Earl Wild and Zaidee Parkinson at sessions, November 1975

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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)

ABThe three works presented on this recording have one thing in common: all

require two pianists. But there the similarity ends because each of the works fea-tures a unique approach to dialog. In the Sonata in F Major for one piano fourhands, K. 497, the two pianists sit next to each other at a single piano and lookin the same direction. The work is less a duet than a piece for a single player hav-ing four hands, if such a thing were possible, inasmuch as one pianist plays thetreble part of the piece while the other plays the bass. In the Sonata in D Major fortwo pianos, K. 448, the two players sit facing each other at opposing pianos, theone responding to the other in such a way that a single, coherent conversationresults. And in the Piano Concerto in E-flat Major for two pianos, K. 365, the mostcomplex arrangement of the three, the pianists interact with each other, buttogether they engage the orchestra in a larger conversation.

Mozart’s interest in the concerto began when he was eleven. His earliest con-certos were merely groupings of sonata movements by Bach’s sons Carl PhilippEmanuel and Johann Christian, among other composers, to which he added pas-sages for the orchestra. He composed his first completely original piano concerto(K. 175) in 1773 when he was seventeen, and wrote the double concerto No. 10in E-flat, performed here by Mr. Wild and Ms. Parkinson, at the end of hisSalzburg period, around 1775-1777, intending it for performance by himself andhis older sister Nannerl. His work in this genre reached full flower after he settled

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in Vienna in 1781 at age twenty-five,though at first his career in the capitalwas primarily as a pianist, performing,teaching and organizing piano acade-mies. Thereafter he composed anotherseventeen concertos, not as abstractexercises, but in an effort to promotehis academies and his own publicrenown. “Before Mozart’s time, concer-tos seldom figured in Viennese publicconcerts; regular concerts featuringconcertos seem to have started withhim” (Joseph Kerman).

Michael Steinberg has written thatthe concerto is essentially a conversa-tion featuring some element of contestor conflict, and that a fundamentalinequality between the participantsprevails. Part of the appeal is in the waythe soloist dominates the many. At the same time, as Bernard Holland of the NewYork Times writes, in Mozart the balance is fair, unlike the concertos of later com-posers, such as Chopin and Rachmaninoff, who “stacked the deck against ‘themany’ by giving the orchestra much less to do and swelling the solos to giganticdimensions.”

Mozart’s developing interest in the piano concerto paralleled the emergence

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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of the piano itself. The harpsichord was still prevalent in his early years, but grad-ually the power and versatility of the fortepiano made it the keyboard instrumentof choice, Mozart’s favorite being those by Stein. The modern concert grand pianois still more powerful and colorful than the fortepiano, but as John Irvingremarks, “Mozart is still Mozart, whether played on a Steinway or a Stein.”

The broad range of piano concertos spanning Mozart’s entire career demon-strate how his style developed from the galant in his early years through to a grad-ually emerging classical style. With the maturing of his piano concertos, musichistory also reached new heights. Indeed, his concertos represent one of Mozart’sgreatest achievements, through their formal excellence, their expanded role forthe orchestra, their subtle dialogs between soloist and orchestra, and their balancebetween the piano’s virtuosic brilliance and its expressive lyricism. They remainamong the most popular works in the western canon.

The scoring for K. 365 was originally for the usual small orchestra of strings,oboes, bassoons and horns, but in 1781, for an outdoor concert in Vienna per-formed with his patron and pupil Josepha von Auernhammer, Mozart added tim-pani, clarinets and trumpets. The enlarged version is the one ordinarily used formodern performances. The composer provided cadenzas for the first and lastmovements, to be played by both pianists together (and heard here), but caden-zas have been written by other composers as well. Béla Bartók, for example, wrotea cadenza for the first piano at the end of the first movement, and one at the endof the third movement for the second piano.

The two sonatas heard on this recording—whether or not it was intended bythe performers in designing this program—have a special relationship to Mozart’spiano concertos. Composed in Vienna when the concerto form had reached its

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height in the composer’s oeuvre, they “reflect the fusion of orchestra and pianowithin a piano duet setting” that moves the genre beyond its previous orbits(Mario R. Mercado). “The earlier sonatas were also influenced by the orchestralidiom but the writing suggested rather an orchestral reduction; the later works arewholly pianistic, though shaped by a new symphonic ideal.”

The Sonata in F has a pronounced symphonic quality—its slow introductionto the Allegro di molto is more characteristic of symphonies than of sonatas—andis Mozart’s most serious work for piano four hands. Its dramatic intensity puts iton a par with the string quintets. By contrast, the Sonata in D Major, composed inNovember 1781 for a performance with Auernhammer, the dedicatee, was writ-ten in a predominately antiphonal idiom, and represents a perfect example of theconcerto ideal. Both works have a number of repeats, as if to maximize the tactilejoys of the two players, but they are usually omitted in modern performances.

Although he wrote the first of his five four-hand sonatas when he was nineyears old (the Sonata in C Major, K. 19d), Mozart was not the inventor of the genre,contrary to persistent claims (first proposed by his father Leopold). But the bulkof his eighteen piano sonatas (for solo and duet) were written between late 1774and mid-1790, representing his adulthood and his musical mastery, a late addi-tion to his oeuvre overall. Mozart composed his sonatas for a variety of purposes:for publishing, for teaching purposes, for dedications (and remuneration), and asdemonstrations of his piano virtuosity.

Four-hand piano music sometimes seems to give more pleasure to theperformers than to the audience, being recreational music par excellence. TheGermans call it Hausmusik to distinguish it from music for public perfor-mance. But the Sonata in F Major is considered by some to be one of Mozart’s

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most perfect and most mature works, while the earlier Sonata in D Major wasconsidered by Alfred Einstein to be “one of the most profound and mostmature of all Mozart’s compositions,” neither work falling to the level of meredomestic music-making.

The sonatas constitute a diverse and significant arena of Mozart’s instrumen-tal output and have been a staple of the piano repertoire since early in the nine-teenth century. Mozart’s sonatas have sometimes—unfairly—been consideredpedagogically preparatory to those of other masters. Indeed, the popularity andaccessibility of Mozart’s sonatas have led audiences to think them easy…and theydo enjoy an elegant simplicity. But seasoned professionals know the difficulties ofinterpreting them with subtlety and finesse. Catherine Kautsky has noted theirendless melodic and formal inventiveness, their variety of harmonic movement,and their sheer power of characterization.

Music has long been appreciated for the way it can entertain, motivate, calm,and inspire, and Mozart has been played in film and elevators alike. But his musichas also been studied for how it can “make you smarter.” Researcher Gordon L.Shaw, in his book Keeping Mozart in Mind, presents scientific evidence that musiccan enhance learning. His study shows that college students improved their scoreson spatial-temporal tests after listening to the Sonata in D Major for two pianos,demonstrating yet again, perhaps, that, in addition to the music itself, immortaltruths lurk among the pages of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

© James E. Frazier 2006

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ZAIDEE PARKINSON

AB

Peter G. Davis in The New York Times said of Zaidee Parkinson’s performance with Grayson Hurst in Schubert’s Die schone Mullerin, “Miss Parkinson was quite superb in every aspect. She knew precisely when to bring forward

important details all of which she shaped with exquisite refinement.”

Born in New York, Zaidee Parkinson’s music education started early - shebegan to play the piano at age five and went on to study with the famed RosinaLhevinne, Leon Fleischer and Beveridge Webster. She took up composition, witha zeal and seriousness highly unusual for someone her age and became a composi-tion student of Bohuslav Martinu and Stefan Wolpe.

As a composer, she developed an understanding of musical relationships; onethat in later years propelled her into fascinating innovative programming as well asthe founding of the critically acclaimed concert series, ‘Song in Music’.

This education gave Ms. Parkinson the solid foundation for developing into afine performing artist; one with virtuosic skills and musical acumen.

Zaidee Parkinson has performed extensively throughout the United States andEurope and has been a guest soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the FestivalOrchestra of New York conducted by Alexander Schneider and the GeldersOrchestra, with whom she traveled throughout The Netherlands performing Mozart

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Concerti. She has appeared frequently atthe Marlboro and Aspen Festivals both assoloist and in chamber ensemble and hastoured the U.S. with members of theGuarneri String Quartet. In addition to thisMozart two piano disc recorded with EarlWild in 1975, Ms. Parkinson also recordedan all Chopin disc for Austrian Radio and aDebussy Preludes, Book I and Janacek In theMist CD for Connoisseur Records in 1994.

“Zaidee Parkinson’s probing, poeticvision of music fully captures the mysteri-ous rapture and incandescence of everynote played. Upon hearing the haunting-ly beautiful playing of Debussy andJanacek, I scribbled, Zaidee Parkinson’sCD has got to be the record of the year!”

wrote Byron Belt in a review of her recording of Debussy’s Preludes, Book I andJanacek’s In the Mist.

The American Record Guide said of Ms. Parkinson’s Debussy, “By skillfulphrasing and with excellent use of touch and pedal she evokes a remarkable rangeof evocative effects in these enchanting ‘mood pieces’ (the composers own term forthe Preludes). Her interpretations are consistently beautiful.”

Stereophile magazine commended the performance of the Janacek, “The attrac-tiveness of her often gentle playing, warm and full of color, is also heard, but withsuitably bittersweet overtones in the moody disc-mate, Janacek’s, In the Mist – a

Zaidee Parkinson c. 1970s

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work that has grown on me consider-ably each time I have heard Ms.Parkinson’s performance of it. Her discis a real pleasure.”

Zaidee Parkinson has been therecipient of press comments such asthese in recognition of her distinguishedwork as solo pianist, collaborator, pro-grammer, chamber musician andrecording artist over the years.

Excerpts from press in TheNetherlands show that Ms. Parkinson’sperformances of a Mozart concertodelighted audiences.

“The cooperation between theorchestra and Zaidee Parkinson wasexceptional, so she did not have to forcethe sound. It was a perfectly balancedinterpretation.”

“Her playing distinguished itself by its intimacy, with an internal conviction.”“Brilliant Mozart interpretation by Zaidee Parkinson.”In an interview by Raymond Erickson of The New York Times in connection

her concert series, ‘The Art of the Miniature,’ Ms. Parkinson talked about her seriesof concerts with vocal colleagues which linked three Schumann works:Kinderszenen for piano; Frauenliebe und Leben for soprano and Dichterliebe fortenor. Ms. Parkinson said, ‘The Art of the Miniature’ is, in a way, a joke, because

Zaidee Parkinson c. 1990s

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the totality of the small sections of a cycle becomes immense. I like the contrast thatis natural in the variation of the media, at the same time you stay with the thingsthat connect from one piece to another. There are passages in the Schumann pianocycles and songs that are almost identical.

In Edward Rothstein’s review of ‘The Art of the Miniature’ series, he expressedhis approval and underscored Ms. Parkinson’s remarks by saying, “This promises tobe an interesting series for contemplating music. One senses a mysterious tran-sience in these miniatures that hides volumes of interior meditation. The art of theRomantic miniature, it seems, participated in the same impulse that led to theRomantic epic. It culminated in the arts of the gargantuan.”

After hearing Ms. Parkinson in a concert at Carnegie Recital Hall performing aprogram of Slavic and Black music which coupled Rachmaninoff Songs withSpirituals, the critic Byron Belt remarked, “Who else would see the musical andemotional connection between certain Slavic works and black spirituals.”

Ms. Parkinson also gave the New York premieres of Janacek’s ‘The Diary of OneWho Vanished’ with tenor Curtis Rayam and Shostakovich’s Suite on Verses byMichelangelo, Op. 145 with bass-baritone Henk Smit. Edward Rothstein in theNew York Times said, “The Shostakovich was given such an intense reading that thetruth emerged with impassioned urgency.”

The late Harriet Johnson, music critic for the New York Post, astute and directas always, admired one of Ms. Parkinson’s Merkin Concert Hall performances andthought she “performed Martinu’s Sonata No.1, a most difficult piece to dramatizeand to project, with color and expansiveness. She mastered the special problemswith an enviable virtuosity, but even more important she gave us its motor energy,its Bach-like organ sonority.”

Donal Henahan for the New York Times, described Janacek’s The Diary of One

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Who Vanished as, “a marvelous curio that defies pigeonholing. It is more than a songcycle and less than an Opera. It consists of 23 intensely emotional poems, one a‘silent song’ consisting of nothing but dashes in the score, meant to suggest thatsomething steamy happens at that point. In this performance, presided over byZaidee Parkinson, some basic problems were handled intelligently and effectively.Ms. Parkinson played with fearsome commitment from beginning to ecstatic end.”

Ms. Parkinson also organized an of-the-moment chamber concert at WeillRecital Hall entitled, ‘The Slavic Soul” – an evening of music by Bohuslav Martinu,Karol Szymanowski, Leos Janacek and Serge Rachmaninoff.

Zaidee Parkinson has two sons by her former husband, Basil Dufallo, a classicsscholar, living in Seattle, and Cornelius Dufallo, a violinist in the Flux Quartet, liv-ing in New York City.

AB

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RICHARD DUFALLO

AB

One of America’s leading exponents of twentieth-century music, RichardDufallo conducted more than 80 major orchestras and festivals in the U.S., Canada,and twelve European countries and premiered a host of major works by acclaimedAmerican and European composers.

A former assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Dufallo workedclosely with Leonard Bernstein from 1965 to 1975. During this time, he made hisopera debut with the New York City Opera and succeeded Darius Milhaud as artis-tic director of the Conference on Contemporary Music at the Aspen Festival inColorado.

He performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra,and Buffalo Philharmonic, with which he enjoyed a three-year association as assis-tant conductor. Richard Dufallo conducted more than 25 world premieres, includ-ing Stockhausen’s “Carre” in London, The Hague and Paris; Jacob Druckman’s“Lamia” with the Berlin Philharmonic, and Sir Peter Maxwell Davis’ opera “TheLighthouse” at the Edinburgh Festival. Other European performances includeRobert Beaser’s “Piano Concerto” with the Philharmonique de Monte Carlo with hiswife, Pamela Mia Paul, the Rome premiere of Elliott Carter’s “A Mirror on Which toDwell,” the world premiere of “Trance Formations” by Robert Zuidam atAmsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and the Polish premiere of Bruce MacCombie’s“Chelsea Tango.”

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He became permanent guest conductor of the Gelders Orchestra in Hollandand made his European debut in 1970 in Paris with the Orchestra TelephoniqueFrancais. Other major European orchestras that he has performed with include; theConcertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, LondonSymphony and Royal Philharmonic.

Equally at home with Mozart and Mahler, Dufallo’s programming frequentlyincluded works by Bernstein, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Charles Ives, andIgor Stravinsky.

In February 2000, Dufallo conducted the Dutch Radio Symphony as part of a26-hr. series, “Of Beauty and Consolation,” which was taped by VPRO Dutch tele-vision and broadcast in Europe. The two-and-one-half-hour performance (with nointermission) included original text (by the conductor), which he spoke betweeneach piece. Other appearances included tours with the Netherlands WindEnsemble, a tour of Holland and Belgium with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic, theworld premiere of “The Food of Love” by Peter Schat with the Noord NederlandsOrkest, and debuts with the Orkest van het Oosten (1997-98), and IsraelSinfonietta and Limburg Symphony Orchestra (1998-99).

His internationally acclaimed publication, “Trackings: Composers Speak withRichard Dufallo” (Oxford University Press), includes conversations with twenty-sixof the world’s leading composers.

A native of Whiting, Indiana, Richard Dufallo was born Jan. 30, 1933 and diedJune 16, 2000, of cancer.

AB

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EARL WILD

AB

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 is a legendary figure who has performed throughoutthe world for over eight decades.

Major recognition is something Mr. Wild has received numerous times in hislong career. He was included in the Philips Records series entitled The Great

Pianists of the 20th Century with a double disc devoted exclusively to piano tran-scriptions. He has been featured in TIME Magazine on two separate occasions,most recently in December of 2000 honoring his eighty-fifth birthday. One of onlya handful of living pianists to merit an entry in The New Grove Dictionary of Music

and Musicians, Mr. Wild is therein described as a pianist whose technique “is ableto encompass even the most difficult virtuoso works with apparent ease.”

Earl Wild was born on November 26, 1915 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Asa child Earl Wild’s parents would often play opera overtures (such as the one fromBellini’s Norma) on their Edison phonograph. At three, he would go to the fami-ly piano, reach up to the keyboard, find the exact notes, and play along in thesame key. At this early age, he displayed the rare gift of absolute pitch. This and

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other feats labeled him as a child prodigyand led immediately to piano lessons.

At six, he had a fluent technique andcould read music easily. Before histwelfth birthday, he was accepted as apupil of the famous teacher SelmarJanson, who had studied with Eugend’Albert (1864-1932) and XaverScharwenka (1850-1924), both studentsof the great virtuoso pianist / composerFranz Liszt (1811-1886). He was thenplaced into a program for artistically gift-ed young people at Pittsburgh’s CarnegieTech (the Institute of Technology) -- nowCarnegie Mellon University. Enrolledthroughout Junior High, High School,and College years, he graduated from Carnegie Tech in 1937. By nineteen, hewas a concert hall veteran.

He was invited at the age of twelve to perform on radio station KDKA inPittsburgh (the first radio station in the United States). Mr. Wild had alreadycomposed many compositions and piano transcriptions as well as arrangementsfor chamber orchestra that were regularly performed on KDKA radio. At twelve,he made such an impression that he was asked to work for the station on a regu-lar basis for the next eight years. Mr. Wild was only fourteen when he was hired

Earl Wild c. 1970s

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to play the Piano and Celeste in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under thebatons of many different conductors; Otto Klemperer and Fritz Reiner being twoof the more well-known personalities.

Mr. Wild’s other teachers included the great Dutch pianist Egon Petri(1881-1962), who was a student of Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924); the distin-guished French pianist Paul Doguereau (1909-2000), who was a pupil of IgnaceJan Paderewski (1860-1941) and Marguerite Long (1874-1966), who 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 Maurice Ravel(1875-1937). Mr. Wild also studied with Helene Barere, the wife of thefamous Russian virtuoso pianist, Simon Barere (1896-1951), and with VolyaCossack, a pupil of Isidore Philippe (1863-1958), who had studied withCamille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921).

With immense hands, absolute pitch, graceful stage presence, and uncannyfacility as a sight-reader and improviser, Earl Wild was well equipped for a life-long career in music.

During this early teenage period, Earl Wild gave a brilliant and critically wellreceived performance of Liszt’s First Piano Concerto in E-flat with DimitriMitropoulos and the Minneapolis Symphony in Pittsburgh’s Syria Mosque Hall.Performing the work without the benefit of a rehearsal.

In 1937, he joined the NBC network in New York City as a staff pianist.This position included not only the duties of playing solo piano and chamberrecitals, but also performing in the NBC Symphony Orchestra under conductorArturo Toscanini. In 1939, when NBC began transmitting its first commercial

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live musical telecasts, Mr. Wild became the first artist to perform a piano recitalon U.S. television. In 1942, Toscanini added a dimension to Earl Wild’s careerwhen he invited him to be the soloist in an NBC radio broadcast of Gershwin’sRhapsody in Blue.

It was the first performance of the Rhapsody for both conductor and pianist,and although Mr. Wild had not yet played any of Gershwin’s other compositions,he was immediately hailed as the major interpreter of Gershwin’s music. Theyoungest (and only) American piano soloist ever to perform with the NBCSymphony and Maestro Toscanini, Mr. Wild was a member of the orchestra andworked for the NBC radio and television network from 1937 to 1944.

During World War II, Mr. Wild served for two years in the United StatesNavy as a musician, playing 4th flute in the Navy Band. He also performednumerous solo piano recitals at the White House for President Franklin D.Roosevelt and played twenty-one different piano concertos with the U.S. NavySymphony Orchestra at the Departmental Auditorium, National Gallery, andother venues in Washington, D.C. During those two years in the Navy he wasfrequently requested to accompany First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to her manyspeaking engagements, where he performed the National Anthem as a prelude toher speeches.

Upon leaving the Navy in 1944, Mr. Wild moved to the newly formedAmerican Broadcasting Company (ABC), where his duties consisted of being staffpianist, conductor, and composer where he conducted and performed many of hisown compositions – he stayed at ABC until 1968. During both his NBC and ABCaffiliations he was also a traveling musician, performing and conducting many

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concert engagements around the world. In 1962, the ABC network commis-sioned him to compose an Easter Oratorio. It was the first time that a televisionnetwork subsidized a major musical work. Mr. Wild was assisted by tenorWilliam Lewis, who wrote the libretto and also sang the role of St. John in theproduction. Mr. Wild’s composition titled, Revelations was a religious work basedon the apocalyptic visions of St. John the Divine. Mr. Wild also conducted itsworld premiere telecast in 1962, which blended dance, music, song, and the-atrical staging. The large-scale oratorio was sung by four soloists and chorusand was written in three sections: Seal of Wisdom, The Seventh Angel, and The

New Day. The first telecast was so successful that it was entirely restaged andrebroadcast on TV once again in 1964.

Earl Wild has participated in many premieres. In 1944 on NBC radio, heperformed the Western World premiere of Shostakovich’s Piano Trio in E minor. InFrance, in 1949, he was soloist in the world premiere performance of PaulCreston’s Piano Concerto. He gave the American premiere of the same work withthe National Symphony in Washington, D.C. the next year. In December of 1970,with Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony, Mr. Wild gave the world pre-miere of Marvin David Levy’s Piano Concerto, a work specially written for him.

Mr. Wild has had the unequaled honor of being requested to perform for sixconsecutive Presidents of the United States, beginning with President HerbertHoover in 1931. In 1961 he was soloist with the National Symphony at the inau-guration ceremonies of President John F. Kennedy in Constitution Hall – a leg-endary performance that has been historically preserved and made availablethrough the National Symphony on their 75th Anniversary 4-CD set.

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A common element among the great pianists of the past and Earl Wild is theart of composing piano transcriptions. Mr. Wild has taken his place in history asa direct descendant of the golden age of the art of writing piano transcriptions.Often called “The finest transcriber of our time,” Earl Wild and his numerouspiano transcriptions are widely known and respected. Over the years they havebeen 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 legendarycomposer’s music.

Liszt is a composer who has been closely associated with Mr. Wild through-out his long career - he has been performing Liszt recitals for well over sixty years.Championing composers such as Franz Liszt, Nikolai Medtner, Ignace JanPaderewski, Xaver Scharwenka, Karl Tausig, Mily Balakirev, Eugen d’Albert, MorizMoszkowski, Reynaldo Hahn and countless others long before they were “fash-ionable” is part of the foundation on which Mr. Wild has built his long and suc-cessful career.

In addition to pursuing his own concert and composing career, Earl Wild hasactively supported young musicians all his life. Over the years he has taught atEastman, Penn State, Manhattan School, Ohio State and The Juilliard Schools ofMusic. He currently holds the title of Distinguished Visiting Artist at his almamater, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon has honoredMr. Wild with both their Alumni Merit Award and their more prestigiousDistinguished Achievement Award.

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Mr. Wild has appeared with nearly every orchestra and performed countlessrecitals in virtually every country. In the past ninety years he has collaboratedwith 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 per-formed with violinists: Mischa Elman, Oscar Shumsky, Ruggerio Ricci, MischaMischakoff, and Joseph Gingold; violists: William Primrose and Emanuel Vardi;cellists: Leonard Rose, Harvey Shapiro, and Frank Miller; and singers: MariaCallas, Jenny Tourel, Lily Pons, Marguerite Matzenauer, Dorothy Maynor, LauritzMelchior, Robert Merrill, Mario Lanza, Jan Peerce, Zinka Milanov, Grace Bumbry,and Evelyne Lear.

Highlights include a March 1974 joint recital with Maria Callas as a benefitfor the Dallas Opera Company and a duo recital with famed mezzo-sopranoJennie Tourel in New York City in 1975.

In 1960, at the Santa Fe Opera, Earl Wild conducted the first seven perfor-mances of Verdi’s La Traviata ever performed in that Theatre, as well as conduct-ing four performances of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi on a double bill with IgorStravinsky (who conducted his own opera Oedipus Rex).

From 1952 to 1956 Mr. Wild worked with comedian Sid Caesar on the verypopular TV program The Caesar Hour. During those years, he composed and per-formed all the solo piano backgrounds in the silent movie skits. He also composedmost of the musical parodies and burlesques on operas that were so innovativethat they have now become gems of early live television.

In 1986 Mr. Wild was asked to participate in a television documentary titled,

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“Wild about Liszt,” which was filmed at Wynyard, the Marques of Londonderry’sfamily estate in Northern England. The program won the British Petroleum Awardfor best musical documentary that year.

Mr. Wild is one of today’s most recorded pianists, having made his first discin 1939 for RCA. His discography of recorded works includes more than 35piano concertos, 26 chamber works, and over 700 solo piano pieces.

In 1997, he received a GRAMMY Award for his disc devoted entirely too vir-tuoso piano transcriptions titled, Earl Wild - The Romantic Master (an 80thBirthday Tribute).

For the first official release of the newly formed IVORY CLASSICS label in1997, Earl Wild recorded the complete Chopin Nocturnes (CD-70701), which theeminent New York Times critic Harold C. Schonberg reviewed in the AmericanRecord Guide saying, “These are the best version of the Nocturnes ever recorded -even better than Rubinstein’s.”

Since its inception, IVORY CLASSICS has released twenty-five newly record-ed or re-released performances featuring Earl Wild.

In May of 2003 the eighty-eight year-old Dean of the Piano recorded a newCD of solo piano material he had never recorded before: Mozart – Sonata K.332;Beethoven - 32 Variations; Chopin – Four Impromptus; Balakirev – Sonata No.1 andEarl Wild – Mexican Hat Dance, all performed on the new limited edition ShigeruKawai Concert Grand EX piano.

For the year 2005, in which Earl Wild celebrated his ninetieth birthday, herecorded a new CD of four major works (Bach – Partita No.1, Scriabin – Sonata

No.4, Franck – Prelude, Chorale & Fugue and Schumann - Fantasiestucke Op. 12).

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His historic year tour culminated with an extremely well-received 90th birth-day recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City on November 29, 2005.

Ivory Classics is proud to present several newly remastered CDs (such as theworks on this disc) all of them featuring Mr. Wild’s performances of some of theworld’s greatest repertoire for piano. Recent re-releases were the “Earl Wild

Legendary Rachmaninoff Song Transcriptions” released in 2004 and discs of Chopin’sScherzos and Ballades and solo works by Nikolai Medtner which were bothreleased in 2005. In 2006 Ivory Classics re-released Mr. Wild’s Complete ChopinEtudes, Op. 10, Op. 25 and the Trois Nouvelles.

Ivory Classics is also looking forward to re-releasing Mr. Wild’s own compo-sition Variations on a Theme of Stephen Foster for Piano and Orchestra (“Doo-Dah”Variations) originally recorded in 1992.

Mr. Wild is currently working on his memoirs.

Earl Wild’s compositions and transcriptions are published byMichael Rolland Davis Productions, ASCAP

mrdavisprod@sprintmail.comTelephone: 614.761.8709

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

A CREDITS PAGE B

Recorded at Kingsway Hall, London November1975

Original Producer: Charles Gerhardt

Transfers: Soundbyte Productions, NYC

Remastering Producer: Michael Rolland Davis

Remastering Engineer: Ed Thompson

Pianos: Bosendorfer

This recording was made possible through the support of The Ivory Classics Foundation and Ms. Zaidee Parkinson

Photos of Ms. Parkinson by: Christian Steiner

Liner Notes: James E. Frasier

Design: Samskara, Inc.

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

Phone: 888-40-IVORY or 614-761-8709 • Fax: 614-761-9799michaeldavis@ivoryclassics.com • For easy and convenient

shopping online, please visit our website: www.IvoryClassics.com

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