A L S O AVA I L A B L E A selection of Piano Classics titles For the full listing please visit www.piano-classics.com
Earl Wild The complete transcriptions and original piano works
DEBUSSY Early piano works
VOLUME 1
Giovanni Doria Miglietta, piano
PCL0069
Passacaglia 4 Poems Transcriptions Paraphrases
RACHMANINOFF SONGS
HUBERT RUTKOWSKI, ÉRARD 1880
PIANO SONATAS 1 & 7 ÉTUDES VARIATIONS
PCL0095
BACH T O C C ATA S
SUN HEE YOU
Emanuele Delucchi, Steinway 1906
PCL0096
The complete transcriptions VOLUME 2
ÉTUDES-TABLEAUX Complete
Zlata Chochieva
PCL0091
godowsky
RACHMANINOFF
Earl Wild
Alessandro Deljavan PCL0098
PCL0099
Giovanni Doria Miglietta, piano
Earl Wild, the centenary of whose birth was celebrated in 2015, has always been considered as a national treasure in America the land of his birth and is increasingly recognised as such everywhere else. During a long career spanning ten decades, he fulfilled the roles of pianist, composer, conductor, publisher and teacher, and built up a comprehensive discography of works from A (Albeniz) to W (himself) in which the names of Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Chopin are particularly prominent. His artistic career was marked by numerous groundbreaking achievements. He is the only pianist to be invited to play at the White House for six consecutive presidents (from Hoover to Johnson), he performed at the first televised recital concert in 1939 and in 1997, at the age of 82, was the first pianist who to stream a performance over the Internet. Born into a middle-class family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 26, 1915 Wild was the first in his family to become a musician. He displayed a precocious musical talent, revealing a sense of absolute pitch at three and a facility to read music at six
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and before his twelfth birthday began to study with Selmar Janson (whose teachers were Eugen d’Albert and the Polish virtuoso Xaver Scharwenka, both Liszt’s pupils) He was later enrolled In a programme for artistically gifted young people at CarnegieTech University (now Carnegie-Mellon) from where he graduated in 1937, by then already a seasoned concert performer: at twelve he had performed on radio KDKA in Pittsburgh, at fourteen had played in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Klemperer and at fifteen performed List’s first piano concerto with Mitropoulos . He then studied in New York under Dutch pianist Egon Petri (18811962), the most famous among Busoni’s pupils and a well-known performer of Liszt. In 1942, at the age of 27, he was chosen by Toscanini to perform Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and became the youngest soloist ever hired by the NBC Symphony where he had been employed as a staff pianist since 1937. Between 1949 and 1950, Wild lived in Paris where he became familiar with the French repertoire and met Poulenc and Paul Doguereau, formerly Ravel’s pupil.
American critics have always used words of particular appreciation for Earl Wild. All agreed that his playing is characterised by extreme elegance, beautiful touch and freshness in his way of interpreting the most virtuoso works, making everything seem simple and spontaneous. Yet in December 1968, Harold C. Schonberg, the American critic, said: “The way Mr Wild played it was actually startling. It was sheer control all the way through with a feathery touch, minimum pedal and absolutely clear articulation. Mr. Wild played it like a romantic hero of the keyboard…” Wild was often referred to as “the Last Great Romantic Pianist” something he found amusing, remarking “ I always have to laugh because I have lived through so many of the “last-ofs” that came before me. So, I’m the last one in line because I’m the oldest one of them now”. However since his death on January 23 2010 one wonders who has inherited the title? He was however a romantic hero who learned from his different experiences and lived them with humility and professionalism. At only fourteen he played jazz in a nightclub in
Florida, and during World War II he served in the United States Navy as a musician, playing flute in the Navy Band. However Wild did not take always himself too seriously (as befits a man who produced some hilarious musical spoofs for Cid Caesar’s American television show) and was ironic and funny. He only did what he liked and loved: “I always play music that I like”, he declared. “If you don’t play music that you like, it sounds like it. It’s easy to learn something and then play it. But if you don’t love it, what have you got?”. And he remained true to this logic outside the musical environment. It is rare to find an artist who holds perfectly balanced expressions, different from and opposing each other. In his music there resides a fine, sharp irony that derives from hard work carried out with accuracy and discipline. The intellectual world of his music becomes something simple and spontaneous in which one can find the classic as well as the popular, humility together with greatness. Opposites find their satisfaction when they reconcile and go beyond their predetermined limits. In this way, they open the doors to
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the eternity of truth and beauty. This is what music has always preserved. And here the pianist Giovanni Doria Miglietta interprets and presents two aspects of Wild’s personality. On one hand, his great mastery of the science of music and his virtuosity (Harold Schonberg defined him “a super virtuoso”). On the other, the sense of irony that Wild was able to find and allow to shine through the music. WILD AND RACHMANINOFF The transcription of a piece of music, be it song or symphony, is a good exercise for a budding composer. Rachmaninoff was thirteen when he transcribed Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony, Wild eight when he produced his first transcription (of Paderewski’s Minuet in the style of Ravel), and his interest in the genre was encouraged by his early teachers Selmar Janson, who possessed a large collection of rare examples and later Egon Petri. During his long career he more or less singlehandedly revived this dying art, producing over thirty examples (some never published) on a diverse and eclectic range of subjects both classical – Chopin, Bach, Faure– and
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popular – Frank Churchill’s soundtrack to Snow White, various 1920’s songs (written in 2004 as his final works of this type). The best-known examples are perhaps the Gershwin transcriptions, the Grand Fantasy on Porgy and Bess and the Seven Virtuoso Etudes (both dating from 1973) and those of Rachmaninoff’s songs. Rachmaninoff’s music and playing style, which he praised for its “beauty, lyrical quality and wonderful flexibility” had a great influence on Wild throughout his career. He first heard him perform in 1921 when he was six and over the next twenty-two years Wild attended his concerts whenever possible and came to know and like the great Russian composer and pianist. He discovered Rachmaninoff’s songs as a student when he was called upon to accompany a colleague and later became friendly with the Russian soprano Maria Kurenko (1890-1980) who had performed many of them with the composer. Kurenko was able to provide Wild with invaluable insights into Rachmaninoff’s interpretations and in 1981 he made transcriptions of twelve songs, selected
from the seventy-one Rachmaninoff had composed between 1893 and 1916 (when he ceased producing them). These were created as a birthday gift for their dedicatee Michael Rolland Davis (his manager, producer and partner) and were first released on dell’ Arte in 1982. In 2007 various recorded versions of the twelve original transcriptions, together with a later one Op 14/8 (Do Not Grieve) were issued on Ivory Classics (which had been founded by Rolland Davis in 1997). Since the track listings on the two discs differ substantially, the pieces are obviously not intended to be performed in any set order and their arrangement on this CD (which includes Wild’s fourteenth and final transcription of Op 4/5 – Harvest of Sorrow) is by Giovanni Doria Miglietta. Whereas Wild’s other transcriptions are often freewheeling, quasi-improvisatory elaborations of their thematic material, his treatment of the Rachmaninoff songs remain rooted in the originals: as he said in an interview “ I made an agreement with myself that I wouldn’t write anything on the page that wasn’t somewhere in Rachmaninoff’s
works either in his decorations or his chordal structures”. The rhythmic structures of the originals and their melodic lines, which have been fully integrated into the musical structure (much as Liszt had done in his transcriptions of Schubert Lieder transcriptions) are maintained, although there are occasionally changes in tempi, and dynamic markings and in one case key (in Op 4/3 from D to F sharp). There are also a few additional short introductions and conclusions and some repeats (sometimes in a different key) but the essential nature of the originals remains unchanged. In creating these song transcriptions which can righty be compared with those Rachmaninoff’ made of Op 38/3 Daisies and 25/1 Lilacs, Wild has drawn on his vast experience of playing Rachmaninoff and his immense knowledge of and love for the music to produce works of utterly convincing authenticity which transcend pastiche or imitation and sound like the genuine article.
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Giovanni Doria Miglietta Giovanni Doria Miglietta was born in Imperia and started learning the piano under his father’s guidance. He completed his studies under Lidia Baldecchi Arcuri at the Conservatory of Genoa. In 2005 he earned a Master’s Degree at the Academy of Music of Pinerolo under Laura Richaud. Along with the same teacher, he earned the 2nd Level Academic Diploma at the Conservatory of Turin with highest distinction (cum laude and special mention). He studied with pianists of the stature of Carlo Balzaretti and Arnulf Von Armin, and attended masterclasses with pianists like Alexander Lonquich, Philippe Entremont and Jean Bernard Pommier, who selected him to perform SaintSaens’ Piano Concert No.2 with the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2008 he studied at the Academy of Pinerolo, where he met pianist Enrico Pace. He is laureate of many international piano competitions: “Rovere D’Oro” in San Bartolomeo al Mare, Cidim Nuove Carriere (Palermo), Premio Nazionale delle Arti (Torino), Ibiza Piano Competition (Spain), The Muse International Piano Competition (Greece), Jean Françaix Piano Competition (France), Southern Highland Piano Competition (Australia). He performed for prestigious institutions in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and Australia, among which we can mention: “Società dei
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concerti” of Milan (“Sala Verdi”), Teatro Dal Verme of Milan, Unione Musicale of Turin, Polincontri of Turin, MITO Settembre Musica Festival, Festival of Portogruaro, Chamber Music Festival of Cervo, Piano Festival of Carrara, “Società dei concerti” of Piacenza, “Amici della Musica” of Palermo, Bellini Association in Messina, Philharmonic of Trento, Castel Rigone Festival, Ravello Concert Society, Ibiza Piano Festival, Altdorf Spring Festival, Stadthalle in Tuttlingen, Salle Panopée in Paris, “Centre culturel” in Fribourg, “Sturt Gallery” in Mittagong (Australia) He performed as a solo with the “Milano Classica” orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Turin, European Youth Chamber Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Donetsk Philharmonic Orchestra. His interest for contemporary music often led him to perform pieces written by composers of the new generation, as Marco Reghezza, Carlo Balzaretti, Francesco Antonioni, Lamberto Curtoni, Azio Corghi, Giancarlo Facchinetti. He is currently recording the complete works of Earl Wild for the London based label “Piano Classics”. He is now teaching piano at the International Academy of Music of Pinerolo.
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