Earl Wild

Earl Wild, the elder statesman of American piano virtuosos who was often called "the last of the great Romantic pianists," died Saturday at his home in Palm Springs. He was 94. He died of congestive heart failure after a long illness, his companion, Michael Rolland Davis, said on Wild's website. Wild had to be "the world's only pianist to have composed for Sid Caesar, toured with Eleanor Roosevelt and been ranked in dexterity with Vladimir Horowitz," the Washington Post pointed out in 1986.

"Who says that only Americans know how to play Gershwin?" asks Gramophone magazine this month as it hails a new Gershwin CD from the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the German orchestra that calls itself the world's oldest. "By this time possibly nobody," the British record guide answers its rhetorical self. But if you ain't got that swing .... The Leipzigers' new recording of "Rhapsody in Blue" and the Piano Concerto in F features the ancient orchestra's current music director, Riccardo Chailly, and pianist Stefano Bollani.

Because he was just a kid in the late '30s, when Toscanini put him squarely in the spotlight, Earl Wild is a pianist the musical world still thinks of as a youngster. And because Wild's performing style conjoins with a boyish appearance and a playful, even mischievous, personality, the impression of youthfulness has followed him through a distinguished career that long ago outgrew the "Gershwin specialist" identification.

Earl Wild, the elder statesman of American piano virtuosos who was often called "the last of the great Romantic pianists," died Saturday at his home in Palm Springs. He was 94. He died of congestive heart failure after a long illness, his companion, Michael Rolland Davis, said on Wild's website. Wild had to be "the world's only pianist to have composed for Sid Caesar, toured with Eleanor Roosevelt and been ranked in dexterity with Vladimir Horowitz," the Washington Post pointed out in 1986.

From the new, piano-rich Ivory Classics label comes a 30-year old memento of a short but brilliant partnership, the duo-pianism of the veteran Earl Wild and the highly accomplished, Berlin-born Christian Steiner, then as now more visible as a celebrity photographer than as a perfect pianistic match to Wild's virtuosity. Together, Wild/Steiner create elegant, probing and poetic music out of Rachmaninoff's popular Waltz from the Suite No.

Because his sense of humor is constantly on display, Earl Wild's more serious statements can sometimes get lost in the persistent air of hilarity that any dialogue with him generates. So when the veteran pianist reflects, in mid-interview and without any humorous intent, that "more lives have been ruined by Clara Schumann, Sigmund Freud and Arnold Schoenberg," one sits up, and stops laughing.

At 86, Earl Wild is often called "the last of the great Romantic pianists." Born in Pittsburgh, he played professionally as a teenager in the Pittsburgh Symphony under Otto Klemperer. He joined Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1937, and it was a radio broadcast of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" in 1942 that made his name. Wild's recording career includes almost 100 recordings on 20 labels, and a 1997 Grammy for "Earl Wild: The Romantic Master."

From all the sense of discovery in the wide attention Earl Wild got last year on his tours, which climaxed with a Carnegie Hall recital on his birthday, you might imagine the pianist was yet another debutant wonder. But that birthday was his 75th, and Wild now finds himself the somewhat bemused grand old man of the American piano. "I'm too old to get very excited about that," he says dryly. "I'm no different now than I was."

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."

"Who says that only Americans know how to play Gershwin?" asks Gramophone magazine this month as it hails a new Gershwin CD from the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the German orchestra that calls itself the world's oldest. "By this time possibly nobody," the British record guide answers its rhetorical self. But if you ain't got that swing .... The Leipzigers' new recording of "Rhapsody in Blue" and the Piano Concerto in F features the ancient orchestra's current music director, Riccardo Chailly, and pianist Stefano Bollani.

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."

At 86, Earl Wild is often called "the last of the great Romantic pianists." Born in Pittsburgh, he played professionally as a teenager in the Pittsburgh Symphony under Otto Klemperer. He joined Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1937, and it was a radio broadcast of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" in 1942 that made his name. Wild's recording career includes almost 100 recordings on 20 labels, and a 1997 Grammy for "Earl Wild: The Romantic Master."

More fascinating albums from the enterprising Ivory Classics label: The first offers two of Robert Schumann's masterworks, plus the finger-knotting Toccata; the second revives for our century the virtually forgotten complete preludes and impromptus by the great Russian pianist-pedagogue Felix Mikhailovich Blumenfeld (1863-1931), teacher of Heinrich Neuhaus and Vladimir Horowitz.

From the new, piano-rich Ivory Classics label comes a 30-year old memento of a short but brilliant partnership, the duo-pianism of the veteran Earl Wild and the highly accomplished, Berlin-born Christian Steiner, then as now more visible as a celebrity photographer than as a perfect pianistic match to Wild's virtuosity. Together, Wild/Steiner create elegant, probing and poetic music out of Rachmaninoff's popular Waltz from the Suite No.

Forget the birthday and forget his age. Even though Earl Wild will be 80 in November, and even though he embodies both towering pianistic virtuosity and an intimate Romantic sensibility, his performances are not now, or were they ever, intimidating or sober. A Wild recital, a second example of which the American musician brought to Hollywood Bowl Wednesday night before a small but vociferous crowd of 4,865 piano-lovers, is simply great fun.

Irrepressible even on the tele phone, Earl Wild is speaking from Telluride, Colo., 9,500 feet above sea level--in an aerie borrowed from a friend. "Oh, yes, it's very beautiful here," says the veteran American pianist, who will turn 80 on Nov. 26. "The trees, the forest--we're miles away from other people, and at night I hear all kinds of animals outside the house. It's very relaxing.

Forget the birthday and forget his age. Even though Earl Wild will be 80 in November, and even though he embodies both towering pianistic virtuosity and an intimate Romantic sensibility, his performances are not now, or were they ever, intimidating or sober. A Wild recital, a second example of which the American musician brought to Hollywood Bowl Wednesday night before a small but vociferous crowd of 4,865 piano-lovers, is simply great fun.

Irrepressible even on the tele phone, Earl Wild is speaking from Telluride, Colo., 9,500 feet above sea level--in an aerie borrowed from a friend. "Oh, yes, it's very beautiful here," says the veteran American pianist, who will turn 80 on Nov. 26. "The trees, the forest--we're miles away from other people, and at night I hear all kinds of animals outside the house. It's very relaxing.

Because he was just a kid in the late '30s, when Toscanini put him squarely in the spotlight, Earl Wild is a pianist the musical world still thinks of as a youngster. And because Wild's performing style conjoins with a boyish appearance and a playful, even mischievous, personality, the impression of youthfulness has followed him through a distinguished career that long ago outgrew the "Gershwin specialist" identification.

From all the sense of discovery in the wide attention Earl Wild got last year on his tours, which climaxed with a Carnegie Hall recital on his birthday, you might imagine the pianist was yet another debutant wonder. But that birthday was his 75th, and Wild now finds himself the somewhat bemused grand old man of the American piano. "I'm too old to get very excited about that," he says dryly. "I'm no different now than I was."