The Virtuosity of Earl Wild

Editorial Reviews
Fanfare, May/June 1999
Few pianists can claim such precision of touch, astringent clarity, wide range of color, or ability — at his most dazzling.

Harold C. Schonberg, ARG, May/June 1999
Wild knows how to make virtuosity sound musical rather than stunt-like. It's taste and proportion not banging, bombast.

Album Description
Scintillating – Exciting – Riveting – Powerful – Awesome – Stupendous performances of some of the most difficult piano showpieces ever written. Earl Wild bedazzles with his keyboard pyrotechnics, charms us with his musicianship and always impresses us with his élan. The virtuosic Liszt, Dohnányi, Tchaikovsky, Moszkowski, Chopin, Mendelssohn, and d’Albert compositions come alive in this 2 disc collection that every piano enthusiast will want to own! (ADD & DDD)Recorded: 11/63, 10/64, 1966, 4/67, 4/68, 6/69, 1976, 10/78 and 12/85. Mastered using 20-Bit State-of-the-Art Technology — HDCD Encoded

The Virtuosity of Earl Wild

Tracks:

Liszt: Grand Galop Chromatique
Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.2
Tchaikovsky/Wild: Pas de Quatre from 'Swan Lake'
Dohnanyi: Capriccio in F minor, Op.28, No.6
Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No.1
Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.4
Moszkowski: Etincelles, Op.36, No.6
Tchaikovsky: Scherzo a la Russe, Op.1, No.1
Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.12
Schubert/Tausig: Marche Militaire, Op.51, No.1
Liszt: Polonaise No.2 in E Major (Busoni Coda)

Tracks:

d'Albert: Scherzo in F sharp Major, Op.16, No.2
Schumann/Liszt: Fruhlingsnacht
Paganini/Liszt: Etude No.3 (La Campanella)
Paganini/Liszt: Etude No.2 (La Capricciosa)
Paganini/Liszt: Etude No.5 (La Chasse)
Chopin: Polanaise in A flat Major, Op.53
Liszt: Transcendental Etude No.10 in F minor
Mendelssohn: Spinning Song, Op.67, No.4
Liszt: Etude in F minor (La Leggierezza)
Liszt: Transcendental Etude No.2 in A minor
Wagner/Liszt: Spinning Chorus ('The Flying Dutchman')
Verdi/Liszt: Rigoletto Paraphrase
Liszt: Valse Oubliee No.1
Liszt: Gnomenreigen (Dance of the Gnomes)
Liszt: Transcendental Etude No.7 (Eroica)
Liszt: Waldesrauschen (Forest murmurs)
Dohnanyi: Capriccio in B minor, Op.2, No.4

Album Description

Scintillating - Exciting - Riveting - Powerful - Awesome - Stupendous performances of some of the most difficult piano showpieces ever written. Earl Wild bedazzles with his keyboard pyrotechnics, charms us with his musicianship and always impresses us with his élan. The virtuosic Liszt, Dohnányi, Tchaikovsky, Moszkowski, Chopin, Mendelssohn, and d'Albert compositions come alive in this 2 disc collection that every piano enthusiast will want to own! (ADD & DDD)Recorded: 11/63, 10/64, 1966, 4/67, 4/68, 6/69, 1976, 10/78 and 12/85. Mastered using 20-Bit State-of-the-Art Technology — HDCD Encoded

Customer Reviews:

The last American Romantic pianist!.......2005-11-19

Earl Wild is a true icon in the story of the American pianism. His excel virtues and broad gusto for an impressive of composers and tendencies have become him in obligated reference at the moment of rethink and establish a definitive valuation of the most intrepid and virtuosi pianist of several generations.

Once more he surprises us with his idiomatic Liszt, conferring him of vitality, spontaneity, expression and flair. Do not forget to include him among the selected dynasty of the Great at the moment to name Giants of the status of Gyorgy Cziffra, Erwin Nyiregihazi, Louis Kentner, Edith Farnadi, Samson Francois, Leslie Howard, and Michael Ponti.

Sorcerer's Apprentice.......2005-04-29

It's almost comical, the embarrassment of riches one finds on this 2-CD set. Each performance here stands as its own jewel. Each interpretation is carefully mapped out and flawlessly executed. One gets the feeling with Wild that seldom does he walk away after a performance not having done at least 99% of what he set out to do.

In the difficult(although rather silly)Grand Galop Chromatique of Liszt, Wild's touch is light but solid all at the same time. Very few pianists get to the end of this piece without sounding like their hands are going to drop off from fatigue. Yet Wild never gives a sense of this.

Having listened to perhaps fifty different recordings of the Mephisto Waltz #1 over the last twenty years, I still prefer Wild's. More than anyone he captures the sense of hallucinogenic sexuality that's heavily laced into this piece. Even with the brisk tempo he takes, the playing never loses its creaminess, it's seductiveness; it's dangerous allure.

There's nothing more satisfying than to be able to return to favorite pieces of music throughout the years and constantly find new things about them you never discovered before. So to with these interpretations, you'll find many reasons to keep coming back again and again, to savor the superb artistry of Earl Wild.

Sensational pianistic fireworks.......1999-06-15

Ivory Classics are now releasing a series of the veteran American piano virtuoso Earl Wild's recordings, upon which his reputation as a super-virtuoso rests. These superbly refurbished recordings date from the 1960s to 1980s and mostly capture Wild at his technical and interpretative best. Take the fiendish Liszt Mephisto Waltz No. 1 for example. Even in the light of Wild's three other recordings of this piece, and other famous ones from Kapell, Horowitz, and Cziffra, this version is a spine-tingling diabolic ride at a staggering basic tempo. Other high-lights include Liszt's Grand Galop Chromatique (better balanced and controlled than Cziffra's), Gnomenreigen, and a stunning Dohnanyi pairing. Many other adventures await the listener - snap these discs up, a bargain at the price.

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