Search - Earl Wild :: Virtuoso Piano

One of the most dazzling piano recordings ever made !

10/17/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This vintage 1964 recording belongs in the collection of every piano lover. All of these pieces are fiendishly difficult, but Wild brings great charm to this music as only he can."

Fascinating Program for the Piano Dilettante

Hexameron | 10/05/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Unlike most of his contemporaries who worked within the standard repertory, Earl Wild daringly treads the unbeaten path. He was one of the first celebrity pianists to record Medtner, obscure Liszt, and virtuoso piano arrangements of J. Strauss's music. The present release on Vanguard Classics offers perhaps Earl Wild's most original program: here "The Virtuoso Piano" title does not mean the likes of Chopin, Liszt or Brahms, but rather Herz, Anton Rubinstein and Godowsky.



Henri Herz (1803-1888) is finally receiving his due credit as more than just a circus piano performer of the Parisian salons. Before Hyperion recorded much of Herz's music, Wild was the first international pianist to showcase this Parisian virtuoso's style. The Variations on "Non piu mesta" from Rossini's La Cenerentola are admittedly lightweight, but still entertaining and joyous. Herz adopts a simple innocent Rossini melody and takes it through a series of frollicking variations. Wild is brilliant in his handling of the sudden contrasts of pianissimo and forte, alternating staccato and legato, and the pearly embellishments. Wild is equally magnificent with the "Don Pasquale" Fantasy from Sigismund Thalberg (1812-1871), another neglected pianist-composer who did much for the advancement of piano technique. While his operatic fantasias are of lesser stock than Liszt's, many are attractive and technically amazing. Thalberg's "three hand" effect was his trademark, and Wild capitalizes on this textural illusion with elegance. This 13-minute fantasy melts with Donizetti's gorgeous melodies and thrills with its virtuosic abandon.



There is a large discography of Anton Rubinstein's (1829-1894) music now available, and I believe he is an excellent composer hardly deserving the neglect or regard as merely a piano virtuoso that he received for so many decades. Few know the wealth of his five piano concerti, his four piano sonatas, or the symphonies. Although the "Staccato" etude from his Op. 23 is famous, at least Wild ignored the dreadfully ubiquitous "Melody in F." Wild's technical splendor really shines through in this etude of rapid-fire velocity. Another pianist-composer remembered mostly for his performing, Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) wrote serious and often large-scale piano compositions, but many only know him as the composer of the "Minuet in G." Wild dabbles in the little "Theme and Variations" Op. 16, an 8-minute conservative piece of tenderness and vibrancy.



The music of Johann Hummel (1778-1837), once Beethoven's rival at the piano, is also being revived today. The "Rondo in E-flat" Op. 11 is typical of his early classical style: Mozartean filigree and expressive rhetoric of Beethoven. Wild is an admirable executant of this pleasant light-hearted music, but this Hummel sample is the least interesting of the program.



Leopold Godowsky's (1870-1938) "Symphonic Metamorphosis on Strauss's Kunsterleben" is a technically demanding and magnum virtuoso work that few risk performing, let alone recording. Wild engaged this work before super technicians like Konstantin Scherbakov, Piers Lane and Marc-Andre Hamelin recorded their own renditions. In an age when Grünfeld, Tausig, and Schulz-Evler wrote spectacular but empty virtuoso fantasies on Strauss, Godowsky elevated the fashion to an art form. This stunning 13-minute work is pure Godowsky, with pianistic and musical transformations of a single Strauss theme that are jaw-dropping. Wild's technique is more than capable of dealing with Godowsky's deadly passages, but Wild also plays with passion, intelligence, and a level of brio I've not heard in any other performance.



Bottom line: This release is not for those who are pained by the absence of Chopin, Liszt or Rachmaninov on a "Virtuoso Piano" recording. Connoisseurs, Romantic piano completists, or those who like exploring marginalized pianist-composers will find this Wild disc essential."

A treasure

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 05/31/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was the first vynil record I bought from this amazing pianist.Thalberg belongs to the last dinasty of an ancient classical romantic tradition; and he is a true master keyboard.
Later I got in CD and believe me ; this is one of the most succesful albums of this super well gifted his skills are of first rate; and Wild knows as a few, to express technique and virtuosity without inflexions; when you listen Don Pasquale fantasia's Donizetti in a Thalberg's arrangement; you'll experience of three hand on the piano; and this is possible because Thalberg divided the right hand , in which two cantabile sections are played by three fingers and another by the other two. Remember; Thalberg was one of the greatest pianists in his age; but there are another unforgettable thriumphs as Godowski and Rubinstein studio.
Watch that issue , it's a liitle difficult to get it but the final effort will be widely rewarded."