Piano Solos
Throughout his career, pianist Earl Wild created a large amount of music, from television scores to ballet music and largely piano transcriptions of other composers. He interpreted the works of Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and, perhaps most famously, George Gershwin with a style that incorporated many of his own influences. He also reworked some of his own compositions into piano transcriptions, and this CD brings together several examples of his work.
The disc starts with a set of songs from the opera Porgy and Bess, including the famous Fantasy on the theme of Someone to Watch Over Me. Wild’s bone-crushing virtuosity is on full display here, with each note resounding with a force of nature that would give artists half his age a fit, yet his playing never sounds labored or strained.
A similar virtuosity is in evidence in the three pieces that follow, the two Rachmaninov Preludes from 1909 and the piano version of his own song Daisies and Lilacs. While the Preludes don’t stray far from the vocal versions, Wild fills out their textures with an emphasis on lush polyphony and galvanic rhythm that brings the best out of these melodies.
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Complete Piano Solos by Earl Wild
He takes an equally adventurous approach to the neoclassical Humoresque from the Stravinsky Sonata and the ferocious Fugue that concludes Hindemith’s Piano Concerto, making each piece sound both original and entirely at home in the context of piano composition. The final piece, a ragtime-styled arrangement of Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm, is perhaps the most remarkable of all the recordings here; it features Wild playing with a sense of jazz energy that is completely at odds with the other pieces, but which is nonetheless thoroughly compelling and well worth hearing.
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A remastering job by Michael Rolland Davis and Ed Thompson brings out the quicksilver brilliance of Wild’s recording from his home in Ohio in 1991, as well as a fulsome tone and romantic depth from a live recital from Montreal in 1983. All of the performances are presented in stereo, and English text translations of the lyrics are included to help place the transcriptions in context.
This is an outstanding collection of piano transcriptions by a master of the art, and the performances are all of the highest quality. It will appeal to fans of the originals and to anyone who appreciates a true virtuoso’s perspective on these pieces. It’s a great way to hear a legend perform in his prime, and an indispensable addition to the piano repertoire. Essential listening for all lovers of Rachmaninov and Gershwin, as well as for all fans of improvisational piano.
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