Earl Wild is a major American musician. As pianist, he has played with distinction under the batons of many famous conductors including Toscanini and Klemperer. Rachmaninov was his friend and important idol in his life – indeed, Wild’s recordings of Rachmaninov have always been admired. This American recording was made last year and the booklet remarked that Earl was then 82 years old but still planning new recordings. Besides being a virtuoso pianist Earl Wild, has also been busy as composer, transcriber, conductor, editor, and teacher. Earl Wild also made a number of recordings of film music for the Readers Digest Association. Some were released by RCA as part of the Charles Gerhardt Classic Film Scores series. All the recordings on this album were made in London, all engineered by Kenneth Wilkinson. They have been remastered in high-resolution digital sound and, for the most part, they sound fabulous. Richard Rogers - Slaughter on 10th Avenue. Richard Rodgers is remembered chiefly for hit shows (with Oscar Hammerstein II) like Oklahoma! (1943); Carousel (1945); South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951); and The Sound of Music (1959) all of which have been filmed, of course. ‘Slaughter on 10th Avenue’ originated as a ballet, choreographed by the great George Balanchine for the 1936 musical On Your Toes. The ballet, in a rather comical mode, was included in the 1939 film version of the musical (starring Eddie Albert, Vera Zorina and Donald O’Connor). The ballet assumed a darker, steamier air for the 1957 film entitled Slaughter on 10th Avenue (with Richard Egan, Jan Sterling, Dan Duryea, Julie Adams and Walter Matthau). Then, in 1965, Earl Wild rewrote the ballet music adding a jazz-tinged piano score. He also re-orchestrated parts of it so that it became this fast-paced, exciting piano concertino. I must tell you that although you might hear many performances of ‘Slaughter on 10th Avenue’ in a lifetime, none, but none of them could compare to this sassy, thrilling reading. Max Steiner – Symphonique Moderne. Steiner composed this mini-concerto for the 1939 film, Four Wives (the sequel to the successful 1938 film Four Daughters) starring Claude Rains, the Lane sisters (Priscilla, Rosemary and Lola) and John Garfield as a struggling young musician. ‘Symphonie Moderne’ was expanded by Charles Gerhardt who played it for Max Steiner shortly before his death. It is written in the grand late Romantic tradition but with the injection of modern American ‘urban’ influences. Franz Lizst – Un Sospiro (Étude No. 3 in D flat). Lizst’s music has been used in many films especially in the many screen biographies of the composer. This is a very attractive little piece played with panache by Wild and Douglas Gamley and his orchestra. Miklós Rózsa – Spellbound Concerto. This popular concerto with its magnificent sweeping romantic melody, was composed from Ròzsa’s music for one of Alfred Hitchcock’s early psychosis-based thrillers. Gregory Peck, in the film, Spellbound, is the amnesia/paranoia patient whose illness and disturbed dream world (photographed against Salvatore Dali’s surreal designs) is vividly portayed by Ròzsa brilliantly using the theremin, an early electronic musical instrument. Chopin – Grande Polonaise Brillante Op. 22. Like Lizst, Chopin’s brilliant virtuosity and colourful life was ripe for screen biography treatment. Both composers’ music was also in great demand when passion and romance was on the screen. Mozart – Piano Concerto in C Major, K 467 ("Elvira Madigan"). This is the major work on the programme and is performed in its 28-minute entirety. It is a sparkling work and the Andante was used to great effect in the Swedish film Elvira Madigan. Wild gives a beautifully controlled and sensitive performance. The 12-page booklet which accompanies this album, carries full notes about the music and the films, together with some remarkable photographs including one of a line-up of eleven composers attending a Hollywood Bowl dinner in July 1948 including: George Antheil, Miklós Rózsa, William Grant Still, Igor Stravinsky and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. A collectable anthology Reviewer Ian Lace	Reviewer Ian Lace Reviews from previous months Reviews carry sales links but you can also purchase from:
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