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Disc I - IGNACE JAN PADEREWSKI (1860-1941)

Theme and Variations Op. 16, No. 3 8:32

Recorded July 15, 1964 in New York City, Baldwin Piano

Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 17I. Allegro 15:35II. Romanza 9:15III. Allegro motto vivace 7:29

London Symphony Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, conductor • Recorded September 6, 1970,Barking Town Hall, London, England • Recording Engineer: Robert Auger Steinway Piano

Fantaisie Polonaise in G minor, Op. 19 19:10

London Symphony Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, conductor • Recorded September 7, 1970,Barking Town Hall, London, England • Recording Engineer: Robert Auger Steinway Piano

Disc II - XAVER SCHARWENKA (1850-1924)

Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 32I. Allegro patetico 10:24II. Scherzo: Allegro assai 7:00III. Allegro non tanto 10:35

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, conductor • Recorded January 20, 1969,Symphony Hall, Boston, MA • Producer: Peter Delheim * Engineer: Bernard Keville Baldwin Piano

Polish Dance in E flat minor, Op. 3, No. 1 3:44

Recorded April 1976, RCA Studio A, New York City • Producer: Joseph Habig * RecordingEngineer: Bernard Keville • Baldwin Piano

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HEROESY

“Pianist-as-Hero” has long been an idée fixe, even if this concept is necessar-ily limited to only a handful of artists per generation. Audiences at large, regard-less of degree of musical training, seem to instinctively (and inexplicably) recog-nize greatness – in spite of what some opinionated journalists might decree.

The “King of Keyboard Heroes” has always been the concerto-playing com-poser-pianist. As performing soloist, he garnered admiration for his twofold tal-ent, and, bathing in the public’s adulation, was encouraged to press forwardwith new creations. This was good for his coffers; too, since performanceshelped sell his latest “hot” scores and exposure inspired commissions. Mozart,Haydn, and Beethoven come to mind as early examples, and the nineteenthcentury is replete with this species – think of Herz, Kalkbrenner, Hummel,Chopin, Litolff, Liszt, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Scharwenka, Saint-Saëns, toname but a few. As twentieth century examples, we may cite Rachmaninov,Medtner, Prokofiev, Khrennikov, Bowen, Dohnányi, Beach, and Gershwin.

During the past few decades, however, specialization has set in – composers

PaderewskiScharwenka

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are composers, pianists are pianists, and hardly ever the twain shall meet as asingle mortal in performance of a concerto. Usually the soloist is the pianist whocommissions the work or the one for whom the work is written – Earl Wild, forexample, who premiered Marvin David Levy’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1970 withSir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony. There are a small number of excep-tions, of course. One that instantly comes to mind is Earl Wild’s own wonderfulDoo-Dah Variations for piano and orchestra, premiered in 1992 with the DesMoines Symphony and recorded with the same forces in 1993, composer Wildagain at the piano.

Before the advent of television, concerto-playing heroes and heroinesamused or inspired us in many an old Hollywood movie. The 1940s exhibitedthe most memorable ones. José Iturbi appeared in several during that decade,and Arthur Rubinstein performed a new nine-minute concerto by Leith Stevensin a 1947 film called “Nightsong.” In the 1946 movie, “I’ve Always Loved You”(also known as “Concerto”), we suffer a silly plot. The actress with faking fingersat the keyboard tries to dominate the conductor – she really loves him, you see– during Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto. The film is redeemed, though, byits sound track which features Arthur Rubinstein at the piano. Most startling ofall these musical machinations is Bernard Herrmann’s chilling Concerto Macabre,heard during the final moments of the 1945 motion picture, “Hangover Square.”There, the keyboard protagonist is a schizophrenic murderer who plays his con-certo while he and everything around him are engulfed in flames. He putsBrünnhilde’s immolation to shame.

Yes, many influences affect our perception of the composer as performer.The manipulative power of music and its practitioners cannot be overestimated.Indeed, the world of young, aspiring pianists is irrepressibly, if not inevitably,

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crowded with fantasies of virtuoso performances as soloist in brilliant concertos.They may perceive this as achievement of a goal, as the pinnacle of success, or asan aspect of power. Auto racing, bungee jumping, sky diving – these activitiescannot compare to the thrill of performing as star pianist with an orchestra.

PADEREWSKI AND SCHARWENKAY

The life and work of Xaver Scharwenka (1850-1924) and of Ignace JanPaderewski (1860-1941) exhibit such remarkable parallels that it seems incum-bent to speak about them vis-à-vis.

Both were born in small towns in Poland – Xaver in Samter (then in Prussia)and Ignace in Podolia. Although Xaver played piano by ear at age three, it wasnot until age fifteen, when his family moved to Berlin, that he began seriousstudy when he entered Theodor Kullak’s Academy. Ignace began studies at theWarsaw Conservatory at age twelve, worked there under Paul de Schloezer andNatalie Janotha (a pupil of Clara Schumann), and then in his early twenties stud-ied with the esteemed Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna. Both XS and IJP taughtpiano over a long period to aspirants from many different countries. AmongScharwenka’s best-known pupils were Gustav Becker, Halfdan Cleve, IsidoreLuckstone, and José Vianna da Motta. Disciples of Paderewski include HaroldBauer, Witold Malcuzynski, Ernest Schelling, and Sigismund Stojowski.

Scharwenka edited quite a bit of other composers’ music for publicationand in 1881 established his own successful conservatory in Berlin, with a branchin New York City to open a decade later. He wrote valuable technical exercises

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and a “Method of Piano Playing.” On theother hand, Paderewski’s noteworthy contri-bution in an area that is obliquely related topedagogy is his supervision in the prepara-tion of a scrupulous, new edition of thecomplete works of Chopin for Warsaw’sFryderyk Chopin Institute (issued 1949-1962).

Let’s examine the parallels that the cat-alogs of musical works of Scharwenka andof Paderewski reveal. In each list we findmany short piano solos, extended pianoworks (two sonatas and some variations byXS; a sonata and variations by IJP), songs,instrumental and chamber music, a sym-phony, and concerted works with piano solo(four by XS; two by IJP).

Each man also managed to write a full-length opera – Scharwenka’s“Mataswintha” was performed in 1896-97, once at Weimar and once at theMetropolitan Opera in New York, while Paderewski’s “Manru” was premiered inDresden in 1901. Almost all of their compositions were published. Sadly, mostof them are now out of print.

It seems ironic that the most famous works of Scharwenka and ofPaderewski, those that sold the greatest number of copies, were innocent littlepiano pieces – the former’s Polish Dance in E-flat minor, Op. 3, No. 1, and the lat-ter’s Minuet in C, Op. 14, No. 1. These early charmers so caught the public’s fancy

Xaver Scharwenka

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that literally millions of copies were sold, both asindividual fascicles and in an endless series ofanthologies of the “best-loved” sort. Naturally,the composers recorded these favorite pieces(more than once) and were repeatedly calledupon to play them throughout their performingcareers. Speaking of recordings, each of our sub-ject composers cut around forty piano rolls, butonly Paderewski recorded on flat disc. Also, inthe 1936 film, “Moonlight Sonata,” Paderewskiplays the Beethoven work and Chopin’s A-flatPolonaise. Even though produced in the master’slatest years, we’re mighty lucky to be able toexperience this historic document.

Scharwenka composed his Polish Dance inE-flat minor, mentioned above, in 1869, when hewas only nineteen years old. He was no doubt

unable to foresee the popular response this early work would achieve, as he soldit for a flat fee, depriving himself of what surely would have been massive roy-alties. Someone estimated that in the United States alone he could have madeover $90,000 from its sale. At the same time, Scharwenka feared that its popu-larity would threaten his destiny as a composer, perhaps rightly so. Indeed,when he and Liszt eventually met in person, Liszt already knew of Scharwenkathrough this piece. But that did not prevent Liszt from admiring the youngerman’s piano concerto.

Paderewski began writing his Theme and Variations in Strasbourg. Its actu-

Ignace Jan Paderewski

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al title is Thème varié, and it is the third piecefrom his Miscellanea: Serié de morceaux, Op. 16.Dated 1887, the work is dedicated to MadameAlina Weber-Schlumberger. The “lovely, lightand lyrical” andantino theme is followed byseven variations: A tempo; Piu mosso;Allegretto; Lento; Non troppo vivo; In tempo;and Finale: Allegro molto vivace. BohdanPociej had this to say about the piece: “TheVariations charm us with their multitude ofvariants, excite us with the brilliance of theirpianistic texture and their shimmering colours,give the impression of having arisen from thepure joy of composing, which is transmitted tous, the listeners.” The first variation, with itstrills in the right hand, has some resemblanceto eighteenth-century French classic keyboardwriting.

Both Scharwenka and Paderewski had highly successful careers as per-forming artists on both sides of the Atlantic. As only a small taste of the acco-lades they earned, witness Vienna’s famous music critic, Eduard Hanslick, whocalled Scharwenka “a wholly outstanding pianist, dazzling but without charla-tanry,” and William Mason (American pupil of Liszt) who insisted thatPaderewski was “the finest living exponent of Liszt.” And they each receivednumerous awards, medals, and honors. Occasionally they conducted, but theirgreatest fame came as keyboard giants. “Paderewski” became such a ubiquitous

Paderewski at Royal Albert Hall, 1891

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household name that mothers automaticallyurged their children to practice: “Don’t you wantto grow up and play like Paderewski?”Scharwenka and Paderewski also had good looks– XS, handsome with his moustaches and proudbearing, and IJP with a reddish mop of hair thatbecame a veritable halo under stage lighting.

Unparalleled: Paderewski set aside his musi-cal career for about two years for some specialduties. In 1919 he was nominated Prime Ministerof Poland, and it was he who signed the VersaillesTreaty on behalf of his native country.

The genesis of Scharwenka’s Piano ConcertoNo. 1, Op. 32, in B-flat minor, was a fantasy forpiano solo that he began to sketch sometimearound 1870. Unsatisfied, he added an orchestralpart and in 1875 played this single movement

fantasy in Berlin. Still unsatisfied, he expanded it to form the present concertowhich was performed for the first time in Hanover in 1877 with the composeras soloist. Its form is unusual. There is no separate slow movement, just an ada-gio intermezzo in the first, and, rather than an extended orchestral introduction,we find one of only thirteen measures. (It’s amusing to realize that the first sixnotes of this concerto exactly match the octave passages at measure 7 of thefamous Polish Dance. Was this accidental or a pun-like conceit of the composer?)The massive cadenza appears in the finale.

Scharwenka often performed this concerto to great success in programs that

Paderewski and CarlStasny, 1915

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also included Beethoven’s“Emperor” Concerto. Hans vonBulow called it “original, ami-able throughout, perfect inform... [with] admirableinstrumentation.” Such illus-trious pianists as Constantinvon Sternberg, Emil von Sauer,Moriz Rosenthal, and Eugend’Albert had this concerto intheir repertory. But it was missing for many decades until Earl Wild happilyrevived it in 1968 with the Boston Symphony and then performed it, as well, tohuge success throughout the world. Mr. Wild’s recording is the first ever of thiswork.

The score of Scharwenka’s Piano Concerto No. 1 was originally published inBremen by Praeger & Meier. The work is dedicated to Franz Liszt. The reprintedition of the two-piano score (New York: Music Treasure Publications, 1971)contains extensive prefatory remarks by Charles Suttoni that include translationsof much of this composer’s German-language autobiography, “Notes from MyLife: Reminiscences of a Musician” [Klange aus meinem Leben: Erinnerungeneioes Musikers; Leipzig, 1922]. The concerto’s scherzo movement was also pub-lished separately in an arrangement for two pianos; this arrangement, though,differs from the two-piano reduction of the full concerto, in that the piano partsare more equitably distributed between the players.

In January 1891, Scharwenka played his piano concerto to a packed houseat the Metropolitan Opera. The conductor was Anton Siedl. He then performed

Head of State, Marshal Pilsudski and PrimeMinister Paderewski, February 10, 1919

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at the White House and toured the continent topopular acclaim, always favoring his audienceswith the inevitable Polish Dance.

Paderewski’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 17,was written in 1888-89 in Vienna. The soloist inits first performance (1890) was the Russian-bornpianist, Annette Essipova, the second ofLeschetizky’s many wives and earlier his pupil. Theorchestra was the Vienna Philharmonic under thefabled Hans Richter. Although Paderewski laterperformed this concerto many times, he felt thathe had not studied the concerto sufficiently toappear as soloist at the premiere. The piece is intraditional three-movement form with an extendedorchestral introduction. The wondrous cadenza isin the first movement.

When Paderewski asked Saint-Saens for his opinion, the Frenchman calledthe andante “delightful,” asked to hear it again, and generously stated that“There is nothing to be changed.” The first recording of this work, in 1939, fea-tures the Puerto Rican pianist, Jesus Maria Sanromá, on 78-rpm discs, conduct-ed by Arthur Fiedler. As fate would have it, Wild and Fiedler united thirty yearslater to revive the work and to record it in up-to-date sound.

Paderewski dedicated his Piano Concerto to Theodor Leschetizky. Concerning Earl Wild’s additions: no structural or harmonic alterations are

made, and only a slight reinforcement of some orchestral tutti passages and asmall bit of filling out in the cadenza may be found. And in the G minor Fantaisie

Autographed photo of Paderewski

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Polonaise sur des thèmes orig-inaux, as Paul Hume notes,Mr. Wild extended “variousarpeggio figures through ahigher octave, played therepetition of a given passagean octave above its initialstatement, and began somedisplay work with a moredazzling outburst than iswritten.” He also doubledthe orchestra in the tutti pas-sage that introduces thechange of tempo leading intothe second section of thework. Hume notes that the composer himself might well have indulged himselfin such ways for his own performances of the work.

Hume notes further that “the demands on the pianist [in the Fantaisie] arenotably greater technically and more spectacular in effect than in the concerto.Double glissandos occur frequently, and complex intricacies for the fingers areconsiderably more in evidence, as if Paderewski, now hailed as one of the giantsof his instrument, was taking special delight in showing off his own brilliantcontrol in meeting all kinds of demands.” The scores for the Concerto and theFantaisie were published in Berlin by Bote & Bock.

The Fantaisie Polonaise – its original French title indicates that the themesare original with Paderewski – was written in 1893 while the composer was

Funeral cortege down Fifth Avenue in NYC carrying Paderewski’s body, 1941

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vacationing in Yport, a small hamlet in Normandy, and is dedicated to PrincessR. Bassaraba de Brancovan. It took him only five weeks to complete. Though asingle movement, the piece has three basic episodes. Paderewski played its firstpublic performance on October 4, 1893 at the Norwich Festival in England,under the direction of Alberto Randegger, with a reported 8,000 people in atten-dance. Henry E. Krehbiel has written that “in it are to be found proclamations ofgreat pomp and pride, ebullitions of the most unconstrained merriment, tenderplaints, dreamy musings and wild outpourings of passion.” It is certainly amonghis finest and most satisfying works and, in fact, it fully confirmed his reputa-tion five years after the success of his piano concerto.

Both Scharwenka’s and Paderewski’s concertos come out of the Schumann-Chopin-Liszt tradition, but how different they are from each other. Scharwenka’sis generally more dramatic and its piano part very demanding. Paderewski’sConcerto in A minor has a bit more sentiment and a folkish third movement,though it is certainly not without brio. And his Fantaisie Polonaise, especially inMr. Wild’s performance of it, is conspicuous for its sheer velocity and a rhap-sodic breadth befitting a piece rooted in nationalistic fervor.

Perhaps the American composer, Ned Rorem, is right in his thought-pro-voking, essence-rendering statement that “All music is either French orGerman.” If we agree, then Scharwenka is “German” and Paderewski is “French.”

© 1995 Donald Garvelmann © 2007 James E. Frazier

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Earl Wild is a pianist in the grand Romantic tradition. Considered by manyto be the last of the great Romantic pianists, this eminent musician is knowninternationally 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’sgreatest pianists, Earl Wild has been a legendary figure, performing throughoutthe world for over eight decades. Major recognition is something Mr. Wild hasreceived numerous times in his long career. He was included in the PhilipsRecords series entitled The Great Pianists of the 20th Century with a double discdevoted exclusively to piano transcriptions. He has been featured in TIMEMagazine on two separate occasions; the most recent was in December of 2000honoring his eighty-fifth birthday. One of only a handful of living pianists tomerit an entry in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Mr. Wild istherein described as a pianist whose technique “Is able to encompass even themost difficult virtuoso works with apparent ease.”

Earl Wild was born on November 26, 1915 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.As a child his parents would often play opera overtures (such as the one fromBellini’s Norma) on their Edison phonograph. As the recordings were play-

Earl WildBiography

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ing, this three year-old would go to the family piano, reach up to the key-board, find the exact notes, and play along in the same key. At this early age,he displayed the rare gift of absolute pitch. This and other feats labeled himas a child prodigy and leading immediately to piano lessons.

At six, he had a fluent technique and could read music easily. Before histwelfth birthday, he was accepted as a pupil of the famous teacher SelmarJanson, who had studied with Eugen d’Albert (1864-1932) and XaverScharwenka (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 ofTechnology) -- now Carnegie Mellon University. Enrolled throughout JuniorHigh, 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 ofIgnace Jan Paderewski (1860-1941), Marguerite Long (1874-1966), studiedthe 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 MauriceRavel (1875-1937). Mr. Wild also studied with Helene Barere, the wife ofthe famous Russian pianist, Simon Barere (1896-1951), and studied withVolya Cossack, a pupil of Isidore Philippe (1863-1958), who had studiedwith Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921).

As a teenager, Mr. Wild had already composed many works and pianotranscriptions 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

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to perform on radio station KDKA inPittsburgh (the first radio station inthe United States). He made such animpression that he was asked to workfor the station on a regular basis forthe next eight years. Mr. Wild wasonly fourteen when he was hired toplay Piano and Celeste in thePittsburgh Symphony Orchestraunder the baton of Otto Klemperer.

With immense hands, absolutepitch, graceful stage presence, anduncanny facility as a sight-reader andimproviser, Earl Wild was wellequipped for a lifelong career inmusic.

During this early teenage periodof his career, Earl Wild gave a brilliantand critically well received perfor-mance of Liszt's First Piano Concertoin E-flat with Dimitri Mitropoulosand the Minneapolis Symphony inPittsburgh’s Syria Mosque Hall.

He performed the work withoutthe benefit of a rehearsal.

In 1937, he joined the NBCArthur Fiedler meeting

Ignace Jan Paderewski c. 1930s

Arthur Fiedler & Earl Wild atPaderewski recording session, 1969

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network in New York City as a staff pianist. This position included notonly the duties of playing solo piano and chamber recitals, but also per-forming in the NBC Symphony Orchestra under conductor ArturoToscanini. In 1939, when NBC began transmitting its first commerciallive musical telecasts, Mr. Wild became the first artist to perform a pianorecital on U.S. television. In 1942, Toscanini helped Earl Wild’s careerwhen he invited him to be the soloist in an NBC radio broadcast ofGershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. It was the first performance of the Rhapsodyfor both conductor and pianist, and although Mr. Wild had not yet playedany of Gershwin’s other compositions, he was immediately hailed as themajor interpreter of Gershwin’s music. The youngest (and only) Americanpiano soloist ever engaged by the NBC Symphony and Maestro Toscanini,Mr. Wild was a member of the orchestra, working for the NBC radio andtelevision network from 1937 to 1944.

During World War II, Mr. Wild served in the United States Navy as amusician, playing 4th flute in the Navy Band. He performed numerous solopiano recitals at the White House for President Roosevelt and played twenty-one piano concertos with the U.S. Navy Symphony Orchestra at theDepartmental Auditorium, National Gallery, and other venues in Washington,D.C. During those two years in the Navy he was frequently requested toaccompany 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 formedAmerican Broadcasting Company (ABC), where he was staff pianist, conduc-tor, and composer until 1968. During both his NBC and ABC affiliations hewas also performing and conducting many concert engagements around the

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world -- at ABC he conducted and performed many of his own compositions.In 1962, ABC commissioned him to compose an Easter Oratorio. It was thefirst time that a television network subsidized a major musical work. EarlWild was assisted by tenor William Lewis, who wrote the libretto and sangthe role of St. John in the production. Mr. Wild’s composition, Revelations wasa religious work based on the apocalyptic visions of St. John the Divine. Mr.Wild also conducted its world premiere telecast in 1962, which blendeddance, music, song, and theatrical staging. The large-scale oratorio was sungby four soloists and chorus and was written in three sections: Seal ofWisdom, The Seventh Angel, and The New Day. The first telecast was so suc-cessful that it was entirely restaged and rebroadcast on TV again in 1964.

Another composition by Mr. Wild, a choral work based on an AmericanIndian folk legend titled The Turquoise Horse, was commissioned by the PalmSprings Desert Museum for the official opening and dedication ceremonies oftheir Annenberg Theater on January 11, 1976.

On September 26, 1992, the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, withconductor Joseph Giunta, gave the world premiere of Earl Wild’s compositionVariations on a Theme of Stephen Foster for Piano and Orchestra (‘Doo-Dah’Variations) with Mr. Wild as the soloist. The composition was recorded byMr. Wild a year later with the same orchestra and conductor.

Pianist / composer Earl Wild wrote this set of variations using StephenFoster’s American Song Camptown Races as the theme. The melody is the samelength as the famous Paganini Caprice theme that Rachmaninoff used in hisRhapsody on a Theme by Paganini and that Brahms used in his set of Variationsfor piano solo. Mr. Wild thus became the first virtuoso pianist / composer toperform his own piano concerto since Sergei Rachmaninoff.

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Earl Wild has participated in many premieres. In 1944 on NBC radio,he performed the Western World premiere of Shostakovich’s Piano Trio in Eminor. In 1949, he was soloist in the world premiere performance of PaulCreston’s Piano Concerto in France, later giving the American premiere of thework with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. In December of1970, with Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony, Mr. Wild gave theworld premiere of Marvin David Levy’s Piano Concerto, a work specially com-posed for him.

Mr. Wild has appeared with nearly every orchestra and performed count-less recitals in virtually every country. In the past ninety years he has col-laborated with many eminent conductors including; Toscanini, Stokowski,Reiner, Klemperer, Horenstein, Leinsdorf, Fiedler, Mitropoulos, Grofe,Ormandy, Sargent, Dorati, Maazel, Solti, Copland, and Schippers.Additionally, Earl Wild has performed with violinists: Mischa Elman, OscarShumsky, 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 performfor six consecutive Presidents of the United States, beginning with PresidentHerbert Hoover in 1931. In 1961 he was soloist with the NationalSymphony at the inauguration ceremonies of President John F. Kennedy in

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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 asconducting four performances of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi on a double billwith Igor Stravinsky (who conducted his own Opera, Oedipus Rex).

From 1952 to 1956 Mr. Wild worked with comedian Sid Caesar on thevery popular TV program, Caesar’s Hour. During those years, he com-posed and performed all the solo piano backgrounds in the silent movieskits. He also composed most of the musical parodies and burlesques onoperas that were so innovative that they have now become gems of early livetelevision.

It was in 1976 that Mr. Wild wrote his now famous piano transcriptionbased on George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess and also revised his six orig-inal 1950’s Virtuoso Etudes based on popular songs I Got Rhythm, SomebodyLoves Me, Liza, Embraceable You, Fascinatin’ Rhythm, The Man I Love, and Oh,Lady be Good. Mr. Wild’s Etude No.3 The Man I Love was originally writtenfor left hand alone but was revised for two hands in 1976 along with an addi-tional seventh Etude, Fascinatin’ Rhythm. In 1989 he also composed animprovisation for solo piano based on Gershwin’s Someone To Watch Over Mein the form of a Theme and Three Variations.

In 1981 Mr. Wild composed thirteen piano transcriptions from a select-ed group of Rachmaninoff songs: Floods of Spring, Midsummer Nights, TheLittle Island, Where Beauty Dwells, In the Silent Night, Vocalise, On the Death ofa Linnet, The Muse, O, Cease Thy Singing, To the Children, Dreams, Sorrow inSpringtime, and Do not Grieve.

A common element among the great pianists of the past and Earl Wild is

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the art of composing piano transcriptions. Mr. Wild has taken a place in his-tory as a direct descendant of the golden age of the art of writing piano tran-scriptions. Earl Wild has been called “The finest transcriber of our time.”Mr. Wild's piano transcriptions are widely known and respected. Over theyears they have been performed and recorded by pianists worldwide.

In 1986, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the death ofFranz Liszt, Earl Wild was awarded a Liszt Medal by the People’s Republic ofHungary in recognition of his long and devoted association with this greatcomposer’s music.

Liszt is a composer who has been closely associated with Mr. Wild through-out his long career as he has been performing Liszt recitals for over fifty years.In New York City in 1961, he gave a monumental solo Liszt recital celebratingthe 150th anniversary of Liszt’s birth. More recently in 1986, honoring the100th anniversary of Liszt’s death, he gave a series of three different recitalstitled Liszt the Poet, Liszt the Transcriber, and Liszt the Virtuoso in New York’sCarnegie Hall and many other recital halls throughout the world. Championingcomposers such as Liszt long before they were “fashionable” is part of the foun-dation on which Mr. Wild has built his long and successful career.

Also in 1986 Mr. Wild was asked to participate in a television documen-tary titled “Wild about Liszt,” which was filmed at Wynyard Park, the 9thMarquess of Londonderry’s family estate in Northern England. The programwon the British Petroleum Award for best musical documentary. Mr. Wild’sthree Liszt recitals performed at Wynyard, as well as the documentary, are nowavailable on a new DVD released by Ivory Classics in 2007 – DVD-77777.

He has given numerous performances of works by neglected NineteenthCentury composers such as: Nikolai Medtner, Ignace Jan Paderewski, Xaver

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Scharwenka, Karl Tausig, Mily Balakirev, Eugen d’Albert, Moriz Moszkowski,Reynaldo Hahn and countless others.

In addition to pursuing his own concert and composing career, Earl Wildhas actively supported and young musicians all his life. He has taught class-es all over the world. Highlights include the Central Conservatory of Musicin Beijing, Toho-Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, and the Sun Wha Schoolin Seoul, 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 almamater, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In 1996, Carnegie Mellonhonored Mr. Wild with their Alumni Merit Award, in the fall of 2000 they fur-ther honored him with their more prestigious Distinguished AchievementAward 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 chambermusic ensemble based in Vienna, Virginia at the famous National Park for thePerforming Arts (Wolf Trap Farm Park). Mr. Wild’s idea in forming of theConcert Soloists was to combine mature seasoned performers with talentedyoung musicians. Other Wolf Trap members included violinists: OscarShumsky, Aaron Rosand, Lynn Chang and David Kim; cellists: Charles Curtisand Peter Wyrick; harpist Gloria Agostini; guitarist Eliot Fisk; and flutist GarySchocker. Mr. Wild served not only as the group’s founder but also as artis-tic director and pianist until 1982.

Mr. Wild is also one of today’s most recorded pianists, having made his

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first disc in 1939 for RCA. Mr. Wild has recorded at least one CD per yearsince 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, SonyClassical, Philips, and IVORY CLASSICS.

His discography of recorded works includes more than 35 piano concer-tos, 26 chamber works, and over 700 solo piano pieces.

In 1997, he received a GRAMMY Award for his disc devoted entirely tovirtuoso piano transcriptions titled Earl Wild - The Romantic Master (an 80thBirthday Tribute). The thirteen piano transcriptions on this disc comprise awide range of composers from Handel, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, J. Strauss Jr.,Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Kreisler, Fauré, and Saint-Saëns. Of these thir-teen transcriptions, nine were written by Mr. Wild (eight are world premiererecordings). This disc is now available in its original HDCD encoded soundon Ivory Classics (CD-70907).

For the first official release of the newly formed IVORY CLASSICS labelin 1997, Earl Wild recorded the complete Chopin Nocturnes (CD-70701),which the eminent New York Times critic Harold C. Schonberg reviewed inthe American Record Guide saying, “These are the best version of theNocturnes ever recorded.” Since its inception, IVORY CLASSICS has releasedover thirty newly recorded or re-released performances featuring Earl Wild.

In May of 2003 the eighty-eight year-old Dean of the Piano recorded aCD of solo piano works that he had never recorded before. Using the newlimited 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

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No. 1 in B flat minor, Chopin’s Four Impromptus, and Mr. Wild’s piano tran-scription of the Mexican Hat Dance (Jarabe Tapatio). This disc was released inNovember of 2003 by IVORY CLASSICS and titled, ‘Earl Wild at 88 on the88’s’ (CD-73005).

Earl Wild’s lengthy career as a performing artist began long before his ini-tial Ivory Classics release in 1997; many of his recordings were made avail-able in the CD format by Chesky Records as either original releases or remas-tered re-releases. These discs included Mr. Wild’s historic 1965 recordingsof Rachmaninoff’s complete piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme ofPaganini. Other Chesky releases which feature Mr. Wild appearing as soloistwith orchestra include the piano and orchestra works of: Chopin, Dohnányi(Variations), Fauré, Grieg, Liszt, MacDowell, Saint-Saëns, and Tchaikovsky.

Ivory Classics is proud to present several newly remastered CDs featur-ing Mr. Wild’s performances of some of the world’s greatest repertoire for solopiano. These re-releases began with “Earl Wild’s Legendary RachmaninoffSong Transcriptions” released in 2004, discs of Chopin’s Scherzos andBallades and solo piano works by Nicolai Medtner were released in 2005 andBeethoven’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 allreleased in 2006. Future releases will include: Rachmaninoff’s Variations ona Theme by Chopin, Variations on a Theme by Corelli, Complete Preludes, Op.23, and Op. 32, and the Piano Sonata No. 2. Ivory Classics is also looking for-ward to re-releasing Mr. Wild’s own composition Variations on a Theme ofStephen Foster for Piano and Orchestra (“Doo-Dah” Variations) originallyrecorded in 1992. Each of these original digital recordings will be remas-tered utilizing the latest 24-bit technology.

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To place an order or to be included on our mailing list:Ivory Classics® • P.O. Box 341068 • Columbus, Ohio 43234-1068

Phone: 614-286-3695 michaeldavis@ivoryclassics.comPlease visit our website: www.IvoryClassics.com

In 2005 Ivory Classics released a new disc celebrating Earl Wild’s nineti-eth birthday! For this special occasion, Mr. Wild selected to record reper-toire by Bach (Partita No. 1), Scriabin (Sonata No. 4), Franck (Prelude,Chorale and Fugue) and Schumann (Fantasiestucke Op. 12) (CD-75002).

Earl Wild celebrated his ninetieth birthday by performing recitals inmany U.S. cities as well as in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. The tour culmi-nated with an official birthday recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City onNovember 29, 2005.

In 2007 Ivory Classics released its first DVD, ‘Wild about Liszt’, a twoDVD set - DVD-77777.

Mr. Wild is currently working on his memoirs which he hopes to publishsoon.

Earl Wild’s compositions and transcriptions are published by

Michael Rolland Davis Productions, ASCAP

mrdavisprod@sprintmail.com

Telephone: 614-286-3695

Mr. Wild’s official website: www.EarlWild.com

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Paderewski Piano Concerto

“Earl Wild plays...with the flash and glitter and the sense of indomitable panache thatwould surely have pleased the composer, and he is exuberantly accompanied by Fiedler andthe LSO.”

– Gramophone

Scharwenka Piano Concerto No. 1

The concerto is a period piece – a bravura work in the late 19th-century rhetoric...onecan have fun tracing the various composers who play a part in this work. Greig is there, andTchaikovsky, and Liszt and Schumann, and Chopin, and Anton Rubinstein, and Saint-Saëns. Toward the end of the last movement there is a theme that prefigures Rachmaninoffand the “Warsaw” Concerto, which is something of a feat considering that Scharwenka’s wascomposed in 1877....It is a wing-ding of a romp, one in which the pianist starts with a greatsplurge and scarcely removes his hands from the keys for the next half hour. It has prettymelodies, and it has a fiendishly difficult solo part....Period composers do reflect their age,and Scharwenka did, completely. It was a comfortable age, an age when the virtuoso wasking, an age where sentiment ruled....And so the Scharwenka B flat minor Concerto was acharming, lightweight and exhibitionistic work....the way Mr. Wild played it was actuallystartling. It was sheer control all the way through with a feathery touch, minimum pedaland absolute clear articulation....Mr. Wild played it like a romantic hero of the keyboard,and he had a fine accompaniment from Mr. Leinsdorf.

– Harold C. Schonberg, The New York Times, 1969

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