New Earl Wild Biography by Ian Hominick Published by Bloomsbury Academic
New Earl Wild Biography by Ian Hominick Published by Bloomsbury Academic Earl Wild: The Brilliant Career of an American Pianist A major new biography of Earl Wild is now available from Bloomsbury Academic. Earl Wild: The Brilliant Career of an American Pianist, by pianist and scholar Ian Hominick, traces the remarkable course of Wild’s life and career—from his early years in Pittsburgh through radio and television, the NBC and ABC networks, international touring, landmark recordings, teaching, composition, transcription, and his final decades as one of America’s most distinctive piano virtuosos. Drawing on extensive research, Hominick follows a career that resisted easy categorization. Wild moved freely between the concert hall, broadcasting studio, recording session, popular music, orchestral repertoire, transcription, composition, and teaching at a time when classical musicians were often expected to remain within much narrower boundaries. Bloomsbury describes the book as an account of Wild’s unconventional path through American musical life and the extraordinary range of work that resulted from it. The book also places important chapters of Wild’s career in their historical context: his years at NBC, his association with Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony, wartime service in Washington, work with ABC and Paul Whiteman, his relationship with the music of George Gershwin, major premieres and recordings, university appointments, the resurgence of interest in Romantic piano transcription, and his final touring years. About Ian Hominick Ian Hominick brings an unusually close perspective to the project. He studied piano with Earl Wild and later served as Wild’s assistant while completing his doctoral studies at Ohio State University. He is Professor of Music and Chair of the Piano Area at the University of Mississippi. That connection, combined with years of research into Wild’s career, gives the biography particular importance for listeners, pianists, scholars, and anyone interested in twentieth-century American musical history. The publication also arrives as EarlWild.com expands the Earl Wild Archives, including searchable catalogues of Wild’s original compositions, solo repertoire, radio and television appearances, and documented public performances such as his chamber music. Readers of Hominick’s biography can use the archives to continue exploring the repertoire, broadcasts, venues, collaborators, and compositions that shaped Wild’s extraordinary career. Order the book from Bloomsbury Academic: Earl Wild: The Brilliant Career of an American Pianist — Bloomsbury Academic About the author: Ian Hominick — University of Mississippi Nearly ninety year old pianist performed only European concert in the Concertgebouw By Erik Voermans There is no lack of pianists who took to the stage at a very high age. Rubinstein, Horowitz, Arrau and Cherkassy all were well in their eighties when they last performed, all of them advertised as ‘the last great romantics’. So let’s regard Earl Wild as the very very last great romantic. He will be ninety in November. Last night he gave a recital -his only in Europe- in the Great Hall of the Concertgebouw which was packed. This will be without a doubt his last recital in the Old World. When he waved to the public during the final applause it was more than a thank you – it felt like a farewell. A deeply moving moment. Earl Wild, with his eighty years of concert experience, has always been the man of super virtuosity, veiled in great and scintillating elegance. He still plays with incredible ease, his noble figure still and upright, while his enormous hands appear to soar over the keyboard. But age does count at this point in time. Due to physical unease the program was shortened a little, as a result Mr. Wild’s outrageously complex Virtuoso Etude based on Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm was left out. Still, this was an unforgettable recital. Even though several notes were missed in Chopin’s Scherzo No. 2 and the Fantaisie Impromptu op.66, and Ballads Nos.1 and 3 were played with a certain shallowness, Liszt’s Les jeux d’eau a la Villa d’Este marveled in cascades of colour and a delicate jeux perle that is rare among pianists today. With an extremely refined pianissimo in the Largo e mesto from Beethoven’s Sonata No.7, he made such wonderful shades appear from his Steinway, the audience could not help but applaud at the last note. Wild gestured his fingers as if he were saying: “hold on, two more movements to come”. During the final piece, the Mexican Hat Dance, Wild’s motor memory failed him for a second, therefore he had to start anew. Once again applause, once again his lulling hands. “Now I will start again” he said. And this time it went right. But the encore that many hoped for was too much to ask. Perhaps Earl Wild will play Carnegie Hall on November the 29th, to celebrate his ninetieth anniversary. De Telegraaf, 27 September 2005 Historic opening of Master Pianist Series By Roeland Hazendonk This season the Master Pianist Series opened with a unique performance by the nearly ninety year old American pianist Earl Wild. The ‘Romantic Legend’ broke a record in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with his performance at such a high age: Arthur Rubinstein’s last performance was at the age of 87 and Vladimir Horowitz ended his career when he was 80 years old. Wild is the last living example of the great romantic tradition that originated before World War II. He hasn’t performed in the Netherlands that much – it has been nearly ten years since he played here – but he has built a tremendous career in his home country. Of course, a ninety year old will not play as fresh as someone in his fifties, but last night there were numerous moments in which a remarkable past revived in the present. A dim reflection of that past surfaced in Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op.10 No. 3. Wild’s interpretation was never really great, the tone lacked essence and the typical round touch of the old master rather diluted the accuracy of Beethoven’s music. Besides, the performance was hindered by wandering tempi and technical imperfections that will no doubt have something to do with the age of the pianist. With today’s
GRAMMY honor Earl Wild received on February 5th 2008
The Salute To Classical Music – Grammy event, Feb. 5th at Disney Hall in LA On February 5th 2008, Earl Wild was given the honor of receiving the President’s Merit Award from Neil Portnow, President of the Recording Academy (NARAS) – the GRAMMY organization, at a ceremony held in Disney Hall in Los Angeles, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Recording Academy at the Salute to Classical Music during GRAMMY week. Mr. Wild came out of retirement and performed two Chopin works (Nocturne Op.15, No.2 and the Fantaisie-Impromptu)
Review of new DVD by MusicWeb.com
Stupendous! There are two DVDs in this collection containing nearly six hours of Earl Wild’s Liszt performances and there is an additional two hours of audio material. The recitals were given in 1986 at “Wynyard” a large country house in the Tees Valley in the North East of England that had belonged to the Ninth Marquess and before that to generations of the Marquesses of Londonderry. The house and grounds were sold the following year to Sir John Hall. The concerts marked the centenary of Liszt’s death. Wild gave three recitals there before a select audience and each was captured in its entirety on a non-professional set-up. The sound and vision therefore are in no way to be considered up to contemporary standards. There is a single camera and it remains static for much of the time, which has its advantages, in its close focus on Wild. Inevitably dynamics don’t register with as much immediacy as one might hope, and there is a disclaimer regarding the treble voicings of the Steinway sent to the House from London. These facts having been duly noted let me advise confirmed Wildeans, and indeed Lisztians to ignore the foregoing – they shouldn’t consider it to be at all limiting – and to consider the opening word of this review ‘Stupendous!’ Wild’s playing throughout all three recitals – he plays without music of course – is cut from legendary cloth. He was then in his early seventies – at the time of writing he’s in his early nineties – but plays with astonishing accuracy, bravura and poetry. The hands are a complete blur, a positive Braque of colour, in the Second Ballade even though here, and throughout, his stance is still, concentrated and without any extraneous gestures (he has some scathing things to say in the audio segment about the “eyes to the heaven” merchants who populate concert halls). Jeux d’eau is wonderfully voiced, so rich and poetic, the Fantasia quasi Sonata gripping from the first bars, the Valse oubliée No.1 playful and skittish; as a treat we hear an encore of the Respighi Notturno. The recital Liszt the Transcriber includes the transcription of Beethoven’s First Symphony – and dare one say that one listens to a piano work in Wild’s hands without the burning need to hear the orchestra? Maybe not, but nearly. Everything Wild touches turns to prismic gold; the touch is wonderful, the technique assured, equal to all torrential demands, and the conception – the mind animating the fingers – of stellar architectural understanding. The encore here, the Larghetto from the Second Chopin Concerto in Wild’s arrangement, is gorgeous. And so it goes, through the Virtuoso recital that rightly crowns the three with its tension inducing feats of brilliance. The sonata performance is, in my experience, pretty much second only to Horowitz’s. As with the etudes he essays, the results in this recital are simply transcendent. And how appropriate that Wild announces the Op.16 No.2 Scherzo by Liszt’s pupil d’Albert as an encore. On BBC Television in 1974 with that urbane and charming man, the late Robin Ray, Wild elucidates his thoughts and performs the d’Albert scherzo, the Pertrach sonnet, Gnomenreigen, La Campanella and the Chopin Grande Polonaise in E flat. The other TV appearances find Wild in later years, though still as personable and amusing. He plays a little of his Marcello Oboe concerto slow movement transcription (not noted – hear it in its full glory on an Ivory Classics CD). The audio component is full of sagacious and naughty nuggets. “Banging is for the bedroom” is one – current klaviertigers, please note. Lang Lang is “pure vaudeville.” He talks extensively about Toscanini and valuably so given his NBC connections. In the Mannes interview he’s on even wittier, bantering form. He talks about transposition – he has a thing about transposing Chopin into keys that work better for him – recording, and refers to the unfortunate Lang Lang once again, this time to call him “the J Lo of the Piano.” With John Amis back in 1986, the year of the “Wynyard” recitals, we get engaging vignettes and a real sense of conviviality and shared amusement between the two men. We get a Martinu story, some fun stuff concerning Suppe overtures and an impromptu improvisation in the style of Poulenc. I will add a minor disappointment. Navigation is difficult. You can’t navigate between items and will have to fast forward within the recitals. That’s if you feel the need to do so. I think you’d be better off clearing the decks for the evening, stocking up with a bottle of single malt and, given Wild’s acts of Lisztian bravura, a mechanical device to keep your jaw from dislocating itself of its own volition.
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
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.
Update on Earl Wild’s health
I’m happy to report that Earl Wild has almost fully recovered from his heart bypass surgery last September. He as regained his strength and is back at the piano 2 to 3 hours a day now. He is busy preparing his recital program for this summer and fall’s 90th Birthday concerts. He’s enjoying being able to once again sit at the piano and play whenever he wants. The piano has been his life since he was three years old and it gives him tremendous pleasure to be able to sit down and play again – he doesn’t need an audience. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy performing in public. He’s looking forward to performing again. I hope everyone who reads this will try to attend one of his 90th Birthday concerts this year. There is a complete list of his 90th Birthday concerts (dates, city/country and venue) currently available if you click on the Performances link on the left. Mr. Wild is now a very fit 90 year old (having lost 30 pounds) – he’s strong and healthy. In the last month he has had cataracts removed from each eye – an unfortunate by-product of the heart surgery, but he is seeing much better now. Thanks again to everyone for all your good wishes.
UpDate on Earl Wild’s recovery
Earl Wild was released from the OSU Medical Center on October 3, 2004 and is recovering in his home in Columbus. He receives daily visits from home health care nurses and physical therapists who are working hard to speed his recovery. His Doctors are very pleased with all his progress to date. Although recovery from open heart surgery will be slow, Mr. Wild is recouperating very well and getting stronger each day. He’s eager to return to work on his current compositions, in assisting Ivory Classics producer and label owner Michael Rolland Davis with some special upcoming CD releases and in preparing his recital program for his Ninetieth Birthday recital at Carnegie Hall, which remains scheduled for November 29, 2005. Notes and letters of encouragement may be sent in care of Ivory Classics.
Earl Wild is in Hospital
On Tuesday, September 21, 2004, Earl Wild underwent emergency open heart surgery at the Rhodes Hall / Ross Heart Hospital at the OSU Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio after experiencing sudden chest pain, dizziness and nausea on Saturday morning September 18th. Mr. Wild was released from the hospital’s intensive (SICU) care unit on Thursday the 23rd following quadruple bypass surgery as well as surgery on his left side carotid artery that needed to be cleared. He is expected to make a full recovery.