Pianists that time forgot. (Sound Recording Reviews). Notes - September 1, 2002 Leslie Gerber Word count: 4300. citation details It is the same in almost every field of endeavor: the big stars shine so brightly they blot out many others whose efforts are also worthwhile. Over the past century of recordings, we have had many famous and excellent pianists who have made major recording careers: Sviatoslav Richter, Artur Schnabel, Artur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and many others. But record-collecting pianophiles know that there are also many major pianists who are forgotten by all but a handful of specialists. Here are a few of my favorites. ROSITA RENARD A hardcore pianophile friend of mine once told me that he was listening to my radio program, The Grand Piano, and heard me doing a preview for the next show. I referred to the greatest pianist youve never heard of, and he thought immediately of Rosita Renard (1894-1949). And he was right. Renard has one of the sparsest discographies of any major pianist. Although she played several times in the United States and Europe, she spent most of her career in Chile, where she recorded a handful of 78 rpms for Victor and Brunswick. During World War II she was discovered by the conductor Erich Kleiber, and in 1949 she performed in New York, at Carnegie Hall, for the first time in more than two decades. Her concert was a great success, and she returned to Chile to prepare for a United States tour. But she contracted encephalitis, and died at the age of fifty-five. Fortunately, Renards Carnegie Hall recital was recorded. It was originally issued in a limited LP edition by the Society of Friends of Music of Bogota (perhaps a bogus organization, since the LPs were only issued in the United States), then reissued by International Piano Archives (IPA 120/121, 1977). Its current edition on compact disc (VAI Audio VAIA/IPA 1028-2) is supplemented by a generous selection of Renards 78s. The recital shows a great pianist at the very highest level. She plays Bachs Partita no. 1, BWV 825, and Mozarts Sonata in A Minor, K. 310, very swiftly and cleanly, and with tremendous drama. Her Chopin etudes are breathtaking. This is, frankly, one of the greatest recorded live piano recitals ever issued. While the material from the 78s is not as exciting, lacking the stimulus of the live audience, it is still consistent with the level of pianism and musicianship heard in the live concert. There are a few more Renard 78s not part of this collection, including a set of the same Mozart sonata. Some Renard Beethoven performances, from 78s and airchecks, were included on a private LP so obscure that it does not have a label name. Until some enterprising label picks up these items for another compact disc, they will be inaccessible to nearly everyone. But the VAL set is enough to convince us of Renards greatness. RICHARD BUHLIG Buhlig (1880-1952) was an American pianist and teacher. He made no commercial recordings at all, only a few piano rolls. At his home in Los Angeles in 1938, he made some private acetates, playing in his living room, which reveal him to have been a titan. Unfortunately, a serious memory slip mars the fugue in Beethovens Hammerklavier Sonata, no. 29, but otherwise (and throughout the Sonata no. 30 as well) the playing is engrossing and mesmerising, as it is in Bachs Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue and an excerpt from book 2 of his Well-Tempered Clavier. The sound quality of these old home recordings is quite listenable. All of this material was issued as Dante HPC 015, but the recording has now disappeared from the catalogs with the collapse of the company in 2001. It is well worth searching for. YOURA GULLER This Romanian Jewish pianist (her religion is relevant due to her obscurity during the Second World War) was born in 1895 and died in 1980. In the 1920s, she had a substantial career, including associations with numerous composers and such highlights as performing the cycle of Beethoven violin sonatas with Joseph Szigeti. Although she lived to the age of eighty-five, there have been rumors that health and drug problems curtailed her public performances; those rumors are not substantiated by anything I have found in print. Apparently Guller made only three recordings. A Chopin collection, recorded for Ducretet-Thomson in 1956, is so obscure that I have seen neither a listing for the LP nor a copy of it. Its existence was demonstrated by a compact disc reissue on Dante (HPC 021), a production actually licensed from EMI and in splendid sound. (Andre Charlin was the engineer.) Gullers playing of eleven mazurkas and five nocturnes is profound and deeply moving, filled with amazing subtleties but never calling attention to itself. In 1973, Guller recorded the last two Beethoven sonatas for Erato (STU 70797). It was reissued in 1978 by Musical Heritage Society (MHS 3884), by Erato itself on compact disc (98527 2), and on a licensed compact disc reissue by Nimbus (5061). Again, the playing is of the utmost profundity, among the greatest Beethoven interpretations ever recorded. Guller made her final recording for Nimbus in 1975. As issued on LP, 2106, it included two major Bach works in Liszt transcriptions, a collection of baroque pieces, and a Chopin etude, all of them magnificently played. A compact disc reissue (NIM 5030, 1986) added two gorgeous Granados Spanish Dances (Andaluza and Oriental) and Chopins Fourth Ballade, but dropped three Scarlatti sonatas, for which there would have been plenty of room. Alas, both Dante and Nimbus have closed up shop and not a note of Gullers playing remains available today. All of it is worth searching for. MAGDA TAGLIAFERRO When Tagliaferro was supposedly eighty-nine years old, Harold Schonberg heard her play in France and wrote a famous review for the New York Times (4 March 1979, P. 54 col. 1), saying that she was still a great pianist. This review led to a sold-out return to Carnegie Hall for the first time in half a century, which I was fortunate enough to attend. I also heard two later recitals. Eventually it was revealed that the pianists age was slightly younger than advertised, but no matter. At ninety-one (her actual age when she last played in New York), she was still able to get through Chopins very difficult Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise Brilliante with only a minimal amount of finessing. Tagliaferro was born in Brazil in 1893 of French parents, went to study in France (where Alfred Cortot was one of her teachers) when she was in her twenties, and alternated her residence between the two countries until her death in 1986. She was famous for her performances of Brazilian and Spanish music (Heitor Villa-Lobos was a close friend), but her range of sympathies was very extensive. Tagliaferro had a large discography on 78s and LPs, many of them exquisite rarities. With one exception I will confine myself to compact disc issues, some of which are difficult enough to find. Tagliaferros last recording was made in 1981 for the CBS label (IM 37246), a digital recording never issued on compact disc. It was produced at the instigation of Tagliaferros student Daniel Varsano, who shares the disc with her, and is devoted entirely to the music of Tagliaferros friend Gabriel Faure, with whom she first performed when she was fifteen years old. The two pianists collaborate on Faures Dolly and Ballade, and each plays Faure nocturnes (no. 7 by Varsano, and nos. 4 and 6 by Tagliaferro). This recording would make a short compact disc, but the quality of the playing, with Tagliaferros exquisite nuances of tempo and tone, would certainly make it worthwhile. Both EMI and Philips have produced invaluable compact disc reissues of Tagliaferro recordings. The Philips set (438 959-2) contains almost three and a half hours of superb recordings, all of them (except for Sain-Saenss Fifth Piano Concerto) previously unpublished. It lasted in print a very short time and is now a true collectors item. The set contains only a few minutes of Villa-Lobos and two works of Saint-Saens, presenting Tagliaferros commanding performances of music by Liszt, Chopin, Schumann, Schubert, and even Brahms (including the treacherous Third Piano Sonata). When I last checked, EMIs two-disc tribute (69476 2) was still available. It contains the latest Tagliaferro recordings to appear on compact disc, made in Brazil in 1972 (in stereo), along with some of her earlier French recordings. This set, too, contains some excellent Schumann (the First Piano Sonata), along with an extensive selection of Villa-Lobos and a performance of the Chopin Andante Spianato & Grand Polonaise Brillante which is even more powerful than the one I heard in person. The Dante label had begun a Tagliaferro series, but if its proprietors intended to issue more than two volumes, the series was cut short by the labels demise. These recordings derive entirely from 78s, transferred in far better sound than this labels norm. Among the most valuable items are the Reynaldo Hahn Piano Concerto conducted by the composer and a surprisingly stylish Mozart violin sonata in volume 1, and the Faure Ballade with orchestra and Debussys Pour le piano in volume 2. A label called Master Class from Brazil has released another Tagliaferro collection of typical repertoire (MC 014), including another performance of Pour le piano, in what appears from the credits to be a live concert performance. It is not. These are studio recordings, probably as credited from a Brazilian session of 1970, but there is more material (64 minutes) than one finds on the average LP of that period. Since it contains much typical Tagliaferro repertoire, in good sound, and remains available, it shares my highest recommendation with the EMI set. But all of these recordings are worth having in any piano collection. YVES NAT Yves Nat made most of his recordings near the end of his life, after he had been diagnosed with a fatal disease, and long after he had ended his concert career. Knowing this, a listener might hope to hear some superb interpretations even if the pianists technique had been compromised. The surprise is that Nats playing on most of his recordings is so immensely powerful. Detailed biographical information on Yves Nat is not easy to come by, and EMI has not made life easier by assigning the program notes for Nat to Andre Tubeuf, that antagonist of solid information whose blathery writing burdens so many of the labels French-produced reissues. Nat was born in 1890 and taught at the Paris Conservatoire for many years, where among his students were the wonderful Reine Gianoli and the Bach jazz interpreter Jacques Loussier. He also made a few 78 rpm recordings in France beginning in 1929. Nat stopped playing in public with the advent of World War II. I have never been able to verify the legend about the resumption of Nats recording career from print sources. The story is that, in 1953, Nat was diagnosed with cancer, and that simultaneously he was approached by the label Les Discophiles Francais with a request to start an extensive recording program. Whatever the true story, between 1953 and Nats death from a heart attack in 1956, he recorded all of Beethovens piano sonatas, most of Schumanns major piano works, and LPs devoted to Chopin and Brahms. Some of these recordings were also issued in the United States by Haydn Society. Nats late performances are sometimes direct to the point of bluntness. His playing is as strong technically as it is musically--his Beethoven is particularly uninhibited, demonstrating the kind of musical force one might imagine the composers own performances to have had. With the aid of the great French recording engineer Andre Charlin, Nats playing survives half a century with little loss of its immediacy, and if he had any difficulties with such monstrous challenges as the Hammerklavier Sonata or the central march of Schumanns Fantaisie in C, op. 17, the engineers wizardry has removed them completely. I personally would not want to be without a note of Nats playing, but in particular his Beethoven cycle can stand comparison with any ever recorded, offering a unique viewpoint. Hearing it without identification, I would never take Nats for the playing of a French pianist. Fortunately, EMI has preserved Nats legacy almost completely on various compact discs. The one item which remains elusive is Nats own piano concerto, taken from a French broadcast and issued as a memorial to him on Erato LDE 3187 (LP only). Now that Erato is in the process of being dissolved, we can hardly expect this work to reappear on compact disc. Judging from the one small intriguing example of Nats own music on recording (a Pathe 78 on EMIs miscellaneous set), his works might well be worth hearing. Incidentally, the latest EMI transfers of the Chopin and Brahms Works listed below have corrected the muffled quality heard on a previous EMI compact disc. ETELKA FREUND Nearly as obscure as Buhlig, Etelka Freund made no 78 rpms and only two LPs. While biographical information about her is also scarce, for once a compact disc edition (Etelka Freund [Pearl GEMM CDS 9193, rec. 1950-58, rel. 1996]) gives us adequate background, thanks to a booklet written for the release by producer Allan Evans. Freund was born in 1879. Her older brother Robert (1852-1936) studied with Ignaz Moscheles and Carl Tausig, and became friendly with Ferruccio Busoni and Brahms. He eventually introduced his younger sister to Busoni and to Brahms, both of whom became her teachers, though Brahms only informally. She also became a friend of Bartok, and brief correspondence in the collected Bartok letters seems to indicate that the friendship may have developed into romance at some point. After she married in 1910, Freund ended her concert career, although she gave some performances shortly before the second World War. After the war she emigrated to the United States, where she gave only a few performances. Fortunately, she also made her only recordings here, and performed for several radio broadcasts which have been preserved. Freunds later life, which was occupied mostly with teaching, represents a major lost opportunity, as she was still playing well in her late eighties and could have made stereo recordings. She died in 1977, at the age of ninety-eight. Freunds two LPs were made for the Remington company. A collection of twelve Chopin waltzes was issued only on Remingtons super-bargain Plymouth label (P12 125), and has become one of the most sought-after piano LP rarities. Unfortunately, it is not a good example of her playing, which is mostly well-executed but musically rather tentative on this recording. It is the other LP, a Brahms recital (Remington R 199 109, 1952), which has made Freunds reputation, especially the powerful and thrilling performance of the Piano Sonata no. 3. For years there were rumors that yet another Plymouth LP, issued under an obvious pseudonym, also featured Freunds playing, but these rumors now seem to have been definitively disproven. The entirety of the Remington Brahms LP appears in Pearls compact disc set, along with private recordings, mostly from broadcasts, made between 1948 and 1958. It is hard to overstate the quality of Freunds performances, particularly their technical strength. You will never hear a better-executed or more musically satisfying version of the Brahms Sonata no. 3 than hers. It is also a treat to hear her playing music by her friend Bartok, even such insignificant little pieces. If Pearls engineer Seth Winner had to use a copy of the Brahms LP for his transfer, he did an amazing job with it, because it sounds as though it derives from a master tape. The other, unissued recordings are variable in sound quality but none of them sounds poor enough to inhibit ones enjoyment of the performances. HONORABLE MENTIONS Many other pianists of equal value belong in this survey. No doubt many readers will have their own additions, which the author would welcome ([email protected]). Given a limited amount of space, I made the arbitrary decision to add a few more pianists to a briefer honorable mention listing. Still, we can appreciate their work here. The excellent Australian-born pianist William Murdoch (1888-1942) was hardly represented at all on LP. A beautifully produced compact disc of his Beethoven performances (William Murdoch Plays Beethoven [Pearl GEM 0044, rec. 1926-27, rel. 1999]) suggests that he was a major artist. Despite the lack of a repeat in the last movement (doubtless dictated by timing considerations), his playing of Beethovens Appassionata Sonata (no. 23) is intense and thrilling, and amazingly virtuosic, nearly in a class with Richters. The disc also includes Beethovens Pathetique Sonata (no. 8) and Piano trio no. 8 (Archduke), in equally fine performances. A three-compact disc collection devoted to Lubka Kolessa (1902-1997) on Doremi DHR-7743/5 (rec. 1929-49, rel. 1999) demonstrates the superb playing of this Ukrainian pianist who ended her life in obscurity in Canada. The set includes numerous items from 78s, including a powerful rendition of Beethovens Third Piano Concerto with Karl Bohm conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden, and the complete contents of her two Concert Hall Society LPs (Brahms, CHS 1108, and Schumann, CHS-1111). There is also a major discovery in her live performance of Mozarts Concerto no. 24, K. 491, from 1936 with Max Fiedler conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. Regrettably, the recordings have been subjected to Doremis typical interventionist sound processing, dulling their sound quality and making them more difficult to listen to than they should have been. One still hears the remnants of a titan. There is even more difficulty in listening to the recorded legacy of Ignace Tiegerman (1893-1968), like Buhlig a major pianist who never made any commercial recordings. The amazing story of producer Allan Evanss investigations and the discovery of unpublished Tiegerman private recordings is contained in the booklet accompanying his compact disc issue (The Last Legend of Cairo [Arbiter 116, rec. 1952-65, rel. 1999]). Some of the recordings are so poor, plagued with flutter and other defects, that they are almost impossible to appreciate, even for an iron-eared listener like myself. But the two surviving movements from a broadcast of the Brahms Second Piano Concerto (from Tiegermans home in Cairo, with Oreste Campisi conducting the Cairo Radio Symphony Orchestra) are enough to convince me that Tiegerman deserved the comment from Ignaz Friedman, the greatest talent I ever worked with (Allan Evans, liner notes). Ernst Levy (1895-1981) was one of my teachers at Brooklyn College in the early 1960s. At the time I knew him only as an interesting lecturer, and I had no idea of his earlier career as a pianist or his ongoing activity as a composer. A major part of Levys recorded legacy as a pianist appears in two two-disc sets from the Marston label (Forgotten Genius [Marston 52007-2, rec. ca. 1929-58, rel. 1997]; Forgotten Genius, vol. 2 [Marston 52021-2, rec. ca. 1929-58. rel. 1999]), which appear to be teetering precariously on the verge of deletion. Although he had a composers analytical mind, the most impressive aspect of Levys playing is the way he conveys the big picture in huge works like the Liszt Piano Sonata in B Minor and Beethovens Hammerklavier. Levys is challenging, aggressive playing, deeply satisfying to hear. As a fine bonus, the first set also gives us a chance to hear some of Levys own music (a previously unpublished recording made for Columbias Modern American Music series). And finally, to demonstrate that all the forgotten giants have not vanished from the earth, one living pianist: Jacob Lateiner (1928- ). Although Lateiner still teaches actively at the Juilliard School, he is rarely asked to perform in public. My critical discography of Lateiners recordings appeared in a festschrift published in his honor (Pianist, Scholar, Connoisseur: Essays in Honor of Jacob Lateiner, Bruce Brubaker and Jane Gottlieb, eds. [Stuyvesant, New York: Pendragon Press, 2000], 243-50). Regrettably, it reveals that, aside from his chamber music recordings with Jascha Heifetz, only one of Lateiners recordings has ever been issued on compact disc (a Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto with Armando Aliberti conducting the Vienna State Opera Orchestra [MCA D2-9829, 1990]), and that he has made no new recordings in more than three decades. Considered a pianist noted for the profundity of his Beethoven interpretations as well as his dedication to contemporary music (including the premiere performances an d recording of Elliott Carters piano concerto), Lateiners neglect is inexplicable, depriving us of the mature work of one of our major pianists. DISCOGRAPHY All entries are compact discs. Rosita Renard at Carnegie Hall. Bach: Partita no. 1 in B-flat Major, BWV 825; Mozart: Sonata in A Minor, K. 310 and Rondo in D major, K. 485; Mendelssohn: Variations serieuses and Prelude, op. 104, no. 1; Chopin: 9 etudes and 2 mazurkas; Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales; Debussy: Danse (Carnegie Hall, 19 January 1949); Beethoven: Sonata no. 16 in G Major, op. 31, no. 1; works of Boccherini, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Strauss/Schulz-Evler, and Santa Cruz (all c. 1928). VAI Audio VAIA/IPA 1028-2 (rel. 1993). Richard Buhlig. Bach: Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue, BWV 903; Well-Tempered Clavier II, Prelude & Fugue no. 23, BWV 891, B major; Beethoven: Sonatas nos. 29 and 30. Dante HPC 015 (rec. 1938, rel. 1995). Youra Guller. Beethoven: Sonatas nos. 31 and 32. Nimbus NI 5061 (rec. 1973, issued 1987), Erato 985272 (rel. 1995). Youra Guller. Chopin: 11 mazurkas; 4 nocturnes. Dante HPC 021 (rec. 1956, rel. 1995). Youra Guller. Bach-Liszt: Fantasia & Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542 and Prelude & Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543; works of Albeniz, Couperin, Rameau, Daquin, Balbastre, Chopin (2), and Granados (2). Nimbus NI 5030 (rec. 1975, rel. 1986). Magda Tagliaferro. Faure: Dolly, op. 56; Ballade, op. 19 (Tagliaferro and Daniel Varsano); Nocturnes no. 4, op. 36 and no. 6, op. 63 (Tagliaferro), and no. 7, op. 19 (Varsano). CBS IM 37246 (rec. & rel. 1981). Magda Tagliaferro. Villa-Lobos: Momoprecoce (French National Radio Orchestra, Heitor Villa-Lobos, cond.) and 10 pieces; Schumann: Sonata no. 1, op. II, F# Minor; Chopin: Andante Spianato & Crande Polonaise Brillante and Waltz no. 5, op. 42, Ab Major; works of Falla (2), Granados (3), Albeniz (5), Mompou, and Debussy. EMI 69476 2 (rec. 1951--72, rel. 1996). Magda Tagliaferro: Grande Dame du Piano Francais. Chopin: Polonaises, opp. 26 and 61; Brahms: Sonata no. 3, op. 5, F Minor; 3 Intermezzi; 2 Capricci; Rhapsody op. 79, no. 1, G Minor; Schubert: Sonata in A, D. 664; Schumann: Carnaval; Saint-Saens: Concerto no. 5, op. 103, F Major (Lamoureux Orchestra, Jean Fournet, cond.); Etude en forme de valse; works of Liszt (2), Weber, Granados (2), and Villa-Lobos (2). Philips 438 959-2 (rec. 1953/55, rel. 1994). Magda Tagliaferro, Volume 1. Hahn: Sonatine; Piano Concerto (Reynaldo Hahn, cond.); Mozart: Violin Sonata, K. 454, B-flat Major (Denise Soriano, violin); Schumann: Faschingsschwank aus Wien; Romance, op. 28. Dante HPC 088 (rec. 1934--37, rel. 1998). Magda Tagliaferro, Volume 2. Faure: Ballade (Orchestra de Concerts Colonne, Piero Coppola, cond.); Impromptus nos. 2 and 3; Debussy: Pour le piano; Jardins sous la pluie; works of Weber, Mendelssohn (2), Chopin (3), Albeniz, Mompou (2), Mozart, and Granados. Dante HPC 095 (rec. 1928-36, rel. 1998). Magda Tagliaferro. Debussy: Pour le piano; Deux arabesques; Lisle joyeuse; works of Chabrier (2), Severac, Hahn, SaintSaens, and Faure (2). Master Class MC 014 (rec. 1970, rel. 2000). Yues Nat. Beethoven: 32 Sonatas; 32 Variations in C. EMI 62901 2 (8 CDs) (rec. 1953-55, rel. 1989). Yues Nat. Schumann: Faschingsschwank one Wien; Kinderszenen (2 versions); Fantasiestucke; Piano Concerto in A Minor, op. 54 (Eugene Bigot, cond.); Papillons; Kreisleriana; 3 Romances, op. 28; Fantaisie in C Major, op. 17; Humoreske; Etudes symphoniques en forme de variations; Toccata, op. 7, C Major; Novellettes. EMI 67141 2 (4 CDs) (rec. 1939--56, rel. 1990). Yues Nat. Schubert: Moments musicaux; Chopin: Sonata no. 2 in B-flat Minor, op. 35; Fantaisie in F minor, op. 49; Barcarolle, op. 60; Waltz no.14; Brahms: 2 Rhapsodies, op. 79; Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, op. 24; 3 Intermezzi, op. 117; Franck: Variations symphoniques (Paris Conservatory Orchestra, Gaston Poulet, cond.); Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2; Stravinsky: 3 Scenes from Petrouchka; Nat: Pour un petit moujik. EMI 69461 2 (2 CDs) (rec. 1929-1955, rel. 1996). Etelka Freund. Brahms: Sonata no. 3, op. 5, F. Minor; Scherzo in E-flat Minor, op. 4; Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, op. 24; 3 intermezzi; Capriccio, op. 76, no. 1; Mendelssohn: Fantasia in F-sharp Minor, op. 28; Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier I (4 excerpts); Liszt: Funerailles; Legend of St. Francis Preaching to the Birds; Valse oubliee, no. 1; Impromptu in F-Sharp; works of Kodaly (2) and Bartok (11). Pearl GEMM 2-CDS 9193 (rec. 1948-58, rel. 1996). Citation Details Title: Pianists that time forgot. (Sound Recording Reviews). Author: Leslie Gerber Publication: Notes (Refereed) Date: September 1, 2002 Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc. Volume: 59 Issue: 1 Page: 136(10)
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