Earl Wild

Earl Wild (* November 26, 1915 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, † January 23, 2010 in Palm Springs, California ) was an American pianist, composer and conductor.

Life

Earl Wild was a pupil of Selmar Janson, who had studied with Eugen d' Albert and Xaver Scharwenka. Later teachers were Egon Petri, Paul Doguereau ( a Paderewski students), Helene Barere, wife of the Russian virtuoso Simon Barere, and Volya Cossack, who had studied with Isidore Philipp.

1937 Wild was pianist at the NBC, by 1939 he was the first who was a U.S. television transmitted piano recital. In 1942 the notoriety through the solo part in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in a radio broadcast under Toscanini, who was wild in future as " Gershwin specialist " - not necessarily to his advantage with critics and intellectuals. In 1945 he moved to ABC, where he remained until 1968 faithful as a pianist, conductor and composer. In the 60s also arisen to date in legendary recordings for Reader 's Digest, especially by virtuoso romantic piano concertos, besides, he was seen as a conductor, including in opera productions.

Wild also composed a number of his own works, as the most famous, published in 1992 Variations on a Theme of Stephen Foster ( or Doo - Dah- Variations), and wrote numerous transcriptions for piano, va - works by Gershwin and Rachmaninov songs.

Wild was in his good time, one of the technically best pianists of all time. Difficulties appear in his legendary '60s recordings of all the Rachmaninoff concertos, which he recorded all five together (including the Paganini Rhapsody ) within a week, despite extremely high tempos not to exist. In the U.S., Earl Wild, who played for six consecutive U.S. presidents ( Hoover to Johnson), through its television, radio and concert appearances and for a long time significantly better availability of his many recordings significantly more popular than in Europe. His discography of the years 1939 to 2005 includes 35 piano concertos, 26 chamber music works and over 700 solo works. His solo recital The Romantic Master on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 1995 won the 1997 Grammy for Best classical solo instrument album without an orchestra.

Wild lived openly homosexual in Palm Springs, California. His life companion was Michael Rolland Davis, whom he had met in 1972.

Compositions (selection )

  • Gershwin / Wild: Fantasy on Porgy and Bess
  • Gershwin / Wild: Improvisation in the form of a theme and three Variations On Someone To Watch Over Me
  • Gershwin / Wild: 7 Etudes Virtuoso: I Got Rhythm
  • Oh, Lady Be Good!
  • Liza
  • Embraceable You
  • Somebody Loves Me
  • Fascinating Rhythm
  • The Man I Love
  • In the Silent Night ( V moltschan'i ), op 4/3
  • O, Cease thy Singing (Ne poj, krasavica ), op 4/4
  • The little Iceland ( Ostrovok ) op 14/2
  • Midsummer Nights ( Eti letnije Nochi ), op 14/5
  • Do not grieve (O, ne grusti ), op 14/8
  • Floods of Spring ( Wesennije Vody ), op 14/11
  • Where Beauty Dwells ( Zdes ' horošo ), op 21/7
  • On the Death of a Linnet, Op 21/8
  • Sorrow in Springtime ( Kak mne bol'no ), op 12/21
  • To The Children (K detjam ), op 26/7
  • The Muse ( Muza ), op 34/1
  • Vocalise, Op 34/14
  • Dreams (Son ), op 38/5
Isidor Philipp George Gershwin Arturo Toscanini Name Authority File
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