Earl Wild - The Art Of The Transcription

The ebb and flow of the Godowsky under his hands gives the listener the "impression" this IS NOT difficult. He plays the Bach-Tausig transcription of the Organ Prelude and Fugue in D minor with more grandeur and thunder than when one here's it on a pipe organ. Add to that the Mendelssohn-Rachmaninov Scherzo from a Midsummer Night's Dream played with total control, impish clarity and pearl like touch and tons and tons of atmosphere. More and more gems follow. Earl Wild's own arrangment of the Swan's Dance Pas de Quatre, sur "Lac des Cygnes" is one of my all time favorites. The Kreisler/Rachmaninoff Liebeslied will melt you dead away. It's just sheer perfection. Then he ends this with grandest of all encore pieces, that of pure schmalz - the Concert Arabesques on themes of "The Beautiful Blue Danube"/Strauss-Schulz-Evler in the complete version. The only other pianist I have ever heard play this was the Great Josef Lhevinne, which is so dazzling you almost can't believe what you are hearing. Constance Keene and Abram Chasins have a tiresome arrangement of this for two pianos. It sounds tired when they play it. Earl Wild, like Lhevinne, paced, poised, lilting, lifts you right out of your seat. I recommend this record set. ~ C. Nolan