A belated thank you for your support, Antonio.

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Xaver Scharwenka; Ignacy Jan Paderewski - Piano Concertos (Earl Wild)


Information

Composer: Xaver Scharwenka; Ignacy Jan Paderewski; Mily Balakirev
  1. X. Scharwenka - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 32: 1. Allegro patetico 
  2. X. Scharwenka - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 32: 2. Scherzo. Allegro assai 
  3. X. Scharwenka - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 32: 3. Allegro non tanto 
  4. Balakirev - Reminiscences on "A Life for the Czar" (after Glinka's opera)
  5. Paderewski - Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 17: 1. Allegro 
  6. Paderewski - Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 17: 2. Romanza 
  7. Paderewski - Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 17: 3. Allegro molto vivace 

Earl Wild, piano

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Erich Leinsdorf, conductor (1-3)

London Symphony Orchestra
Arthur Fiedler, conductor (5-7)

Date: 1969 (1-4), 1970 (5-7)
Label: Élan (licensed from RCA/BMG)


----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

With the death in late 1995 of Shura Cherkassky, Earl Wild now stands alone as the last representative of the larger-than-life Romantic keyboard heroes. Born in Pittsburgh in 1915, Wild made his first record in 1934 and is still recording, although, considering his stature, a disappointingly small proportion of those recordings are currently in print.

Wild has tended to specialise to a certain extent in "big" works, virtuoso vehicles often dismissed as shallow and flashy - although not in his hands - which may be a part of the reason for his poor standing in the current catalogue.

It does seem odd, though, given today's apparent fascination for the more obscure repertoire - there at least two companies issuing discs under titles such as "The Romantic Piano Concerto" - that RCA, for whom Wild made those first discs over six decades ago, have not seen fit to reissue these late 1960s recordings themselves, but have instead licensed them to Elan, a small company hitherto unknown to me.

Still, RCA's loss is Elan's (and our) gain.

The two concertos recorded here are set firmly in the Schumann-Chopin-Liszt tradition, even though they make rather stiffer demands of the soloist, and each was written to display its composer's own virtuosity - although, peculiarly, Paderewski handed the première of his concerto to another pianist, feeling that he had insufficient time to learn his own music.

Of the two concertos on offer here, I slightly prefer the one by Xaver Scharwenka (a pupil of Liszt), of which this 1969 recording was the first. The concerto is tuneful, even memorably so - it is not always easy to summon up mentally the main themes of obscure repertoire while seated at a computer keyboard - and Wild's stunning performance lifts it even further out of the ordinary, far enough to make one wonder exactly why this concerto is still so little known.

Paderewski - the highest paid musician in history, by the way (well, until Janet Jackson's latest contract) - wrote only a single concerto, which was first recorded in 1939. This recording, made 31 years later, features the same conductor, Arthur Fiedler, whose long tenure at the Boston Pops has tended to undermine public perception of his very real talents as a serious musician.

The opening couple of minutes of this disc are the perfect sampler: listen to the way in which Erich Leinsdorf - another seriously under-rated conductor - whips up the excitement from the orchestra immediately before the soloist's entry in the Scharwenka; Leinsdorf sets the pulse racing and nothing in the remaining 25 minutes of the concerto will slow it down again.

Many companies would doubtless have been content to issue a disc consisting of just the two concertos, but I am happy to report that Elan have gone the extra mile and included a most worthwhile bonus in the shape of Balakirev's Reminiscences of Glinka's Opera "A Life for the Czar" - published in 1899 but apparently composed some 40 years earlier, which makes it contemporaneous with several of Liszt's operatic paraphrases.

Nor, perhaps surprisingly, is the comparison wholly in Liszt's favour; Balakirev's own virtuosity was considerable - his Islamey was once considered the most difficult piano piece ever written - and, even for those of us unfamiliar with Glinka's opera, this is a highly enjoyable work.

Wild's pianism here, as throughout this disc, is little short of miraculous: just listen to his astonishing control of tone colours in the quieter passages and then his ability to combine these colours with the incredibly complex arabesques with which Balakirev ornaments the themes as the piece progresses.

In case you hadn't notice, I really like this disc.

-- Deryk Barker, Classical Net

More reviews:
http://www.classicalcdreview.com/ic5.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Padarewski-Scharwenka-Piano-Works-Paderewski/dp/B000025XEH
Both concertos are included in Ivory Classics' issue (without the Balakirev's)
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/paderewski-scharwenka-piano-concertos
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Mar08/Paderewski_Scharwenka_77003.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Paderewski-Scharwenka-Piano-Concertos-Earl/dp/B000UH5QMU

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xaver Scharwenka (6 January 1850 – 8 December 1924) was a German-Polish pianist, composer and teacher of Bohemian-Polish descent. As a pianist, he was a renowned interpreter of the music of Frédéric Chopin and was praised for the beauty of his tone. Scharwenka's own compositions include an opera (Mataswintha), a symphony, four piano concertos, chamber music (all with piano part) and numerous piano pieces. His piano idiom somewhat resembles Schumann and Rachmaninoff. He was the brother of Philipp Scharwenka (1847–1917), who was also a composer and teacher of music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xaver_Scharwenka

***

Ignacy Jan Paderewski (18 November [O.S. 6 November] 1860 – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer, politician, and spokesman for Polish independence. As a pianist, he was a favourite of concert audiences around the globe, and his musical fame opened access to diplomacy and the media. As a politician, he was the prime minister of Poland and also Poland's foreign minister in 1919, and represented Poland at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Despite his relentless touring schedule and political engagements, Paderewski left a legacy of over 70 orchestral, instrumental and vocal works.

***

Earl Wild (November 26, 1915 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – January 23, 2010 in Palm Springs, California) was an American pianist, renowned as a leading virtuoso of his generation. He was well known for his transcriptions of classical music and jazz, and he was also a composer. Wild created numerous virtuoso solo piano transcriptions and also wrote a number of original works. In 1939, he became the first pianist to perform a recital on U.S. television. In 1997, he was the first pianist to stream a performance over the Internet. Harold C. Schonberg called him a "super-virtuoso in the Horowitz class".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Wild

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks
Links in comment
Enjoy!

3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. none of these links currently functions, so I would be grateful for a reupload whenver that is easy/possible for you. With gratitude, mm

    ReplyDelete
  3. Choose one link, copy and paste it to your browser's address bar, wait a few seconds (you may need to click 'Continue' first), then click 'Skip Ad' (or 'Get link').
    If you are asked to download or install anything, IGNORE, only download from file hosting site (mega.nz).
    If MEGA shows 'Bandwidth Limit Exceeded' message, try to create a free account.

    http://raboninco.com/1KJgT
    or
    http://uii.io/nQ7TeD
    or
    http://exe.io/FJj0Qijp

    ReplyDelete