Los Angeles Times – Earl Wild: He’s still fine-tuning it
DANIEL CARIAGA, Los Angeles Times, November 27, 2005 Earl Wild hobnobbed with Toscanini and Stokowski, George Gershwin and Tennessee Williams. But at 90, it’s not just nostalgia time; the man’s too busy burnishing his pianism. Earl Wild spends four hours a day at the piano. Practicing. He’s been doing this for a long time ? actually, since he was a boy in Pennsylvania in the 1920s. In those days, Wild practiced even more. But he learned, he says, to concentrate and focus, and his work time has tightened. Widely considered an immaculate technician, the pianist says, “I practice for cleanliness. There is nothing worse than dirty piano playing.” He defends his perfectionism casually but firmly, and no one who has heard him in person can dispute the magisterial results. In 71 years, he has made more than 100 recordings (on 20 labels) of the widest possible piano repertory, and these records reflect not only lofty technical standards but a striking musical sophistication and ever-growing maturity. Now, at another milestone, Wild has become, slowly and inexorably, an elder statesman of the piano. This month he celebrates his 90th birthday. This long musical journey has been an eventful, distinguished but surprisingly low-key one. Wild had important teachers in his native Pittsburgh, including the legendary Egon Petri, who encouraged the budding virtuoso to improvise, a skill that has served him well over the years. He went to New York at 20, joined Arturo Toscanini’s NBC Symphony Orchestra at 22, spent two years in Washington, D.C., as a member of the Navy Band (flute) and Navy Orchestra (piano) and played at the White House for FDR several times. Altogether, he has performed for six U.S. presidents, from Hoover to Johnson. Having rejoined the NBC Symphony after the war, he left it in 1946 to work as staff pianist for ABC Radio, later becoming musical advisor to Sid Caesar for three seasons on television in the 1950s. Through all these years, his solo career flourished (he gave the obligatory Town Hall recital debut in 1944), and he has played with all the major American orchestras and their famous conductors, as well as throughout Europe. He remains on the international circuit today. And, as he did 10 years ago at a comparable landmark, the tall, ebullient and white-haired Wild will share his latest special occasion by playing the piano for friends. Tuesday night in New York’s Carnegie Hall, he is set to appear in his latest solo recital. Marilyn Horne, the mezzo-soprano who is director of vocal studies at the Music Academy of the West, says, “It is unbelievable that Earl is doing this 90th birthday concert. But more power to him. I love him. I was there for the 80th birthday recital in Carnegie Hall and, afterward, led the audience in singing ‘Happy Birthday.’ Earl is a great, great pianist who somehow never was accorded the status he always deserved.” American composer Ned Rorem, long renowned for his churlish view of the music scene, has this to say: “I first met Earl Wild in Washington, D.C., during the [second world] war. I heard him both publicly and privately. I was 19 and thought he was the best pianist I had heard up until that time. Today I still think he is the best I’ve ever heard.” And pianist and pedagogue Stewart Gordon, a longtime piano professor at USC and author of a new edition of the Beethoven sonatas, says, “Earl Wild is a legend in the world of pianists. His recordings for Reader’s Digest of the four Rachmaninoff concertos, alas, no longer available, are considered by many pianists to be the quintessential, definitive performance of those works.” Reports of Wild’s performances in Amsterdam in September and in Charleston, S.C., this month were glowing. Critics in the Netherlands wrote of his “unprecedented youthful flexibility” and called him “the last living example of the great romantic tradition that originated before World War II.” Reviews of his latest CD, “Living History,” on which he plays, for the first time on record, certain works by Bach, Scriabin, Franck and Schumann, have been equally enthusiastic. Continuing despite setbacks But the last 18 months have also seen setbacks in the pianist’s health. In September 2004 he underwent quadruple bypass surgery, which kept him away from the piano for many weeks. This fall, after Amsterdam, he returned to the U.S. with the flu and suffered bronchitis that forced him to cancel his regular master classes at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh as well as a recital and master classes at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. He also had to reschedule a recital in Buffalo, N.Y., although he did play in Charleston on Nov. 8 and gave another recital in Connecticut last Sunday. Still, these misfortunes have been aberrations in a lifetime of youthful strength, stamina and moderation. Consistency and hard work are habits he has followed for many decades. Wild is too elegant and discreet to drop names, and over the 30 years I have been talking to him, he has seldom gone beyond the appropriate anecdote to illustrate some point. Recently, though, name-dropping has become a necessity, for he has begun to write his autobiography. His memory seems to be acute, and he says the writing has become a pleasant chore. Having lived through a most colorful midcentury in musical America, he knew some of the most celebrated achievers of the era. The conductors may be the most memorable. As a youngster, he played with Otto Klemperer in Pittsburgh. Among other conductors he admired were Fritz Reiner and George Szell and two outstanding Americans, Kenneth Schermerhorn and Thomas Schippers. He considers Toscanini and Leopold Stokowski the greatest musicians he ever met. In postwar New York, he recalls, he attended every one of Toscanini’s rehearsals with the NBC Symphony, whether he was involved or not, and he still praises the Italian conductor’s musical astuteness and no-nonsense approach to every score. He also attended all of Stokowski’s rehearsals when he was a
Associated Press – Pianist Earl Wild isn’t slowing down at 90
Pianist Earl Wild isn’t slowing down at 90 MARTIN STEINBERG, Associated Press, Posted on Thu, Nov. 10, 2005 NEW YORK – New album, master classes, concert performances in Europe and America – Earl Wild is turning 90, but that’s not stopping him. Neither are two eye operations and a quadruple bypass. “After I had my (heart) operation,” the pianist said, “I decided I wasn’t going to stop playing because why live if you can’t play when you’ve done it all your life?” Wild started playing the piano at age 3 and studied with teachers who were taught by Maurice Ravel, Ignace Jan Paderewski and Ferruccio Busoni. Two of his other teachers studied with pupils of Franz Liszt. Wild went on to perform in orchestras led by Fritz Reiner, Otto Klemperer and Arturo Toscanini. In 1939, he became the first pianist to give a solo recital on American television. Three years later, he performed Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” in a national radio broadcast under Toscanini’s baton. He also played and wrote music for Sid Caesar’s TV show for three years and performed for six American presidents, from Herbert Hoover to Lyndon Johnson. No wonder his latest CD, released this summer on the Ivory Classics label, is called “Living History.” It’s Wild’s 57th album and comes 71 years after his first recording. According to his Web site, he has recorded more than 35 piano concertos and 700 solo pieces. Despite his vast discography, Wild had never recorded Bach’s First Partita, Scriabin’s Fourth Sonata or Schumann’s “Fantasiestueke,” all of which are on the album. Also on the CD, which he recorded at 88, is Franck’s “Prelude, Chorale and Fugue.” Wild turns 90 on Wednesday and celebrates it publicly on Nov. 29 with a recital at Carnegie Hall, where he’s planning to play works by Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, and himself. This summer, he led a master class at Mannes College of Music in New York. In September, he performed in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and has programs scheduled for this month, including Clinton, Conn., on Nov. 20. Being a link between past and future, he still teaches at his home in Columbus, Ohio, giving each student up to five-hour lessons once every three weeks. He also has regular master classes at Carnegie Mellon University in his native city Pittsburgh. After his operations earlier this year, Wild resumed playing in the spring. “I was in surgery for seven hours, so it took a long time to get the anesthesia out of the body,” he said. “As soon as I felt that that was almost out I started.” At first, it was 30 minutes a day, then an hour, then three hours by the summer. “It was the only way,” he said. “If you wait, you just get duller and duller.” Wild’s playing isn’t getting duller. The Bach, Scriabin and Franck on the CD are sensitively played with the light touch and great dignity of a gentleman who wears a suit and shirt and tie on a hot summer day. The Schumann is fiery and filled with excitement. Wild’s earliest musical memories date to 1918, when his mother brought home a recording of the opera “Norma.” “It starts with a G minor chord, just three notes,” Wild recalled. “I was a little thing and I reached up on the piano and played it. So they knew I was musical.” He said he started taking lessons and liked to practice to drown out the quarreling between his parents “Practice was a refuge,” he said. “It’s one place where you could be by yourself and you could throw yourself into it. I think that whatever details are the most important thing in music, it’s easy to play something for the most part when you start to do the hard work, and slow. Then you find the details. That’s where good music starts.” For Wild, the good music will never stop and he never plans to retire, although a case of bronchitis after his recent concert in The Netherlands forced him to cancel two concerts in October. “Oh no! People who are retired die. They go to Florida, play golf for a little while, then drop dead. I mean it’s terrible. When people are alive and they are able to do something, they should do something even if it’s basket weaving, because to not do something is to give up. … So never give up.” [2] [ Evanston, Illinois appearances ] http://www.suntimes.com/output/delacoma/wkp-news-class14.html Still going strong as his 90th birthday approaches on Nov. 26, pianist Earl Wild will be in Evanston Wednesday for a preview of his upcoming Carnegie Hall birthday concert. A virtuoso in the grand 19th century Romantic tradition, Wild will play Beethoven’s Sonata No. 7, D Major, Op. 10, No. 3 as well as works by Liszt, Chopin and other composers. The concert is at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Dr., on the southeast end of Northwestern University’s Evanston campus. Tickets are $25. Call (847) 491-5441. Wild gives a master class at 1 p.m. Thursday in Lutkin Hall, 700 University Pl., Evanston. Admission is free and open to the public. His Carnegie Hall recital is Nov. 29. [ I found a long, very detailed, and very balanced review of his Carnegie Hall recital when 85. May post it soon if there’s interest in a review that old. ]
The Buffalo News Inc. – Earl Wild: Wild thing
MARY KUNZ GOLDMAN, News Classical Music Critic © The Buffalo News Inc., October 21, 2005 Earl Wild has to be the only concert artist on Earth who ends an interview by saying, “Be good, now.” But then, there’s no one else even remotely like him. Wild, who turns 90 this fall, belongs on any list of top piano virtuosi. But he is a rare torch-bearer for the 19th century piano tradition. If he thinks the music would sound better in a different key, he changes it. If he thinks it’s missing something, he might add something. He also throws himself into the old art of improvising, coming up with dazzling variations on, say, the tunes from Disney’s “Snow White.” Wild will be celebrating his birthday with a gala concert at Carnegie Hall. First, though, he’ll be giving Buffalo a sneak preview. He is performing Tuesday night at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church as the kickoff for the Ramsi P. Tick Memorial Concert Series. Now is the time to get in on this treat — for $150, you enjoy five recitals, all featuring world-class artists. (For the complete 2005-2006 Tick lineup, see below.) On the phone, Wild is a pleasure to speak with. He’s on the quiet side, but he says what he thinks, and he’s generous with his time. “Can you speak up?” he says. “There are jackhammers outside.” What drew you to improvise at a time when most pianists didn’t? I started when I was 8. I discovered I could play a Paderewski minuet in the style of Ravel. I find that improvisation can be quite marvelous. When you’re improvising, you lose everything. Everything goes. You don’t write it down. I’ve always liked it, and I’ve always admired people who could do it. Could you tell us about the time you put in as house pianist for NBC? I did everything! I was taken right from school to NBC. The second week I was there, I was put into the Toscanini orchestra, playing the celeste. So I had a marvelous time. Toscanini liked me, which was fortunate. Also, I did popular themes and children’s programs, all sorts of things. And all week, I did chamber music for an hour. This went on for a long time. Why did Toscanini like you? The first time I met him, I was playing the celeste in “Iberia,” by Debussy. I had never heard it, and when it came time for me to come in, I didn’t play, I didn’t know. He screamed at me and said I was sleeping. Then he said he wanted the celeste moved out front. So they put it out front, right in front of him. I had some cologne on, and as he went past, he smelled it. He patted me on the cheek. And he never said anything unkind to me after that. What cologne was it? Afrodasia! A real stinky one! (Laughs.) If you wore cologne they thought you were either a rich Brazilian or an Italian. What pianists did you grow up admiring? They might say things about Paderewski, but he did very good things. He was a great pianist. Rachmaninov of course was super. Gieseking at one time was super. There were a whole chain of them who were quite wonderful, mostly all Europeans. Right now we’re having an explosion of Chinese pianists. What will you play here? I’m going to play my transcription of the Marcello Adagio. Bach transcribed it from an oboe concerto, but it was too high. I put it down a third. The quality of tone is so much better — it sounds so human. Otherwise, you get that twinkly-boo sound. Then after the Marcello, Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 10, No. 3. Because of the adagio — that’s one of the great adagios ever written. It’s quite wonderful. After that I’m going to do “The Fountains of the Villa D’Este” by Liszt. I make my amendations to it. Some people get uptight about amendations. Some people get uptight about making fudge! Everything was much more flexible in the old days than it is now. There was a period when piano teachers took over, and it was a great curse. Any more to tell us about your Buffalo program? I’m also going to play four big Chopin pieces, the Ballade in G Minor, the Scherzo in B Flat Minor, the Ballade in A Flat, and the Fantaisie-Impromptu. And I’m going to end with the Mexican Hat Dance.