with Mozart’s music. Every age, every generation one might say, forms its own particular image of the great

musicians of the past. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Mozart was beloved andworshiped as one of the great pillars of music. His operas were played everywhere and hisorchestral, piano works and chamber music was regarded as full of fire and warmth. Seventy-five years later, in the heyday of turgid romantic emotion, when Wagnerian tempests filledthe opera houses, Mozart was looked upon as a naïf , a composer of the age of charm andplayful innocence. Today, we are beginning to hear his music as richly and meaningful, per-fect in form, and possessed of a matchless personal emotion.

Arnold Schoenberg once said that Mozart’s instrumental works show the power of a greatcomposer of opera buffa to turn in very little space; and this familiar Sonata in F Major, K.332is a splendid illustration of the truth of that remark. Both in the first and last movements themusic undergoes constant changes of character, often with no preliminary notice at all, yetthe effect is always convincing.

The Sonata in F Major, K.332, along with the familiar Sonata in A Major, K.331, waswritten in Paris during the summer of 1778. It was the time of Frau Mozart’s last illness, whenher son was torn between the desire to make good in the French capital, if only to prove hisabilities to his patron the Baron von Grimm, and the doubts so carefully seeded by the Baronand tended by the composer’s father. The two sonatas may have been part of a plan to “show”the Baron that Mozart was indeed substantially more talented than the many incompetentsmaking their way in Paris. But to no avail. As the summer wore on, the relationship betweenthe composer and his patron became even more strained and on September 26th Mozartfinally left Paris. “I am only sorry,” wrote Mozart, “that I am not remaining here, for I wouldshow him that I do not need him – and that I can do as well as his Piccinni – although I ama German...”

The F Major Sonata has been called by Mozart expert and biographer, Alfred Einstein,“one of Mozart’s most striking interplay between major and minor. It occurs quite often inthe first movement, and strongly colors the Adagio – which is like an aria sung by one ofMozart’s noble and long suffering operatic heroines. Brilliance, impetuosity, lyricism and dra-matic power are all allied in the extraordinary finale, marked Allegro assai.

Notes by Marina and Victor Ledin, ©1999

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Credits

Tracks - recorded on March 2, 1940[RCA Victor Musical Masterpiece Set M-794 (18081-18084)

and DM-794 (18089-18092)]

Tracks and recorded on September 2, 1937 and Track recorded onFebruary 19, 1938 [RCA Victor Musical Masterpiece Set M-565 (15440-15441)]

Tracks - recorded on March 1, 1940[RCA Victor Musical Masterpiece Set M-732 (17569-17571);

AM-732 (17572-17574); and DM-732 (17575-17577)]

Producer: Michael Rolland Davis

Remastered by: Ed Thompson and Glenn Meadows

Special thanks to the Michael Palm Foundation

Liner Notes: Marina and Victor Ledin

Design: Communication Graphics

Cover Photograph: José Iturbi [Courtesy of Musical America Archive]

Inside Tray Illustration: José Iturbi (ca.1939) [Courtesy of Encore Consultants Archive]

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®

MOZART: Concerto No.20 in D Minor for Piano & Orchestra, K.466 30:05I. Allegro (Cadenza by Beethoven) 14:14II. Romanza 9:09III. Rondo – Allegro Assai (Cadenza by Beethoven) 6:42

José Iturbi, Pianist, and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra withJosé Iturbi conducting from the Piano

MOZART: Piano Sonata No.12 in F Major, K.332 14:14I. Allegro 4:22II. Adagio 5:08III. Allegro Assai 4:44

José Iturbi, PianistMOZART: Concerto in E Flat Major for Two Pianos & Orchestra, K.365 24:05

I. Allegro (Cadenza by José Iturbi) 9:42II. Andante 7:09III. Rondo – Allegro (Cadenza by José Iturbi) 7:14

José and Amparo Iturbi, Pianists, and the Rochester PhilharmonicOrchestra with José Iturbi conducting from the Piano

Total Playing Time : 68:47Historic Recordings Made Between 1937 and 1940

Producer: Michael Rolland Davis • Remastering Engineer: Ed Thompson

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