Abbey Simon, Jorge Bolet and Earl Wild c.1979

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With the exception of three pieces–the Fantasie, the Ballade, and theAndante Spianato and Grand Polonaise Brillante–this recording features rel-atively brief works, some of them remarkably so, demonstrating to a refineddegree the extent to which Frédéric Chopin was a master of the small form.This may be a function of the fact that, though he performed in public con-cert halls, Chopin most often performed for friends in intimate salons.

Fantasie in F minor, Op. 49 (1841)

The heroic Fantasie in F minor is one of Chopin’s largest and most epicworks for solo piano. If its scale and scope are unusual for him, so is its form,being loose, extended, and improvisatory, and having numerous melodies.

Unlike many romantics, Chopin’s music is generally not narrative orprogrammatic, and while it is personal, it remains pure art. Nevertheless, astory has been associated with the Fantasie. The composer and pianist FranzLiszt relates: The year is 1841 and Chopin is seated at the Pleyel grandpiano in Madame George Sand’s salon in Nohant, France, where they spent

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPINThe 1981 Baldwin Recordings

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their summers. A knock is heard at the door and Madame Sand enters. Withher are Liszt, Camille Pleyel, the wife of the piano manufacturer, and one ortwo other friends, perhaps the cellist Franchomme and the singer PaulineViardot-Garcia. Some quarreling ensues, and then reconciliation.

If Liszt’s tale is correct, this scene led to Chopin’s composition of theFantasie. In any case, as Phillip Wilcher notes, “Unmistakably a narrativeunfolds, but unlike the legendary and heroic tales depicted in [his] Ballades,it appears that here, Chopin is unveiling to us some compelling and climac-tic episode–an odyssey of cedar-pannelled events from his own life, for thereis within its intrigue and brew a subtle subjectivity.”

After a martial beginning, three groups of themes emerge(passion–prayer–defiance), each preceded by a kind of refrain made up ofarpeggios rising upward and gradually speeding. James Huneker wrote: “Itparades a formal beauty not disfigured by an excess of violence, either per-sonal or patriotic, and its melodies, if restless by melancholy, are of surprisingnobility and dramatic grandeur.”

Waltz in D flat, Op. 64, no. 1 (1846-1847)

The Waltz in D flat is the first of the opus 64 Trois Valses, and is known asthe “minute” Waltz. One of Chopin’s biographers, Camille Bourniquel, tellsthat Chopin intended to depict a dog chasing its tail and originally named thepiece “Petit chien”–little dog. One would never guess, from its sprightly andwhirling character, that Chopin composed the work while his health was indecline and his relationship with George Sand was deteriorating. It was hispublisher who coined the nickname “minute waltz,” intending the diminutive

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“minute” to mean “small,” not “sixty seconds.” The charming work remainsundiminished by its use in cartoons, or as the theme song for the BBC radioshow Just a Minute, by an overt reference to it in a song by Barbra Streisand,or by its use as cell-phone ring tones.

Waltz in A flat, Op. 64, no. 3 (1846-1847)

In the mid-eighteenth century, the waltz appeared in southern Germanyas a triple-meter folk dance “by couples in clogs or hobnailed boots on thelawn in front of the village inn or in the town square.” But early in the nine-teenth century it moved into the cities and became popular among Vienna’sbourgeoisie. A waxed floor and light shoes and dress led to its faster paceand contributed to its strong beat on “one,” with the remaining long, smoothsteps being lighter.

Gary Lemco points out that the Waltz in A flat begins to expand into apolonaise, even a sonata-movement; then it turns and relinquishes its explosivepossibilities into sweet dalliance. In the middle section its serpentining melodyappears in the bass under an accompaniment in the right hand. This waltz, likeall of Chopin’s later waltzes, requires a more mature means of expression thanhis more youthful waltzes, in order to avoid caricaturing them.

Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op. 64, no. 2 (1846-1847)

James Huneker declared that, of all the waltzes, this is “the most poet-ic of all. The first theme has never been excelled by Chopin for a speciesof veiled melancholy. It is a fascinating, lyrical sorrow.” And TheodorKullak has written that “the psychologic motivation of the first theme in

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the curving figure of the second does not relax the spell.”The waltzes provide the perfect occasion for the pianist to observe

Chopin’s famed approach to rubato. As Liszt pointed out, the bass plays asteady, strict beat even as the melody enjoys a freedom of expression, withfluctuations of speed. “Look at these trees!” Liszt said, “The wind plays in theleaves [and] stirs up life among them, [while] the tree remains the same–thatis chopinesque rubato.”

Waltz in A flat (L’Adieu), Op. 69, no. 1 (1835)

Chopin wrote this waltz in 1835 while courting Marie Wodzinska. He hadfallen in love with the young and beautiful countess and had proposed marriageto her. As a poor musician, however, Chopin was not considered suitable mar-riage material by Marie’s parents, and he was rejected. His Waltz in A flat wasgiven to Marie just before his departure for Paris. Marked Lento, this beautifuldance poem has often been called “L’Adieu.” The manuscript has the inscription“Pour Mlle Marie.” Gary Lemco writes, “The marcato in the middle section adds anobility of character to the general tenor of ruminative nostalgia.” The work waspublished posthumously.

Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52 (1842-1843)

As noted above, Chopin was disinclined to write program music and he gen-erally adhered to the principle of absolute music. But his ballades–a musical genrehe invented, with apparent reference to the nineteenth-century literary genre ofthe same name–have elicited speculation of a link between his music and thepoetry of Adam Mickiewicz.

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As Michael L. Klein has noted, music can narrate only those plots whosestory we have in advance. But absent such a plot, we can nevertheless outline the“dramatic sequence of emotional events [which] mirrors those emotions evokedby literary works.” Within its structure of sonata form combined with the varia-tion form, the Ballade in F minor has its own “narrative” of pastoral and tragicevents. The piece is widely regarded as one of Chopin’s masterpieces, and one ofthe masterpieces of the entire nineteenth-century piano repertoire. Alfred Cortotwrote that in this piece “[Chopin’s] sublime imagination evinced a livelier feelingfor beauty of form.” Though its key is F minor, an introductory section actuallybegins in the major.

Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. Posth.The first nocturnes–night pieces–were written by the Irish pianist and

composer John Field (1782-1837), from whom Chopin adopted both theidea and the name for the twenty-one examples he himself composed.Usually written in a languorous style, nocturnes characteristically have asimple expressive melody over an arpeggiated accompaniment. EvenChopin’s more mature and more complex nocturnes retain a certain textur-al simplicity in their melodies.

The Nocturne in C-sharp minor, marked Lento con gran espressione, wasdiscovered some time after Chopin’s death and was not published until1895. But it was written while he was a very young man. It was featured inthe 2002 Roman Polanski film The Pianist, the story of the survival of pianistWladyslaw Szpilman during the Second World War. Szpilman performedthe Nocturne on September 23, 1939 live on Warsaw radio as shells explod-

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ed outside. A German bomb hit the station later that day, taking Polish Radiooff the air.

Nocturne in F, Op. 15, no. 1 (1830-1832)

Jeffrey Kallberg has suggested that we should think of nocturnes less asa class or genre than as a communication between composer and audience.Indeed, no two of Chopin’s nocturnes are alike, and their rhythms often haveless in common with each other than they do with other genres, such as bar-caroles, lullabies, marches, or hymns. While it is hard to know exactly whatChopin’s nocturnes communicated to his audiences, in German lands thenocturne had a precedent in the serenade, and in France the nocturne,almost invariably a vocal duet, had become a fixture of the Paris salon, pop-ularized by composers like Auguste Panséron and Antoine Romagnesi.

This somewhat hesitant nocturne is abruptly interrupted by a furiousmiddle section that gradually resolves again to the original melody.

Nocturne in F-sharp major, Op. 15, no. 2 (1830-1832)

It has often been noted that Chopin’s later nocturnes have some simi-larity to Bellini’s cavatinas (such as Casta diva from Norma) as well as toRossini’s and Weber’s operatic melodies. Certainly they are among the mostintrospective and lyrical of all of Chopin’s works. By the time Chopin movedto Paris, in 1831, he had already reached full maturity as a composer.

This brief nocturne is a confident and straightforward essay with high-ly ornamented melodies, and a middle section that ventures only briefly intoa more dramatic realm.

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Nocturne in B, Op. 32, no. 1 (1837)

Chopin is said to have composed this piece while alone and depressedafter the failure of his proposed marriage to Maria Wodzinska. Even so, thepiece is by no means somber or dejected. Each repeat of the melody addsornaments and thirds while the characteristic lone note in the bass sets upthe coming cadence. The declamatory final section–a recitative ofsorts–brings the piece to an end in the minor.

Etude in G flat (Black Key), Op. 10, no. 5 (1830)

From the opus 10 set of etudes–twelve in all–this vivacious and saucystudy features the black notes on the keyboard, thus endowing it with asomewhat pentatonic character. It is remarkable, however, that although theright hand plays no white notes at all (avoiding even C flat, a white note,though it lies in the given tonality), throughout measure after measure ofnearly unrelieved sixteenth-note triplets, the left hand ventures onto C, D,E, F and G naturals, and F flat and B double flat–all white notes.

Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante in E flat, Op. 22 (1834)

Properly called “Grande Polonaise Brillante, précédée d’un AndanteSpianato,” Chopin performed this piece in 1835 in Paris for an appearancewith the prestigious Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. Thereafter fol-lowed a period of several years during which he refused invitations to appearbefore the wider public.

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The Andante Spianato (spianato: smooth, even), in G major, with itslimpid melodies, is a lovely pastoral work in its own right, and the well-known Polonaise, in E flat, combines virtuosity with eloquence, delicacy, andplayfulness, at once scintillating and brilliant. The Polonaise (a Polish nation-al dance of a stately and festive character) was originally composed for pianoand orchestra in 1831 while the Andante (originally for orchestra) was writ-ten three years later.

In 1995 Mr. Wild performed these two works for his eightieth-birthdayrecital at Carnegie Hall. In his review of the program, for the New York Times,Kenneth Furie wrote that “the Andante…sang innocently, with a purlingsweetness to the left-hand arpeggios that Mr. Wild has improbably been coax-ing from Baldwin pianos for 50 years. Then the fireworks of the GrandePolonaise were sensibly organized into a vigorous, forward-moving dance.”

Prelude in C (Reunion), Op. 28, no. 1 (1838-1839)

Chopin composed–or at least completed–the preludes while spendingthe winter with his lover George Sand in rooms at an old monastery on theisland of Majorca, off the coast of Spain, during which his health deteriorat-ed rapidly. As James Huneker has noted, this piece has all the characteristicsof an impromptu, and could have been written by no one but a devout Bachstudent. It is feverish, agitated and passionate.

Prelude in A (The Polish dance), Op. 28, no. 7 (1838-1839)

The preludes are considered among Chopin’s most radical conceptions, giv-ing the genre a new meaning. He had with him in Majorca a copy of Bach’s forty-

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eight preludes and fugues exploring the complete cycle of major and minor keys.Chopin’s twenty-four preludes likewise form a complete cycle. Theodor Kullaksaid of this familiar prelude, among several, that it appears like a briefly sketchedmood picture related to the nocturne style. Huneker refers to it, on the otherhand, as a silhouette of the mazurka, the national dance of Poland.

Prelude in G minor (Impatience), Op. 28, no. 22 (1838-1839)

Kullak wrote that the preludes are “in their aphoristic brevity, master-pieces of the first rank.” Living up to its nickname, this piece features the lefthand in restless and relentless octaves. It lasts only about forty seconds, butas Huneker noted, it is “filled with the smoke of revolt and conflict.” Thisimpetuous piece is harmonically daring and dramatic.

Prelude in D minor (The Storm), Op. 28, no. 24 (1838-1839)

The turbulent rumbling in the left hand gives this prelude its name.Heneker describes it as “sonorously tragic, troubled by fevers and visions,and capricious, irregular and massive in design… like the vast reverberationof monstrous waves on the implacable coast of a remote world… Despite itsfatalistic ring, its note of despair is not dispiriting.”

© James E. Frazier 2007

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Earl Wild is a pianist in the grand Romantic tradition. Considered bymany to be the last of the great Romantic pianists, this eminent musician isknown internationally as one of the last in a long line of great virtuosopianist / composers. Often heralded as a super virtuoso and one of theTwentieth Century’s greatest pianists, Earl Wild has been a legendary figure,performing throughout the world for over eight decades. Major recognitionis something Mr. Wild has received numerous times in his long career. Hewas included in the Philips Records series entitled The Great Pianists of the20th Century with a double disc devoted exclusively to piano transcriptions.He has been featured in TIME Magazine on two separate occasions; the mostrecent was in December of 2000 honoring his eighty-fifth birthday. One ofonly a handful of living pianists to merit an entry in The New GroveDictionary of Music and Musicians, Mr. Wild is therein described as a pianistwhose technique “Is able to encompass even the most difficult virtuosoworks with apparent ease.”

Earl Wild was born on November 26, 1915 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

EARL WILDBiography

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As a child his parents would often play opera overtures (such as the onefrom Bellini’s Norma) on their Edison phonograph. As the recordings wereplaying, this three year-old would go to the family piano, reach up to thekeyboard, find the exact notes, and play along in the same key. At this earlyage, he displayed the rare gift of absolute pitch. This and other feats labeledhim as a child prodigy and leading immediately to piano lessons.

At six, he had a fluent technique and could read music easily. Beforehis twelfth birthday, he was accepted as a pupil of the famous teacher SelmarJanson, who had studied with Eugen d’Albert (1864-1932) and XaverScharwenka (1850-1924), both students of the great virtuoso pianist / com-poser Franz Liszt (1811-1886). He was then placed into a program forartistically gifted young people at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Tech (the Institute ofTechnology) -- now Carnegie Mellon University. Enrolled throughout JuniorHigh, High School, and College, he graduated from Carnegie Tech in 1937.By nineteen, he was a concert hall veteran.

Mr. Wild’s other teachers included the great Dutch pianist Egon Petri(1881-1962), who was a student of Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924); the dis-tinguished French pianist Paul Doguereau (1909-2000), who was a pupil ofIgnace Jan Paderewski (1860-1941), Marguerite Long (1874-1966), 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 MauriceRavel (1875-1937). Mr. Wild also studied with Helene Barere, the wife ofthe famous Russian pianist, Simon Barere (1896-1951), and studied withVolya Cossack, a pupil of Isidore Philippe (1863-1958), who had studiedwith Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921).

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As a teenager, Mr. Wild had already composed many works and pianotranscriptions as well as arrangements for chamber orchestra that were reg-ularly performed on the local radio station. He was invited at the age oftwelve to perform on radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh (the first radio sta-tion in the United States). He made such an impression that he was asked towork for the station on a regular basis for the next eight years. Mr. Wildwas only fourteen when he was hired to play Piano and Celeste in thePittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Otto Klemperer.

With immense hands, absolute pitch, graceful stage presence, anduncanny facility as a sight-reader and improviser, Earl Wild was wellequipped for a lifelong career in music.

During this early teenage period of his career, Earl Wild gave a brilliantand critically well received performance of Liszt's First Piano Concerto in E-flat with Dimitri Mitropoulos and the Minneapolis Symphony in Pittsburgh’sSyria Mosque Hall.

He performed 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 cham-ber recitals, but also performing in the NBC Symphony Orchestra underconductor Arturo Toscanini. In 1939, when NBC began transmitting itsfirst commercial live musical telecasts, Mr. Wild became the first artist toperform a piano recital on U.S. television. In 1942, Toscanini helped EarlWild’s career when he invited him to be the soloist in an NBC radio broad-cast of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. It was the first performance of theRhapsody for both conductor and pianist, and although Mr. Wild had not yet

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played any of Gershwin’s other compositions, he was immediately hailed asthe major interpreter of Gershwin’s music. The youngest (and only)American piano soloist ever engaged by the NBC Symphony, Mr. Wild wasa member of the orchestra, working for the NBC radio and television net-work from 1937 to 1944.

During World War II, Mr. Wild served in the United States Navy as amusician, playing 4th flute in the Navy Band. He performed numerous solopiano recitals at the White House for President Roosevelt and played twen-ty-one piano concertos with the U.S. Navy Symphony Orchestra at theDepartmental Auditorium, National Gallery, and other venues inWashington, D.C. During those two years in the Navy he was frequentlyrequested to accompany First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to her many speakingengagements, where he performed the National Anthem as a prelude to herspeeches.

Upon leaving the Navy in 1944, Mr. Wild moved to the newly formedAmerican Broadcasting Company (ABC), where he was staff pianist, con-ductor, and composer until 1968. During both his NBC and ABC affilia-tions he was also performing and conducting many concert engagementsaround the world -- at ABC he conducted and performed many of his owncompositions. In 1962, ABC commissioned him to compose an EasterOratorio. It was the first time that a television network subsidized a majormusical work. Earl Wild was assisted by tenor William Lewis, who wrotethe libretto and sang the role of St. John in the production. Mr. Wild’s com-position, Revelations was a religious work based on the apocalyptic visions ofSt. John the Divine. Mr. Wild also conducted its world premiere telecast in

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1962, which blended dance, music, song, and theatrical staging. The large-scale oratorio was sung by four soloists and chorus and was written in threesections: Seal of Wisdom, The Seventh Angel, and The New Day. The firsttelecast was so successful that it was entirely restaged and rebroadcast on TVagain in 1964.

Another composition by Mr. Wild, a choral work based on anAmerican Indian folk legend titled The Turquoise Horse, was commissionedby the Palm Springs Desert Museum for the official opening and dedicationceremonies of their Annenberg Theater on January 11, 1976.

On September 26, 1992, the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, withconductor Joseph Giunta, gave the world premiere of Earl Wild’s composi-tion Variations on a Theme of Stephen Foster for Piano and Orchestra (‘Doo-Dah’Variations) with Mr. Wild as the soloist. The composition was recorded ayear later with the same orchestra and conductor.

Pianist / composer Earl Wild wrote this set of variations using StephenFoster’s American Song Camptown Races as the theme. The melody is thesame length as the famous Paganini Caprice theme that Rachmaninoff usedin his Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini and that Brahms used in his set ofVariations for piano solo. Mr. Wild thus became the first virtuoso pianist /composer to perform his own piano concerto since Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Earl Wild has participated in many premieres. In 1944 on NBC radio,he performed the Western World premiere of Shostakovich’s Piano Trio in Eminor. In France, he was soloist in the world premiere performance of PaulCreston’s Piano Concerto in 1949. He gave the American premiere of thework with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. In December of

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1970, with Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony, Mr. Wild gave theworld premiere of Marvin David Levy’s Piano Concerto, a work specially com-posed for him.

Mr. Wild has appeared with nearly every orchestra and performedcountless recitals in virtually every country. In the past ninety years he hascollaborated with 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 performed with violinists: Mischa Elman, OscarShumsky, Ruggerio Ricci, Mischa Mischakoff, and Joseph Gingold; violists:William Primrose and Emanuel Vardi; cellists: Leonard Rose, HarveyShapiro, and Frank Miller: and vocalists: Maria Callas, Jenny Tourel, LilyPons, Marguerite Matzenauer, Dorothy Maynor, Lauritz Melchior, RobertMerrill, Mario Lanza, Jan Peerce, Zinka Milanov, Grace Bumbry, and EvelynLear.

Highlights include a March 1974 joint recital with Maria Callas as a ben-efit for the Dallas Opera Company and a duo recital with famed mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel in New York City in 1975.

Mr. Wild has had the unequaled honor of being requested to performfor six consecutive Presidents of the United States, beginning with PresidentHerbert Hoover in 1931. In 1961 he was soloist with the NationalSymphony at the inauguration ceremonies of President John F. Kennedy inConstitution Hall.

In 1960, at the Santa Fe Opera, Earl Wild conducted the first seven per-formances of Verdi’s La Traviata ever performed in that theatre, as well as

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conducting four performances of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi on a double billwith Igor Stravinsky (who conducted his own opera Oedipus Rex).

From 1952 to 1956 Mr. Wild worked with comedian Sid Caesar on thevery popular TV program The Caesar Hour. During those years, he com-posed and performed all the solo piano backgrounds in the silent movieskits. He also composed most of the musical parodies and burlesques onoperas that were so innovative that they have now become gems of early livetelevision.

It was in 1976 that Mr. Wild wrote his now famous piano transcriptionbased on George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess and also revised his sixoriginal 1950’s Virtuoso Etudes based on popular songs I Got Rhythm,Somebody Loves Me, Liza, Embraceable You, Fascinatin’ Rhythm, The Man ILove, and Oh, Lady be Good. Mr. Wild’s Etude No.3 The Man I Love was orig-inally written for left hand alone but was revised for two hands in 1976along with an additional seventh Etude Fascinatin’ Rhythm. In 1989 he alsocomposed an improvisation for solo piano based on Gershwin’s Someone ToWatch Over Me in the form of a Theme and Three Variations.

In 1981 Mr. Wild composed thirteen piano transcriptions from a select-ed group of Rachmaninoff songs: Floods of Spring, Midsummer Nights, TheLittle Island, Where Beauty Dwells, In the Silent Night, Vocalise, On the Death ofa Linnet, The Muse, O, Cease Thy Singing, To the Children, Dreams, Sorrow inSpringtime, and Do not Grieve.

A common element among the great pianists of the past and Earl Wildis the art of composing piano transcriptions. Mr. Wild has taken a place inhistory as a direct descendant of the golden age of the art of writing piano

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transcriptions. Earl Wild has been called “The finest transcriber of ourtime.” Mr. Wild's piano transcriptions are widely known and respected.Over the years they have been performed and recorded by pianists world-wide.

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 Republicof Hungary in recognition of his long and devoted association with this greatcomposer’s music.

Also in 1986 Mr. Wild was asked to participate in a television docu-mentary titled “Wild about Liszt,” which was filmed at Wynyard Park, the 9thMarques of Londonderry’s family estate in Northern England. The programwon the British Petroleum Award for best musical documentary that year.

Liszt is a composer who has been closely associated with Mr. Wildthroughout his long career as he has been performing Liszt recitals for overfifty years. In New York City in 1961, he gave a monumental solo Lisztrecital celebrating the 150th anniversary of Liszt’s birth. More recently in1986, honoring the 100th anniversary of Liszt’s death, he gave a series ofthree different recitals titled Liszt the Poet, Liszt the Transcriber, and Liszt theVirtuoso in New York’s Carnegie Hall and many other recital halls through-out the world. Championing composers such as Liszt long before they were“fashionable” is part of the foundation on which Mr. Wild has built his longand successful career.

He has also given numerous performances of works by neglectedNineteenth Century composers such as: Nikolai Medtner, Ignace JanPaderewski, Xaver Scharwenka, Karl Tausig, Mily Balakirev, Eugen d’Albert,

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Moriz Moszkowski, Reynaldo Hahn and countless others.In addition to pursuing his own concert and composing career, Earl

Wild has actively supported and young musicians all his life. He has taughtclasses all over the world. Highlights include the Central Conservatory ofMusic in Beijing, Toho-Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, and the Sun WhaSchool in Seoul, as well as numerous US cities.

Mr. Wild has been on the faculty of The Juilliard School of Music,University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, Penn State University,Manhattan School of Music and The Ohio State University.

He currently holds the title of Distinguished Visiting Artist at his almamater, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In 1996, Carnegie Mellonhonored Mr. Wild with their Alumni Merit Award, in the fall of 2000 theyfurther honored him with their more prestigious Distinguished AchievementAward and in 2007 he was given an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts.

In 1978, at the suggestion of Wolf Trap’s founder and benefactor Mrs.Jouett Shouse, Earl Wild created the Concert Soloists of Wolf Trap, a chambermusic ensemble based in Vienna, Virginia at the famous National Park forthe Performing Arts (Wolf Trap Farm Park). Mr. Wild’s idea in forming ofthe Concert Soloists was to combine mature seasoned performers with tal-ented young musicians. Other Wolf Trap members included violinists:Oscar Shumsky, Aaron Rosand, Lynn Chang and David Kim; cellists: CharlesCurtis and Peter Wyrick; harpist Gloria Agostini; guitarist Eliot Fisk; andflutist Gary Schocker. Mr. Wild served not only as the group’s founder butalso as artistic director and pianist until 1982.

Mr. Wild is also one of today’s most recorded pianists, having made his

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first disc in 1939 for RCA. Mr. Wild has recorded at least one CD per yearsince 1964 and has recorded with over twenty different record labels suchas: CBS, RCA / BMG, Vanguard, EMI, Nonesuch, Readers Digest, Stradavari,Heliodor, Varsity, dell’Arte, Quintessence, Whitehall, Etcetera, Chesky, SonyClassical, Philips, and IVORY CLASSICS.

His discography of recorded works includes more than 35 piano con-certos, 26 chamber works, and over 700 solo piano pieces.

In 1997, he received a GRAMMY Award for his disc devoted entirely tovirtuoso piano transcriptions titled Earl Wild - The Romantic Master (an 80thBirthday Tribute). The thirteen piano transcriptions on this disc comprisea wide range of composers from Handel, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, J. StraussJr., Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Kreisler, Fauré, and Saint-Saëns. Of thesethirteen transcriptions, nine were written by Mr. Wild (eight are world pre-miere recordings). This disc is now available in its original HDCD encod-ed sound on Ivory Classics (CD-70907).

For the first official release of the newly formed IVORY CLASSICS labelin 1997, Earl Wild recorded the complete Chopin Nocturnes (CD-70701),which the eminent New York Times critic Harold C. Schonberg reviewed inthe American Record Guide saying, “These are the best version of theNocturnes ever recorded.” Since its inception, IVORY CLASSICS hasreleased over thirty newly recorded or re-released performances featuringEarl Wild.

In May of 2003 the eighty-eight year-old Dean of the Piano recorded aCD of solo piano works that he had never recorded before. Using the newlimited edition Shigeru Kawai Concert Grand EX piano, the disc includes

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Mr. Wild’s piano transcription of Marcello’s Adagio, Mozart’s Sonata in FMajor K. 332, Beethoven’s Thirty-Two Variations in C minor, Balakirev’s PianoSonata No. 1 in B flat minor, Chopin’s Four Impromptus, and Mr. Wild’s pianotranscription of the Mexican Hat Dance (Jarabe Tapatio). This disc wasreleased in November of 2003 by IVORY CLASSICS and titled, ‘Earl Wild at88 on the 88’s’ (CD-73005).

Earl Wild’s lengthy career as a performing artist began long before hisinitial Ivory Classics release in 1997; many of his recordings were madeavailable in the CD format by Chesky Records as either original releases orremastered re-releases. These discs included Mr. Wild’s historic 1965recordings of Rachmaninoff’s complete piano concertos and the Rhapsody ona Theme of Paganini. Other Chesky releases which feature Mr. Wild appear-ing as soloist with orchestra include the piano and orchestra works of:Chopin, Dohnányi (Variations), Fauré, Grieg, Liszt, MacDowell, Saint-Saëns,and Tchaikovsky.

Ivory Classics is proud to present several newly remastered CDs featur-ing Mr. Wild’s performances of some of the world’s greatest repertoire forsolo piano. These re-releases began with “Earl Wild’s LegendaryRachmaninoff Song Transcriptions” released in 2004, discs of Chopin’sScherzos and Ballades and solo piano works by Nicolai Medtner werereleased in 2005 and Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, the CompleteChopin Etudes, Op. 10, Op. 25 and the Trois Nouvelles as well as a disc ofMozart for Two Pianos were all released in 2006. Future releases willinclude: Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Variations on aTheme by Corelli, Complete Preludes, Op. 23, and Op. 32, and the Piano Sonata

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No. 2. Ivory Classics is also looking forward to re-releasing Mr. Wild’s owncomposition Variations on a Theme of Stephen Foster for Piano and Orchestra(“Doo-Dah” Variations) originally recorded in 1992. Each of these originaldigital recordings will be remastered utilizing the latest 24-bit technology.

In 2005 Ivory Classics released a new disc celebrating Earl Wild’s nineti-eth birthday! For this special occasion, Mr. Wild selected to record reper-toire by Bach (Partita No. 1), Scriabin (Sonata No. 4), Franck (Prelude,Chorale and Fugue) and Schumann (Fantasiestucke Op. 12) (CD-75002).

Earl Wild celebrated his ninetieth birthday by performing recitals inmany U.S. cities as well as in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. The tour culmi-nated with an official birthday recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City onNovember 29, 2005.

Mr. Wild is currently working on his memoirs which he hopes to publishsoon.

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

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CreditsRecorded at University of Miami Guzman Hall - 1981

Original Producer: Julian Kreeger

Original Recording Engineer: Peter McGrath

Remastering Producer: Michael Rolland Davis

Remastering Engineer: Ed Thompson

Piano: Baldwin SD-10

This recording was made possible through the generous support of The Ivory Classics Foundation

Liner Notes: James E. Frazier

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 • www.IvoryClassics.com