RED SEAL “HIS MASTER'S VOICE"

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I ALLO ed ONG DY Ae CYC OUAYA

Lhevinne:-Levitzki-Kapell

CybOara Giants of

the ‘Past The performances in this album, each stamped with an artistry and style as unique as a fingerprint, document the legendary art of nine keyboard giants who thrilled concert audiences the world over for a span of more than seventy years, and discophiles with memorable RCA Victor Red Seal recordings.

Chronologically this record begins with Vladimir de Pachmann, the eccentric Russian virtuoso, who emerged in 1880 from a period of self-imposed retirement and thereafter made extremely successful tours of Europe and America for over forty years, and ends with William Kapell, whose tragic death at the age of 31, in a plane crash in 1953, cut short a brilliant career.

Between de Pachmann and Kapell is a dazzling roster of celebrated pianists. Moriz Rosenthal was already an established artist when he toured America for the first time in 1888. A pupil of Liszt, Rosenthal was renowned for his fabulous technique, and it remained with him through a golden anniversary in the 730s, and even later. A debut at the age of fourteen, in 1889, with Anton Rubinstein conducting, launched the long and distinguished career of Josef Lhevinne, whose artistry was such that he enjoyed the acclaim of contemporaries and critics alike.

he capacities of Rachmaninoff and Paderewski extended beyond the con- fines of the keyboard. Rachmaninoff became one of his country’s greatest composers; Paderewski rose to the highest ranks of government in Poland’s brief, troubled life between two world wars.

The English pianist Harold Bauer first came to America in 1900. In addition to subsequent appearances throughout this country with orchestras and as a recitalist, Bauer joined Ossip Gabrilowitsch in duc-piano recitals. Gabrilowitsch came to America for the first time the same year as Bauer; he made half a dozen subsequent visits as a pianist and then settled here as conductor of the Detroit Symphony.

While the career of Mischa Levitzki was short—from his debut in 1916 until his unexpected death in 1941 at the age of 42—it encompassed more than twenty tours of the United States and appearances in Europe and the Orient.

Of special note in this album are the selections that have never before been available on LP—the 1923 de Pachmann recording of Chopin’s Impromptu in F-Sharp, the Bauer and Gabrilowitsch Arensky Waltz for two pianos, recorded in 1929, and the Levitzki performance of his own Arabesque valsante.

TMK(S) ® Radio Corporation of America e Marca(s) Registrada(s) © by Radio Corporation of America, 1962

SP-33-143

contents

SIDE 1

Paderewski

MINUET IN G, Op. 14, No. 1 G00)

Ignace Jan Paderewski (Recorded May 4, 1923)

Chopin

IMPROMPTU IN F-SHARP, Op. 36 4:30)

Vladimir de Pachmann (Recorded December 14, 1923)

Lisat

ETUDE IN D-FLAT as) Harold Bauer (Recorded January 9, 1942)

Schumann

CARNAVAL, Op. 9: Valse allemande, Paganini, Réplique, Aveu, Promenade «:o)

Sergei Rachmaninoff (Recorded April 9 and 10, 1929)

Arensky

Suite, Op. 15: WALTZ ascap 4:30 Harold Bauer and Ossip Gabrilowitsch (Recorded September 19, 1929)

SIDE 2

J. Sttauss, Je. :

BLUE DANUBE WALTZ (Arranged by Schulz-Evler) 6.49)

Josef Lhevinne (Recorded May 21, 1928)

Lisat

CHANT POLONAIS No. 5 gas) Moriz Rosenthal (Recorded March 18, 1942)

Levitzk1

ARABESQUE VALSANTE, Op. 6 (ASCAP 3:15)

Mischa Levitzki ; | (Recorded May 5, 1938)

Last

HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY No. 1 IN A MINOR 6:16)

William Kapell (Recorded May 19, 1951)

Printed in U.S.A.