SHURA CHERKASSKYThe Historic 1940s Recordings

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Shura Cherkassky (1909-1995)Born in Odessa on October 17, 1909,* Shura Cherkassky was among the last of the post-Romantic tra-

dition of master pianists. At the age of five he composed a five-act opera, and at ten he conducted a symphonyorchestra. In 1922 he immigrated to the United States, where he met Harold Randolph, director of theBaltimore Conservatory. Randolph was so impressed by the boy’s talent that he arranged to have critics hearhim perform. Astonished by Cherkassky’s prodigious talent, these critics arranged for the youngster to give apublic recital at the Lyric Theater in Baltimore on March 3, 1923. Two other concerts, both to sold-out hous-es, followed, and a performance with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in Chopin’s F minor concerto,launched Cherkassky’s career. His New York debut in November 1923 was pronounced by many critics as oneof the most extraordinary musical events in recent memory. Olin Downes, in recalling that New York debut,spoke of the “delightful naturalness, ease, tonal beauty and sheer instinct of what was artistic” in the perfor-mance of the boy.

Among the pianists who heard Cherkassky at that time were Ernest Hutcheson, Ignaz Friedman, IgnacyJan Paderewski, Sergei Rachmaninov, Leopold Godowsky and Vladimir De Pachmann, who unanimouslypronounced him an outstanding pianist. In 1924, Cherkassky was honored with a scholarship to the CurtisInstitute in Philadelphia where he became a pupil of the renowned Josef Hofmann, himself a student ofAnton Rubinstein. After his debut concert tour in 1923, Cherkassky appeared with Walter Damrosch and theNew York Symphony, and was asked to give a command performance at The White House for PresidentWarren G. Harding. Hofmann’s guidance strengthened and expanded the young pianists musicality, prompt-ing Olin Downes to write after Cherkassky’s New York concert of December 14, 1926: “Shura Cherkassky ismore than an imitative and facile young player, and more than an infant phenomenon of the not infrequentdescription. There is no question of his exceptional gifts.” Cherkassky was invited to play again at The WhiteHouse, this time for President and Mrs. Herbert Hoover. In 1929, 1932 and again in 1935, Cherkasskyundertook concert tours in Europe. In 1936 he undertook a world tour, revisiting Europe and including Asai,Australia, South Africa and the Soviet Union. Critics praised his “poetical playing” and “formidable virtuosi-ty.”

Shura Cherkassky’s enormous popularity in Germany and Austria, sprang from his first major Europeantour after the War in 1946, when a concert in Hamburg established him as one of the leading pianists of the

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*In many sources, Cherkassky’s birth year is listed as 1911. However, Ms. Christa Phelps of the Cherkassky Estatehas confirmed that Cherkassky’s parents added two years to his actual birthdate in order to make his concert perfor-mances as a child prodigy more spectacular. The deception as to real birth year remained for the rest of his career.Mr. Cherkassky, in his last years, confided in Ms. Phelps that he was not born in 1911, but in 1909!

Shura Cherkassky (January 14, 1946)

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day. During the 1940s, Cherkassky made his home in the LosAngeles area, where he lived on Sierra Bonita in theHollywood Hills. He was a frequent contributor to the musi-cal life of Los Angeles, appearing at the Hollywood Bowl, inSanta Monica, the Philharmonic Auditorium and the WilshireEbell Theater. The audiences and critics seem to have lovedeverything Cherkassky would perform. The reviews whichappeared in the press were full of praise: “His keyboardprowess was fabulous, his command of every variety of touch— in chords, in passage work or in sustained melodic passages— was infinitely and uniquely varied, and in sheer sensuousbeauty of sound his tone quality was unsurpassed.”

Through a mutual friend, sculptress Malvina Hoffman,Cherkassky met Eugenie Blanc and they were married in1946. Mrs. Eugenie Blanc Cherkassky became Cherkassky’spromoter and manager, and managed the careers of a numberof other prominent musicians as well, including Earl Wild.The marriage, however, lasted only a short time and ended in1948 in a somewhat public divorce. The Los Angeles Examinerwrote the following:

She spent $27,000 to bring success to Shura Cherkassky, con-cert pianist, only to be discarded, Mrs. Eugenie Blanc Cherkasskytestified in court. “I owned a pharmacy which I sold for $27,000to pay for his musical education — but when the money was gone

so was he,” she told Judge Thurmond Clarke, who granted her a divorce. Mrs. Cherkassky claimed her husbandearned some $7,000 in one month in 1947, but gave her only $150 of the sum. Cherkassky did not contest herdivorce plea, but a dispute arose over how much alimony the wife should get. The judge decided it should be over10 percent of his net earning for two years.

When asked about his marriage in a 1990 interview, Cherkassky said: “It is difficult to be tied down to any-one when you play, unless the spouse is willing to be reduced to a servant. What does anyone get out of that?”

Cherkassky’s acclaim only increased in the 1950s and 1960s. All over Europe Cherkassky had his follow-ing of enthusiastic admirers, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. He regularly performed at the presti-gious music festivals of Europe, including those of London, Salzburg, Bergen, Zagreb, Carinthia and Vienna.As part of the 1955/56 season at the Hans Huber-Saal in Basel, Shura Cherkassky joined pianists AlexanderBorowsky, Rudolf Firkusny, Yury Boukoff, and Stefan Askenase in a series of recitals presenting the entirepiano works of Chopin. During this period he also collaborated with some of the world’s most distinguishedconductors: Comissiona, Dorati, Giulini, Haitink, Karajan, Kempe, Leinsdorf, Ormandy, Shostakovich, SirAdrian Boult, Sir Charles Groves and Sir Georg Solti.

Shura Cherkassky’s concert career encompassed the entire musical world. In addition to Europe, he madeseveral tours throughout the Far East, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Japan. He alsotoured Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. His triumphant return to his native Russia in 1976

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Cherkassky (late 1920s)

had great emotional significance for him, and he was re-invited for subsequent tours in 1977 and 1979.Early in 1976 Shura Cherkassky returned to the United States after an absence of ten years. His New York

recital was received with such resounding acclaim that he devoted an important part of each season to NorthAmerica. An international artist might be expected to remain stationary during his holidays, but notCherkassky. His passion for constant travel took him to Afghanistan, Thailand, Israel, Egypt, the GreekIslands, the African Coast, Northern Europe, the South Pacific, Latin and South America, Siberia and China.In 1990 he was asked whether his playing had undergone any dramatic changes. Cherkassky replied with can-dor: “Yes, I think so. I’m not as erratic as before. I used to be too free, with too many changes in dynamicsand tempo, and now I try to curb myself. I’m also playing better.”

Shura Cherkassky, died in London, on December 27, 1995. Writing in Gramophone, music critic andlong-time friend, Bryce Morrison stated: “Few, if any pianists, have made music so entirely their own, color-ing and projecting every bar and note with an instantly recognizable zest and brio. Rejoicing in spontaneityand listening askance to younger colleagues with set and inflexible ideas, he could turn a work — whether aBeethoven sonata, a Chopin Scherzo, a contemporary offering or a delectable trifle from a bygone age byRebikov or Albéniz-Godowsky — this way and that, reflecting its contours and tints as if through somerevolving prism... Musically speaking he was one life’s great adventurers, tirelessly seeking out novel angles,nooks and crannies, deploying a heaven-sent cantabile (“Nobody seems to care about sound any more,”Cherkassky once lamented) and, at his greatest, complementing his plethora of ideas with a rich and tran-scendental pianism.”

Over his long career, Shura Cherkassky recorded for London/Decca, Nimbus, Vox, DeutscheGrammophon, L’Oiseau-Lyre, Reader’s Digest, HMV, Concert Hall Society, Cupol, Columbia, RCA Victorand Tudor. Cherkassky’s earliest recordings were made in the 1920s for Victor Records. In the 1930s herecorded with cellist Marcel Hubert, the premiere recording of Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata, which receivedadmiration and praise from the composer. In the 1940s he recorded for the Swedish label Cupol, for theAmerican Vox label, and for HMV in England. It is his rarely heard recordings from the 1940s that are fea-tured on this Ivory Classics® release. Cherkassky’s 1982 San Francisco Recital is also available from IvoryClassics® 70904.

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The Music and RecordingsAll of the performances heard on this two-CD set were recorded by Shura Cherkassky during the 1940s.

This was a particularly active period for Cherkassky. He performed frequently in his home-base of Los Angelesand made numerous appearances in New York and most American music centers. After the war, Cherkasskymade extensive tours of Europe and was a favorite in Scandinavia, where he recorded some of the discs includ-ed on this release. Because there are so many short compositions by many different composers on these twoCDs, the notes on the music are organized alphabetically for ease of accessibility.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)Those who are fond of arranging and organizing things according to initial letters have called attention

to the fact that the names of three great German masters of music begin with the letter “B”. In chronological

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as well as alphabetical succession they are: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms. The first is the master of polyphony andthe fugue; the second of the monophonic style and sonata-form; the third was a master of a more moderncontrapuntal construction and of the forms of his classical predecessor, at the same time showing unusualpower to make the form fit the musical idea.

Brahms wrote in practically every style of music, for orchestra, chamber music, large choral works, songs,and for the piano. He did not write for the dramatic stage, and but little for the organ. His highest opus num-ber is 121. Many of these opuses contain several numbers and in addition there are numerous works withoutopus numbers. In all there are upwards of 500 separate compositions. Brahms was deeply interested in thetechnique of piano playing all his life, and he seems to have secured from the instrument the utmost fullnessof effect. Many great artists agree that Brahms is an essential contributor to piano literature.

“This month,” wrote Clara Schumann, “has introduced us to a wonderful person, Brahms, a composerfrom Hamburg, only twenty years of age... He played us sonatas, scherzos, and so on of his own, all of themshowing exuberant imagination, depth of feeling, and mastery of form... He has studied with Marxsen, butwhat he played to us is so masterly that I feel that the good God sent him into the world ready made.” Thelatest of the works played by the young Brahms to Robert and Clara Schumann was the Sonata No.3 in Fminor, Op.5 (DISC 1, - ) already his third essay in the form and indubitably the best of them. He hadcome armed with introductions from Joachim at Hanover and Wasielievsky at Bonn, to be absorbed imme-diately into the Schumann household and to become Clara’s life-long friend after Robert’s early breakdownand death. The new composer was boyish and impetuous, charming and earnest, a single-minded as well asgifted musician. The F minor Sonata is an astonishing production for an adolescent. It remains to this day oneof Brahms’ most important works for solo piano, and whereas later the composer touched more intimatedepths and expressed himself with greater control, he never showed a livelier or more brilliant flame of inspi-ration. The opening movement spaciously contrasts a turbulent figure. Its attendant tune is broad and sweetin melody. Out of them, in the middle section, Brahms distills a new melody in the bass. At the head of theandante a verse is quoted from a poem by Sternau — “twilight, and the moon shining, with two loving heartsin blissful unity.” The movement is a continuous outpouring of melodies, each giving rise to the next, untila large-scale climax-tune is treated in full voice. The scherzo is a torrent of youthful vigor and restlessness; evenin the trio (marked only legato) the smoother subject only screens a smoldering fire, which readily breaks outagain in the bridge-passage to the da capo section. The interpolated Intermezzo has caused commentatorsquestioning speculations. The sub-title “Ruckblick” shows its intention — a sad reminiscence of what hasgone before, especially the Andante melody reviewed through gloomy eyes. Is it more than the normal despair-ing mood that comes over any aspirant adolescent? The music is effective and the first and last movementsare linked with uncommon skill. In the finale the agitated first subject is quieted for a time by a smootherand more ordinary subject; its real substance, however, lies in a new melody in D-flat, suddenly announcedafter the exposition, and destined to dominate the whole movement — indeed, the whole sonata.

Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944)Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade was born in Paris on August 8, 1857. She showed her musical tal-

ent at an early age and began to compose at the age of eight. Georges Bizet, upon seeing the first little worksthat the eight-year-old Cécile had written, affectionately called her mon petit Mozart and did what he couldto assure that the promising prodigy was given solid musical training. Since at that time a number of classes at

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the Paris Conservatoire were prohibited to women students, Chaminade took private lessons in piano, violinand ensemble playing with Félix Le Couppey, Joseph Marsick, and Augustin Savard and composition withBenjamin Godard. Her one-act comic opera La Sevillane was heard at the Salle Erard in 1884, promptingcomposer and music critic Ambroise Thomas to write that she “is not a woman who composes, but a com-poser who is a woman.”

She made her public debut as a pianist at the age of eighteen and in 1892 gave a command performanceat Windsor Castle for Queen Victoria. Her many concert tours took her all over Europe, Greece, Turkey and,in the Autumn of 1908 she concertized in the United States and Canada. In 1913, Chaminade became the firstwoman composer to be inducted into the French Legion of Honor. During World War I she devoted herselfto benevolent work and by 1922 her compositional activity receded increasingly into the background after sheretired from social life in 1922. When she died in Monte Carlo on April 13, 1944, the musical world remem-bered her solely for her Concertino for Flute and Orchestra and a handful of piano pieces.

She is best known today for her piano pieces and her many songs, which at one time enjoyed great pop-ularity. Her more ambitious works include a Symphonie lyrique, entitled Les Amazones, for chorus andorchestra; a ballet, Callirhoë; a comic opera, La Sevillane; two orchestral suites; a Concertstück for piano andorchestra; the Concertino for Flute and Orchestra; and two trios for piano and strings.

Chaminade left a large and wonderful body of piano works, including one sonata. The bulk of herpiano compositions are miniatures, among which some of the most famous are the character pieces La

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Cherkassky at Steinway headquarters in New York playing for musicians and critics, includingWillem Mengelberg, Ernest Hutcheson and Ignaz Friedman (March 31, 1923)

Lisonjera (The Flatterer), Les Sylvains (The Fauns), Arlequine,Scarf Dance (Air de Ballet, No.3) and Pierrette. Autrefois(“From Olden Times”) (from Six Pièces humoristiques),Op.87, No.4 (DISC 1, ) is an “homage” to the Frenchclavecinistes of the past, Couperin and Rameau.

Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)Etymologically, “impromptu” means improvisation. Even if

Chopin was dreaming at the piano over the themes of hisimpromptus, he worked them over on paper so well that the fourpieces wed the first rush of inspiration to the perfection of puri-fied writing. If Chopin had called the Impromptu No.2 in Fsharp Major, Opus 36 (DISC 2, ) a nocturne instead of animpromptu we would not be surprised. This cantilena, markedandantino, has nothing fleeting about it. Theodor Kullak wrote:“The dreamy song-like beginning; the immediate contrast withwhich the march enters; the fantastic retrogression to the after-wards varied theme; finally, the passage gently gliding away —with their expressive accompaniment — all these things bear theimpress of an impromptu suggested by scenes from real life.”Chopin’s fourth and final impromptu, the Fantasie-Impromptuin C-sharp minor, Opus 66 (DISC 2, ) was composed in1834 and only published posthumously in 1855. It is one ofChopin’s most memorable compositions because of its intrinsicbeauty and the effective running “commentary” that is kept upbetween the two themes. In 1918 the team of Harry Carroll and

Joseph McCarthy used this endearing Chopin melody as the basis for their popular song, I’m Always ChasingRainbows, which was featured in the Broadway musical Oh, Look!.

The Fantasie in F minor, Opus 49 (1841) (DISC 2, ) is the greatest of Chopin’s miscellaneous piecesand one of his most inspired works. The Fantasie begins in march time — not funereal but solemn, distant,muted — and proceeds to a more assertive motive uttered with the sound of a trumpet playing softly. Thencomes one of those episodes with an air of improvisation that Chopin employs to move swiftly from one stateof mind to another. He soon gets to the life of the subject with a theme of a somber color and its develop-ment toward a seductive, exalted phrase: light wins over darkness. Then he begins a noble, chivalric song,punctuated with “tied” pizzicatos in the left hand. Next, without returning to the music of the introduction,Chopin extemporizes on the other themes and ends with a meditative, collected, peaceful, and rather shortlento sostenuto. This is a transported reprise of the first episode after the introduction. A fan of modulationsthen suddenly snaps closed on a plagal cadence.

The Mazurka is a Polish national dance in three-four time, frequently with a syncopated accent. Chopinwas the first to look upon it as an art form; and when he came out of the East to Paris, via Vienna and Munich,he startled his listeners with its exotic strains. Chopin composed over fifty of these Mazurkas. They contain, in

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Cherkassky with Frederick R. Huber,Municipal Director of Music for

Baltimore (March 1923)

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miniature, the essence of his music. None of them is particularly long, and some are tiny sketches, but all arepacked with the color, sentiment and masterly technique that made Chopin one of the greatest of the Romanticcomposers. It is here that he expressed his love for his native Poland; it is here that he put all of his ingenuityand skill. The Mazurkas are far from being direct translations of Polish dances. As Franz Liszt once stated:“While Chopin preserved the rhythm of the dance, he ennobled its melody and enlarged its proportions... andas a result coquetries, vanities, fantasies, vague emotions, passions, conquests, struggles upon which the safetyor favors of others depend, all meet in this Chopinesque dance.” The short and beautiful Mazurka No. 23 inD Major, Op.33, No.3 (DISC 2, ) was composed in 1837-8, and the Mazurka No.46 in C Major, Op.68,No.1 (DISC 2, ) was composed in 1830 and published posthumously in 1855.

Chopin’s first published composition, in 1817 at the age of eight, was a Polonaise, and in the next fiveyears he followed that with three more. Altogether there are sixteen Polonaises for piano solo, although thestandard collections usually contain only eleven, of which four are posthumous publications. In addition,there are the Grande Polonaise, Opus 22 with orchestra accompaniment, to which Chopin added an intro-ductory unaccompanied Andante Spianato, and the Polonaise, Opus 3, for cello and piano. The polonaise is aPolish processional dance in 3/4 time, and moderate in tempo. Sir George Grove provided the following prob-able origin of the polonaise: “In 1573, Henry III of Anjou was elected to the Polish throne and in the fol-lowing year held a great reception at Cracow, at which the wives of the nobles marched in procession, pastthe throne, to the sound of stately music. It is said that after this, whenever a foreign prince was elected tothe throne, the same ceremony was repeated, and that out of this custom the polonaise has gradually devel-oped as the opening dance at court festivities.” The Polonaise in A-flat Major, Opus 53 (1842) (DISC 2,

) gives us Chopin in his most majestic and glorious. Legend has it that Chopin, weakened by illness, wasfeverishly composing when suddenly he imagined that the walls of his room opened and there came riding infrom the night a cavalcade of armored heroes and the ancient personages of his musical dream. So vivid wasthe hallucination that he fled from the room in terror and for several days could not be persuaded to returnand resume work on this magnificent composition. Who knows whether the story is true or not, however, themusic is definitely one of Chopin’s greatest works.

“I have composed a study in my own manner,” wrote Chopin in October 1829, when he was nineteen.In his “own manner” meant that for the first time he had written an emotional and spontaneous piece ofmusic under a general classification which offered no clue to its musical content. Between 1829 and 1834,Chopin composed two sets of études. Opus 10 was dedicated to his friend Franz Liszt; Opus 25, to CountessMarie d’Agoult, whose daughter, Cosima, later married Richard Wagner. Theodor Kullak calls the Étude inC-sharp minor, Op.10, No. 4 (DISC 2, ) a “bravura study of velocity and lightness,” while and Étude inC minor (“Revolutionary”), Op.10, No.12 (DISC 2, ), we are told by Chopin’s contemporaries, was adirect musical expression of the emotions aroused in the composer on hearing of the taking of Warsaw by theRussians in 1831. In Moritz Karasowski’s Life of Chopin, we read: “Grief, anxiety, and despair over the fate ofhis relatives and his dearly beloved father filled the measure of his sufferings. Under the influence of this moodhe wrote this C minor étude; out of the mad and tempestuous storm of passages for the left hand, the melodyrises aloft, now passionate and anon proudly majestic, until thrills of awe stream over the listener, and theimage is evoked of Zeus hurling thunderbolts at the world.”

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Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)Mikhail Glinka was the founder of Russian classical music. Summing up, as it were, the achievements

of his predecessors — Russian composers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries — Glinka laid the foun-dations of the national style of Russian music. Glinka was born on June 1, 1804, in the village ofNovospasskoye in the Smolensk province. He spent his childhood in the family estate amidst the picturesquenature of central Russia. When Glinka was thirteen his parents took him to St. Petersburg and entered himat the Boarding School for Children of the Nobility attached to the Chief Pedagogical Institute. At theBoarding School Glinka showed an aptitude for many subjects, but most of all he was interested in music.He used to spend hours improvising at the piano. Music became the sole aim of his life and he began tak-ing lessons from the pianist, John Field. By the time of his graduation in 1822 Glinka was already the com-poser of several original works, including a set of Variations on a theme of Mozart.

In 1830, the young composer made his first trip abroad. He visited cities in Germany and Switzerlandand spent about three years in Italy. He spent countless hours attending operatic performances and studyingItalian bel canto. But he felt out of place in Italy. “I could not sincerely be an Italian,” he wrote in his Memoirsin 1854. “A longing for my own country led me gradually to the idea of writing in a Russian manner.” InAugust of 1832 he left Italy for good, spending some time in Vienna, where he heard the orchestras of Straussand Lanner. In October he travelled to Berlin, where for the next five months he occupied himself in the studyof composition techniques under the distinguished teacher Siegfried Dehn. In 1834 the death of his fatherprompted Glinka to return to Russia. Back home, the idea of writing a Russian opera gave the composer norest. “The main thing is to choose the right subject, so that it will be purely national,” Glinka wrote to hisfriends. The poet V.A. Zhukovsky suggested to Glinka that he write an opera on the events of 1612 connectedwith the campaign launched by the Polish aristocracy against Russia. The struggle against the Poles hadacquired a national character. The enemy was routed by the Russian volunteer corps headed by Minin andPozharsky. One of the most vivid episodes of the struggle was the feat of Ivan Susanin, a Kostroma peasant,who sacrificed his life in order to save his Motherland from the enemy. This patriot became the central char-acter in Glinka’s opera, A Life for the Tsar. No sooner had A Life for the Tsar been produced than Glinka,prompted by the playwright Shakhovskoi, fastened upon Ruslan and Lyudmila as the subject of his next opera.It was produced in 1842.

In 1844, Glinka went abroad again, this time to Spain, a country which had attracted him since child-hood. On the way to Spain the composer visited Paris where he met Hector Berlioz. Glinka spent the nexttwo years in Spain, studying the folk music of Spain and incorporating it in some of his orchestral works,including the popular Jota aragonesa (also known as the First Spanish Overture). Russian melodies withtheir simplicity and sincerity, however, still occupied the main place in Glinka’s creative work. He hadlong wishes to create a work that would integrate Russian folk tunes of different styles. The result was histone poem, Kamarinskaya (1848). During the last years of his life Glinka travelled a great deal and oftenvisited St. Petersburg for long stays. Talented younger composers would flock to his flat on the corner ofNevsky and Vladimirsky Prospekts. Dargomyzhsky, Serov and Balakirev came to show their work to theirelder friend and teacher. Glinka’s health began to deteriorate rapidly and his doctor’s suggested a changeof climate. In May of 1856 Glinka left for Berlin. The trip proved fatal, and on February 15, 1857,Mikhail Glinka died of a cold. Several months later the body of the great Russian composer was brought

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to St. Petersburg and buried in the cemetery of the AlexanderNevsky Monastery.

During his short life, Glinka composed eight works for thestage, eleven orchestral works, some chamber music, numeroussongs, and many short piano pieces. Among his piano composi-tions is the Tarantella in A minor (1843) (DISC 1, ) which isbased on the Russian song “Vo pole beryoza stoyala” (In the fieldthere stood a Birch tree).

Morton Gould (1913-1996)Morton Gould was a phenomenally talented composer,

pianist, conductor, arranger and orchestrator. A prodigy who grewup writing music on his family’s kitchen table in New York, heeventually became one of the most influential and prolificAmerican composers, writing in a wide variety of musical forms —from ballet to Broadway, classical orchestra works to film and tele-vision scores. The legacy he left has yet to be fully appreciated.

Gould was born in Richmond Hill, Long Island, New York,on December 10, 1913. At the age of 4 he was playing the pianoand composing; at 6 he had his first composition — a waltz calledJust Six — published, and performed at The Academy of Music inBrooklyn. By the time he was 8 he was playing on New York radiostation WOR broadcasts. Also, at eight, he auditioned for therenowned Frank Damrosch, then director of the Institute of Musical Arts, forerunner of The Juilliard School.Damrosch awarded the boy a scholarship. Subsequently he took piano lessons from Abby Whiteside and alsostudied composition and theory with Dr. Vincent Jones of New York University.

Following the completion of his music studies, Gould earned his living in theater, vaudeville, and radioas solo pianist and member of a two-piano team. At 18 he became a staff musician at Radio City Music Halland a year later he accepted a position with the National Broadcasting Company. Working seven days a week,he played piano, electric piano, or celesta depending on what was needed for the condensed versions of operas,the precision of the Rockettes, the juggling acts, the ballet, or anything else that might have been happeningon stage. In 1934, at the age of 21, Gould began a long and fruitful association with radio as conductor ofan orchestra for the WOR Mutual network. Radio provided both an outlet for his talents and a nationalshowcase for his orchestral settings of popular music as well as many of his early original works. He quicklybecame a radio and recording favorite. The ability to bring the structural dimensions and technical resourcesof serious music to American popular idioms became Morton Gould’s compositional calling card. Stokowskibecame the first of countless famous conductors who championed Gould’s music. Others included Toscanini,Solti, Dorati, Wallenstein, Maazel, Fiedler, Monteux, Reiner, Golschmann, Comissiona, Mitropoulos,Ormandy, Iturbi, and Rodzinski!

The 1940s proved to be even more productive for Gould. During this period he composed three of hisfour symphonies, the very popular Latin-American Symphonette (1941), Spirituals for Orchestra (1941), the

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Mrs. Eugenie Blanc Cherkassky(January 1948)

Cowboy Rhapsody (1942), Interplay for Piano and Orchestra (originally titled “American Concertette”) (1943),Viola Concerto (1943), Fall River Legend (1947), Philharmonic Waltzes (1948), Minstrel Show (1946), andHoliday Music (1947). His brilliant orchestral adaptation of the famous American popular song by PatrickGilmore, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” also became Gould’s most popular and most-performed work, American Salute.

“Composing is my life blood,” said Morton Gould. “That is basically me, and although I have done manythings in my life — conducting, playing piano, and so on — what is fundamental is my being a composer.”His music was commissioned by symphony orchestras throughout the United States, the Library of Congress,the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the American Ballet Theatre, and the New York City Ballet.Gould integrated jazz, blues, gospel, and folk elements into his compositions, which bear his unequaled mas-tery of orchestration and imaginative formal structures. He passed away on 21 February 1996 while servingas artist-in-residence at the newly established Disney Institute in Orlando, Florida. Gould was one of the mostvital advocates of American music, a great musical communicator who, with enormous mastery and élan, wasable to achieve a synthesis between concert and popular music.

Morton Gould’s Prelude and Toccata (DISC 2, ) was composed in 1945 for José Iturbi, shortly afterhe composed and dedicated to Iturbi the Boogie Woogie Étude (1943) (DISC 2, ). According to Gould:“I wrote Prelude and Toccata in the period when I was doing much broadcasting and guest conducting, andwhen I was composing a lot. I was writing music for the pianist José Iturbi during this period; for exampleInterplay was originally written under the title American Concertette for Iturbi. After writing the short BoogieWoogie Étude for Iturbi, it occurred to me to write a longer piece in a more extended form. This work becamethe Prelude and Toccata. The Toccata is, in a sense, a perpetual motion on a continual ostinato, a stylized boo-gie as it were — almost a minimalist piece. It stems from a period when I was utilizing popular and jazz ver-nacular in my concert music.”

Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978)Aram Khachaturian is Armenia’s greatest composer. Ethnically, the land known as Armenia includes

northeastern Turkey and a sizeable chunk of Iran in addition to the nation of Kazakhstan that became, in1922, a member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This entire region lays claim to one of theworld’s oldest musical traditions. Her bards — the ashugs — were renowned even in the fifth century. Tothis day it remains essentially monodic, with only the sparest rhythmic accompaniment encumbering itsflights of fancy. Crossroads of this milieu meet at Tiflis, between the Black and the Caspian seas. It was herethat Aram Khachaturian was born on June 6, 1903. Though he showed an early interest in music, and par-ticularly the folk songs and dances of his native land, it was not until later in life that he was able to receiveadequate musical training. His father, a bookbinder, was too poor to pay for a musical education. Up untilhis twentieth year Khachaturian knew almost nothing about theory or the musical repertory. Khachaturiancame to Moscow in the autumn of 1921. The city, as well as the whole country, was going through a grimperiod of economic dislocation. People had not enough to eat, houses were unheated, and more often thannot the audiences kept their coats on in theaters and concert halls. Despite this, Moscow’s theaters wereseething with activity. Khachaturian’s move to Moscow interrupted his studies at the Tbilisi CommercialSchool. He took a preparatory course at Moscow University, finished it in 1922, and in that same year wasadmitted to the Physics and Mathematics program at the University where he studied for almost three years.

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His friends kept urging him to apply himself more seriously tomusic and in the autumn of 1922 he decided to attend theGnesin Music School. There he studied cello and performedin ensembles and in student concerts. Khachaturian graduatedfrom the Gnesin School of Music in 1929 and, on the adviceof Mikhail Gnesin, began to prepare for his entrance exami-nations at the Moscow Conservatory. He was admitted to theConservatory in the autumn of 1929, and in 1930 began stud-ies with Nikolai Miaskovsky. Miaskovsky watched the creativesearchings of his new pupil with sympathy and interest. Hebelieved in Khachaturian’s talent from the start and, treatinghis creative personality with singular tact, guided the youngmusician solicitously along the path of great art. He taughtKhachaturian more than just the intricacies of composition.He fostered as well in his pupil a better understanding of lit-erature, painting, and architecture. While in Miaskovsky’sclass Khachaturian composed a sonata for violin and piano, atrio for piano, violin and clarinet, a dance suite for orchestra,two marches for brass band, and numerous arrangements ofArmenian, Turkmenian, Tatar and Russian folk songs. It wasin this class too that Khachaturian wrote his First Symphony,his diploma work for graduation. Other major works followedwhich extended and magnified Khachaturian’s importance asa composer. The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, introducedby the composer in Moscow in 1937, became instantly popular in the Soviet Union. To this day it is oneof Khachaturian’s most famous and frequently heard large works. The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, in1940, the ballet Gayaneh, in 1942, both won the much-coveted Stalin Prize. The two orchestral suiteswhich the composer prepared from Gayaneh have enjoyed considerable popularity. One of the numbersfrom the Suite No. 1 has been particularly successful — the “Sabre Dance.” The first time the Suite No.1was played in New York, the “Sabre Dance” aroused such a demonstration that it had to be repeated. It waslargely through the appeal of this one dance that the Columbia recording of the first suite became (accord-ing to Billboard) the best-selling classical album soon after its release in the United States in 1947. “SabreDance” became a juke-box favorite and for many months assumed the status of a nation-wide popular“hit.” In 1943 Khachaturian composed his Second Symphony, which was followed in 1944 by theMasquerade Suite, in 1946 by the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, and in 1947 by his Third Symphony.When he was in Rome on a concert tour in 1950, he began thinking about a ballet about Spartacus, theheroic leader of the insurgent gladiators. He was deeply impressed by the historical memorials he saw —those mute witnesses to the tragic events of the remote past. Again and again he returned to the majesticruins of the Colosseum and the arena where the gory games of the gladiators were once held. These impres-sions, Khachaturian said, were very helpful to him when he was composing the music for the ballet Spartacusin Moscow, drawing mental pictures of life in ancient Rome and the struggle of the insurgent slaves led by

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Spartacus. Soviet audiences heard the Spartacus symphonic suite long before the ballet had its premiere at theKirov Theater in Leningrad on December 27, 1956. The suite comprises separate dances from the ballet andextensive symphonic fragments, including the world famous Adagio. In the spring of 1959 AramKhachaturian was awarded the Lenin Prize for his Spartacus. In the 1960s, Khachaturian composed a trio ofConcert-Rhapsodies, for violin, cello and piano, and in the 1970s a trio of solo string sonatas, for violin, violaand cello. Throughout his life he composed some twenty-five film scores and several albums of children’spiano music. His wife, Nina Makarova (1908-1976) was also a composer. Aram Khachaturian died inMoscow on May 1, 1978.

Khachaturian composed only seven concert works for solo piano, along with two suites of children’smusic and one suite for two-pianos, four hands. The Toccata (1932) (DISC 2, ) is the best known of hispiano works. It contains folk-inspired elements, and a central section with echoes of Granados’ La Maja y elRuiseñor, surrounded by motoric piano athleticism.

Anatoly Liadov (1855-1914)Anatoly Liadov was born in St. Petersburg into a musical family. His father and grandfather were profes-

sional musicians. Liadov’s first lessons were from his father, followed, in 1870, by admission to the St.Petersburg Conservatory, where he initially studied piano and violin. Additionally, he studied counterpoint,and entered the composition class of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Liadov eventually joined the faculty of theConservatory, teaching harmony, theory and composition. During the 1870s he collaborated with Borodin,Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov and Shcherbachov on a light-hearted set of variations dedicated to Liszt. By the 1880she was closely linked to the Russian nationalist movement headed by Mili Balakirev. Liadov’s orchestral worksshow incredible imagination and resplendent musical coloring. Works such as The Enchanted Lake, Op.62,Kikimora, Op.63, and Baba-Yaga, Op.56 firmly place Liadov among the most colorful of Russian symphon-ists. Along with his colleagues, Balakirev and Lyapunov, Liadov collected and documented the folk-songs ofvarious districts and peoples of Russia.

As a piano composer, Liadov was primarily a miniaturist, producing countless beautiful preludes, mazurkas,bagatelles, and études. His most popular and most-recorded piano piece is his Music Box in A Major, Opus 32(DISC 2, ) which he composed in 1893, and subtitled “valse-shutka” (waltz-jest). This delightful tone-picture preserves the tinkling ethereal sounds we are accustomed to associating with a toy music-box.

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)Liszt conceived the Hungarian Rhapsodies, as a kind of collective national epic. He composed the first in

1846 at the age of 35, and his last in 1885 at the age of 74. Most of his Hungarian Rhapsodies are in thesectional slow-fast form of the Gypsy dance known as the czardas. The Hungarian Rhapsodies remain populartoday after almost one hundred and fifty years. However, if we were to follow their history we would find inthem the same contradictions in origin and purpose, the same contrast between serious musicianship and vir-tuoso exhibitionism which made Liszt himself so fascinating. There is no doubt that Liszt was devoted to hiscountry, but he was a Hungarian more by enthusiasm than through upbringing or ethnic heritage. He couldbarely speak the language, for Hungarian was third to German and French at home. He left his nativeprovince at the age of nine for the more cosmopolitan cities of Vienna and Paris. When he returned sometwo decades later he was an international hero in need of a national identity. This identity was achieved

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through the special musical language of the HungarianRhapsodies.

In order to collect Gypsy tunes and absorb the strong fla-vor of their rhythms — the slow pride of the Lassan and thedervish rampage of the Friska — Liszt lived in Gypsy encamp-ments. His first fifteen Hungarian Rhapsodies were publishedby 1854 (the remaining five were to come in his last years).Liszt also wrote and had printed, in German and Hungarian,a long book entitled The Gypsies and their Music in Hungary.As scholars have discovered later, Liszt was entirely wrongabout the Gypsy origins of Hungarian music. Half a centurylater Bela Bartók and Zoltan Kodály, after diligently collectingthousands of unadorned Magyar folk tunes, showed that theGypsy contribution was a style of playing, a process of inflec-tion and instrumental arrangement rather than anything orig-inal in form. However, Hungarian Gypsy music, as it is nowcalled, was the glory of the nation and Franz Liszt’s composi-tions spread its fame to the ends of the earth. Although Liszt’sefforts were not a particularly worthy study in ethnomusicol-ogy, his free-ranging fantasies (and the use in the title of theword “rhapsody”) were strokes of genius. In the HungarianRhapsodies, Liszt did much more than use the so-calledczardas. He miraculously recreated on the piano the character-istics of a Gypsy band, with its string choirs, the sentimental-ly placed solo violin and the compellingly soft, percussiveeffect of the cimbalom, a kind of dulcimer.

Hungarian Rhapsody No.5 in E minor (DISC 1, ) (Published 1853; dedicated to CountessSzidónia Reviczky). According to musicologists, this rhapsody is a free arrangement of a Hungarian danceby József Kossovits (who was active around 1800). Heard by itself, this “Heroic” Elegy (Heroïde-Elégiaqueis the printed subtitle) does not remind us of any of the other rhapsodies, in either style or feeling. Themessuggesting Chopin’s funeral march (trio) and the “Revolutionary” Étude make one wonder whether thesubject of this elegy was actually Liszt’s beloved friend, who died in 1849.

Hungarian Rhapsody No.6 in D flat Major (DISC 1, ) (Published 1853; dedicated to Count AntalApponyi). This rhapsody is a masterful arrangement of four Hungarian songs popular in Liszt’s time andopens with a march-like Tempo giusto in D flat and proceeds through a short and sprightly Presto to brilliantoctave development. The Lassan which is its principal endearment is especially doleful. The text which goeswith it in Gypsy lore translates roughly as follows: “My father is dead, my mother is dead, and I have nobrothers and sisters, and all the money that I have left will just buy a rope to hang myself with.” Once again,a number of these themes appeared also in Liszt’s series of the Magyar Dallok.

Hungarian Rhapsody No.11 in A minor (DISC 1, ) (Published 1853; dedicated to Baron FerencOrczy). The cimbalom figurations yield a new play of sonorities in this surprisingly short rhapsody. Here

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Cherkassky with Joseph Hoffmann (circa 1920s)

Liszt chooses intimacy rather than dazzle. Suggestions of stringed instruments can be heard in the Vivace assai.Hungarian Rhapsody No.15 in A minor (“Rákóczi March”) (Second Version; Published 1871) (DISC

1, ). This work is somewhat dubiously classified as a Hungarian Rhapsody. It is in actuality better knownas the “Rákóczy March.” This same Rákóczy March was orchestrated by Berlioz and incorporated by him intohis Damnation of Faust. The actual march was originally written by an obscure musician named MichaelBarna, in honor of Prince Francis Rákóczy, the historic hero of Hungarian nationalism and fiery noblemanwho led the revolt against Austria in the early 1700s. It has long since become the national march of Hungaryand a symbol of freedom and national pride.

The three Liebesträume, are impassioned love songs without words. Yet, they began their existence assongs with words. Liszt published them in 1850 with the title Drei Lieder für eine Tenor – oder Sopranstimme.The first two songs were settings of poems by Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862) and the third, to a poem byFerdinand Freiligrath (1810-1876). Liszt provides the complete texts of the Uhland poems and the first fourverses of the Freiligrath’s poem before the piano pieces. Liszt called his Liebesträume nocturnes (“Notturni” ),music full of warm evening colors.

Liebesträum No.3 in A Flat Major (Disc 1, ) is the most celebrated of the three works. It is a setting of Freiligrath’s romantic poem O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst! (“O love, as long as you can love”):

O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst! Oh love, as long as you can love!O lieb, so lang du lieben magst! Oh love, as long as you may love!Die Stunde kommt, die Stunde kommt, The hour will come, the hour will comeWo du an Gräbern stehst und klagst When you stand by their graves and mourn.

Und sorge, daß dein Herze glüht Be sure that your heart with ardour glows,Und Liebe hegt und Liebe trägt, Is full of love and cherishes love,So lang ihm noch ein ander Herz As long as one other heartIn Liebe warm entgegen schlägt. Beats with yours in tender love.

Und wer dir seine Brust erschließt, If anyone opens his heart to you,O tu ihm, was du kannst, zu lieb! Show him kindness whenever you can!Und mach ihm jede Stunde froh, And make his every hour happyUnd mach ihm keine Stunde trüb. And never give him one hour of sadness.

Und hüte deine Zunge wohl! And guard well your tongue!Bald ist ein hartes Wort entflohn. A cruel word is quickly said.O gott, es war nicht bös gemeint; Oh God, it was not meant to hurt;Fer Andre aber geht und weint. But the other one departs in grief.

Twice in the course of this impassioned work the melody is interrupted by a brief interlude between theverses, as it would seem, giving us a fleeting glimpse of the summer night with its subtle perfumes and vaguewhisperings. The work closes with a passage of soft, sweet, restful harmonies, a sigh of content in the final

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fruition of love’s dream.The Concert Étude No.2 Gnomenreigen (“Dance of

the Gnomes”) (S145/R6) (1862/3) (DISC 1, ) is a sinis-ter rondo demanding the utmost virtuosity. Liszt’s gnomes,cavorting by moonlight, are obviously inspired by demonicforces. Although Liszt marks one section of the piece giocoso(“joyous”), this is not humans laughing but rather monsterscackling. Throughout the piece there is supernatural malicein the air and an atmosphere of alarm. At the end, the crea-tures scurry across the keyboard and away, giving us a sense ofrelief that they are doing their dastardly deeds elsewhere!

Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951)Nikolai Medtner was an important Russian pianist. He

entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1892. There he studiedwith Paul Pabst, Vassily Safonov, Vassily Sapel’nikov, AntonArensky and Sergei Taneyev. Following graduation in 1900with a gold medal, he entered the Anton Rubinstein PianoCompetition in Vienna, and won still another trophy. Withthis brilliant record to his credit, he had no trouble securingengagements as a pianist, touring Russia and Germany as avirtuoso. In 1906-08 and 1914-21 he was a professor at theMoscow Conservatory. The political turmoil in Russia wastoo much to bear, and Medtner (along with Rachmaninov and other musical colleagues) emigrated, first set-tling in Germany. He lived in France (1925-35) and eventually moved to England where he lived theremaining years of his life. In 1946, made possible by the financial support of Jaya Chamarajenda, theMaharajah of Mysore, the Medtner Society was formed. Medtner recorded a number of his songs, pianopieces and the three piano concertos, before passing away in 1951.

Medtner has been described as a neo-classicist, whose reverence for formal purity was “unparalleled incontemporary music.” According to Oskar von Riesemann, “Medtner’s real originality lies in his handlingof rhythm. In this respect he has command of such fertility of combinations and demonstrates such infi-nitely varied possibilities and inventions, as to give him a place apart in the literature of modern music.” Allof his compositions are noble, passionate, lyrical and rich in imagination. He developed new musical forms— short stories, improvisations, fairy tales and dithyrambs. The textures are complex, with an abundance ofcounterpoint, cross-rhythms and unusual metrical groupings. The Fairy Tale (“Skazka”) in E minor,Opus 34, No.2 (DISC 2, ) has as its epigraph a verse from a Tyutchev poem which Medtner also set ashis last song, Opus 61, No.8: “We lost all that was once our own.” According to biographer Barrie Martyn,“Here a river, like life, sweeps relentlessly onwards. From the very first bar the rippling left-hand tripletaccompaniment to the very Russian melody runs in ceaseless undulation throughout the entire piece, theflow interrupted only momentarily by two brief cadences and eventually lost from view in the very last bar.”

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Cherkassky (early 1930s)

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)The brilliant French composer, Francis Poulenc was born on 7th January, 1899 in Paris into a wealthy

family of pharmaceutical manufacturers. He once wrote: “During my childhood I had only one passion — to play the piano. When I was two years old my parents gave me a child’s piano...” Poulenc’s mother was hisfirst teacher and by 1915 Francis decided to seriously study the piano and began lessons with the eccentricvirtuoso, and family friend, Ricardo Viñes. It was Viñes who, about a year later, introduced Francis to theremarkable Erik Satie, and it was through Viñes that he came into contact with a composer of his own age,George Auric, who became his lifelong friend. Francis Poulenc quickly became an excellent pianist, a virtu-oso with a highly personal technique. He often performed, chiefly his own compositions, both as soloist andaccompanist.

Poulenc’s earliest piano compositions date from 1917. After World War I, Poulenc returned to the studyof music, although he remained in the French army until after the Armistice. He became a pupil of CharlesKoechlin. Koechlin was an excellent teacher, who advised his pupils to avoid the exaggerations of romanti-cism without sacrificing depth of feeling. In 1919 the concert audiences heard his three Mouvements Perpetuelsand Poulenc became a household name almost overnight. Around 1920 the critic Henri Collet groupedtogether Auric and Poulenc, plus Milhaud, Honegger, Durey and Tailleferre, as Les Six (“The French Six”).By 1926 Milhaud, Honegger and Poulenc were winning recognition for their individual activities, and Les Sixeventually passed into history.

The next several decades were fruitful for Poulenc, who created many of his finest works, including theConcert Champêtre, a Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, the Mass in G Major, songs, chamber musicand, of course, more piano pieces. During World War II, Poulenc was an active member of the FrenchResistance movement. Works from these years include the poignant Violin Sonata dedicated to the memoryof Federico Garcia Lorca and the deeply moving, tragic choral work, Figure Humaine, for unaccompanieddouble chorus, based on a poem of Paul Éluard. In 1947 his opera-burlesque, Les Mamelles de Tirésias, wasperformed at the Opéra Comique. The audiences were both shocked and delighted by the intriguing tongue-in-cheek score and the strange libretto by Claude Rostand, where a character changes his sex and another whogives birth to 40,000 babies! In 1957 he produced the opera Les Dialogues des Carmelites, which received itsAmerican premiere at the San Francisco Opera on 22nd September, 1957. In 1959 he produced La VoixHumaine, and in 1961 the six-part Gloria for chorus and orchestra. Francis Poulenc died suddenly at his homein Paris on 30th January, 1963.

The Trois Pièces from 1928 were dedicated to Ricardo Viñes. Originally this opus was conceived as a setof three pastorales, composed in 1918. Poulenc retained the first Pastorale and combined it with two newly-composed movements. One of the two new pieces, the Toccata (DISC 1, ) is a bravura piece involvingcrossed hands, broken chord figures and oscillating melodies.

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)Not many contemporary composers write music with such an unmistakable identity as that of Prokofiev.

The mocking reeds, the mischievous leaps in the melody, the tart and often disjointed harmonies, the suddenfluctuation from the naive and the simple to the unexpected and the complex — these are but a few of thefingerprints that mark Prokofiev’s works.

Born in 1891, he began studying music early with his mother, Reinhold Gliere and Sergei Taneyev. At

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five he wrote his first piano pieces, and at eight a completeopera. In 1903 he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatorywhere he studied with Liadov, Rimsky-Korsakov andTcherepnin, graduating with the highest honors seven yearslater. In the spring of 1918, Prokofiev left the Soviet Union tocircle the world. It is said that when he applied for his visa, thePeople’s Commissar of Education said to him: “You are a rev-olutionary in music just as we are a revolutionary in life, andwe ought to work together. But if you want to go, we will notstand in your way.” By way of Siberia, Japan, and Honolulu,Prokofiev came to the United States, arriving in August, 1918.He appeared as a pianist and as a composer. While in thiscountry, he received a commission from the Chicago OperaCompany to write an opera — The Love for Three Oranges. In1923 Prokofiev began a ten-year residence in Paris. Duringthis period he established his world reputation as one of themost powerful, original, and provocative composers of ourtime. In 1932 he returned to the Soviet Union. During theremaining 21 years of his life he composed some of his bestknown music to the film Alexander Nevsky, the opera War andPeace, his Symphony No.5, Opus 100, and the symphonicfairy tale Peter and the Wolf.

As a pianist, Prokofiev concertized all over the world. Herecorded his Third Piano Concerto and many of his shorterpiano pieces. Prokofiev was a pianist of impressive accom-plishment and his mastery of the instrument, and close familiarity with its resources shows unmistakably inhis wonderfully idiomatic music for the piano. In spite of this, however, he is not, in the strict sense of theterm, an innovator of keyboard style and technique. He did not seem interested in exploration, so his pianomusic contributed little that was new to the vocabulary of the instrument, little that exploited hidden orneglected resources of keyboard color, tone, and effect. Instead, he utilized the piano as a sort of testing andproving ground for purely musical ideas. As an instrument of harmony and tonal blending, it provided himwith the ideal medium through which to develop a personal art. In his piano music, we find what might betermed the “essential Prokofiev” — the essence of his musical thought, his basic musical vocabulary. There isa deep intimacy of utterance in most of the piano works. The characteristic qualities we find in the largerorchestral works — epic folklorism, eccentric whimsy, delicate melodicism — are all found expressed in closesimilarity of feeling and effect in them. Some of Prokofiev’s finest music is to be found here and especially inthe nine sonatas, a series of works which traces quite clearly his growth as a composer and the various stylis-tic changes which occurred during his career.

Prokofiev’s Four Pieces, Opus 4, is a startling set. Composed in 1908 and revised in 1910-12, it is indeeda set, for it traverses the emotional spectrum: evocation (Reminiscences), exaltation (Ardor), desperation(Despair), and inspiration (Temptation). The fourth and last piece, also known as Suggestion Diabolique

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(DISC 2, ) is a frightening, berserk explosion, the quintessence of shock and fury, frenetic anger, the con-clusion and resolution to the ostinato of dejection that precedes it. The universe expands, then implodes, andProkofiev gives us his interpretation of the “Big Bang”.

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)Rachmaninov is, after Tchaikovsky, the most performed and the most recorded of all Russian composers.

His second and third piano concerti and his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra are stan-dard repertoire of concert pianists throughout the world and among the most popular classical show piecesever created.

Rachmaninov was, after Liszt, the greatest pianistic genius. His extraordinary aptitude at the keyboard wasevidenced at a very early age. The music world should be grateful that Alexander Siloti auditionedRachmaninov when he was a boy with a propensity to play hooky and go ice skating instead of attending hismusic lessons in St. Petersburg. On Siloti’s recommendation, the young Sergei was transferred to Moscow,where a skeptical music faculty gave the lad a formidable first assignment with a two-week deadline: JohannesBrahms’ Variations on a Theme by Handel. This homework, however, was not challenging enough, because inmerely two days the tall teenager played the entire composition perfectly from memory to everyone’s amaze-ment. And in 1892, the nineteen-year-old Rachmaninov graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with theGreat Gold Medal, an honor bestowed only twice before in the Conservatory’s thirty year history. AlexanderScriabin, graduating the same year as Rachmaninov, was awarded only the Small Gold Medal. Another promi-nent pianist and composer, Nikolai Medtner, received the Great Gold Medal in 1900.

The short piano piece Polka de W.R. (DISC 1, ) was composed on March 11, 1911 on a theme by SergeiRachmaninov’s father, Vasili. When it was published a few months later, the composer dedicated the work toLeopold Godowsky. Although most scores still list the title with a “w”, it should be called “Polka de V.R.”

Vladimir Rebikov (1866-1920)Vladimir Ivanovich Rebikov was a Russian miniaturist. Many of his short piano pieces have been likened

to those of Grieg, and the more experimental pieces of later years gave him the title of Russian’s finest impres-sionist. He wrote eleven stage works, liturgical music, numerous short piano pieces (many very experimentaland far reaching), and “mélomimiques” for voice and piano. His most adventurous and celebrated pieces arehis stage works called “musico-psychological dramas”, such as The Woman with the Dagger (1911), Narcissus(1913) and The Gentry’s Nest, Opus 55. His best known work is a fairy play, after Dostoyevsky, Andersen andHauptmann, called Yolka (The Christmas Tree), Opus 21 which was produced in Moscow in 1903. Theendearing little Waltz (DISC 2, ) from this work is the stuff of Russian childhood memories.

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)When in 1881 Saint-Saëns was elected to the Institut de France someone said, “If it were necessary to

characterize Saint-Saëns in a few words we should call him the best musician in France.” He was a man ofextraordinary, and seemingly inexhaustible, energy and drive. He was an expert organist and pianist, teacherand founder of the Société Nationale de Musique. He edited the music of other composers, including a com-prehensive edition of Rameau’s works, and wrote theoretical treatises on harmony and melody. Beyond allthis he was an amateur astronomer, physicist, archaeologist, and natural historian. He painted, enjoyed

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learning new languages, was an omnivorous reader of the classics,and did creative writing. In short, Saint-Saëns was a man ofimmense culture.

He was described by Georges Servières as “of short stature. Hishead was extremely original and the features characteristic: a greatbrow, wide and open where, between the eyebrows, the tenacity ofthe man reveals itself: hair habitually cut short, and brownishbeard turning grey; a nose like an eagle’s beak, underlined by twodeeply marked wrinkles starting from the nostrils; eyes a littleprominent, very mobile, very expressive.”

Saint-Saëns was a master craftsman who had an unerringmusical sense and an astonishing ability to produce masterpieceafter masterpiece. He left an astonishing volume of work includingthirteen operas (of which Samson et Dalila is considered one of thegreatest works of the French lyric stage), ten concertos (includingthe delightful Carnival of the Animals for two pianos and orches-tra), seven symphonies, numerous choral works, over a hundredsongs, symphonic poems, piano compositions and chambersonatas for violin, cello, clarinet, oboe and bassoon. He also wroteworks for military band, cadenzas to piano concertos of Mozartand Beethoven, and transcribed and arranged numerous works by Bach, Gluck, Schumann, Mendelssohn,Berlioz, Mozart and others. “Of all composers, Saint-Saëns is most difficult to describe,” wrote Arthur Hervey.“He eludes you at every moment — the elements constituting his musical personality are so varied in theirnature, yet they seem to blend in so remarkable a fashion... Saint-Saëns is a typical Frenchman... He is pre-eminently witty... It is this quality which has enabled him to attack the driest forms of art and render thembearable. There is nothing ponderous about him.” The Prelude and Fugue in F minor, Op.90, No.1 (DISC1, ) is the opening piece of his Suite in F for piano, composed in 1891.

Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)Alexander Scriabin was a musical visionary, a genius, and an individualist with a strong, artistic voice. He

was born in Moscow on 6 January, 1872, the son of an accomplished pianist. He began music studies early,entering the Moscow Conservatory in 1888. There he studied with Vasily Safonov, Sergei Taneyev and AntonArensky (also Sergei Rachmaninov’s teacher). In 1892 the Moscow Conservatory awarded Scriabin their high-est honor, a gold Medal (in piano playing). During this period he began composing exquisite piano minia-tures which revealed such talent that they attracted the attention of the foremost publisher in Russia —Belaieff, who sponsored the young musician, gave him a handsome contract for his compositions, and sub-sidized a tour for him as piano virtuoso in programs of his own works.

From 1898 to 1903, Scriabin taught piano at the Moscow Conservatory. But teaching proved a painfulchore to him, and he abandoned it for composition and piano recitals. In 1906 he toured the United Stateswith great success. During this time period his compositions were undergoing a radical metamorphosis,largely due to his increasing interest in mysticism and philosophy. In his Third Symphony, written in 1903,

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Cherkassky (January 14, 1946)

subtitled The Divine Poem, he portrayed man’s escape from theshackles of religion and of his own past in ecstatic and tri-umphant music. His last two completed orchestral works werecalled Poem of Ecstasy, music which he said depicted the “ecstasyof unfettered action,” and Prometheus: The Poem of Fire. “For mypart,” he once stated, “I prefer Prometheus or Satan, the proto-type of revolt and individuality. Here I am my own master. Iwant truth, not salvation.” And in Prometheus: The Poem of Firehe described the omnipotence of the “creative will.” Scriabindied in Moscow on 27 April, 1915.

During his short life of 43 years, Scriabin wrote threesymphonies, two symphonic poems, variations for string quartet,a romance for French horn, a romance for voice, one piano con-certo, and more than two hundred piano compositions. ThePrelude for the Left Hand Alone in C-sharp minor, Op. 9,No.1 (DISC 2, ) was conceived in the summer of 1891, whenScriabin spent a great deal of time practising, among other works,Liszt’s Don Juan Fantasy and Balakirev’s Islamey. Scriabin’soverzealous practising strained his right hand seriously, resultingin neuralgia. This caused the composer much anguish and for atime he feared having to give up permanently his career as pianist.The richly romantic piece for the left hand (along with its com-panion piece, the Nocturne) which Scriabin composed in 1894,shows influences of his twin musical references of that period inhis life, Chopin and Liszt. Biographer Faubion Bowers calls theworks “original, ostentatious and luscious.”

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)Dmitri Shostakovich was born on September 25, 1906, in a house on the quiet Podolskaya Street in

St. Petersburg, not far from the Institute of Technology. His parents came from Siberia and were both musi-cal. His mother had played the piano from childhood and almost all her life had been a music teacher. Thefather was a dilettante in music; he was very fond of singing, especially the Gypsy songs that were popularin those days. On the occasion of his 50th birthday, Shostakovich provided the following autobiographi-cal note: “I grew up in a musical family. My mother, Sophia Vasilyevna, studied for some years at theConservatory and was a good pianist. My father, Dmitri Boleslavovich, was a great lover of music and sangwell. There were many music-lovers among the friends and acquaintances of the family, all of whom tookpart in our musical evenings. I also remember the strains of music that came from a neighboring apartmentwhere there lived an engineer who was an excellent cellist and was passionately fond of chamber music.With a group of his friends he often played quartets and trios by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Borodinand Tchaikovsky. I used to go out into the corridor and sit there for hours, the better to hear the music.In our apartment too, we held amateur musical evenings. All this impressed itself on my musical

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Cherkassky with actress BarbaraBritton, rehearsing for their concerton May 26, 1949, at the Wilshire

Ebell Theater in Los Angeles.

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memory and played a certain part in my future work as a composer.”Shostakovich was educated at Shidlovskaya’s Commercial School where he did well although he had some

trouble with geography and history. At ten years of age he entered Glyaser’s School of Music in Petrograd. Hestudied there from 1916 to 1918, and in 1919 passed his entrance examination to the PetrogradConservatory. There he studied with Leonid Nikolayev, becoming a world-class pianist. In a review publishedin 1923, the critic wrote: “A tremendous impression was created by the concert given by Dmitri Shostakovich,the young composer and pianist. He played Bach’s Organ Prelude and Fugue in A Minor in a transcription byFranz Liszt and Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata, along with several of his own piano compositions.Shostakovich played with a confidence and an artistic endeavor of great fluency that revealed in him a musi-cian who has a profound feeling for the understanding of his art.” Shostakovich was only 17 years old at thetime!

Shostakovich finished his course of piano studies at the Conservatory in 1923. Four years later he took partin the First International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, where he was awarded a Certificate of Merit. Butafterwards he decided to abandon the career of concert pianist. This is what he said about it: “After finishingthe Conservatory I was confronted with the problem — should I become a pianist or a composer? The latterwon. If the truth be told I should have been both, but it’s too late now to blame myself for making such a ruth-less decision.” Shostakovich’s last concert as piano soloist was given in Rostov-on-Don in 1930. He rarelyappeared on concert stages after that and only on occasions when he would perform his own compositions.

Although he began composing at the age of ten, he did not seriously apply himself to composition untilentering the Conservatory. There he enjoyed the fatherly patronage of Alexander Glazunov and studied vocif-erously under Maximilian Steinberg, a disciple and student of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Shostakovich’s firstwork that had crossed the dividing line between boyhood and manhood was the Scherzo in F sharp minor fororchestra which was published as his Opus 1 in 1919. What followed were Eight Preludes for Piano, Opus 2,Theme and Variations for Orchestra, Opus 3, Two Fables for Mezzo-Soprano and Orchestra, Opus 4, ThreeFantastic Dances for Piano, Opus 5, a Suite for Two Pianos, Opus 6, another Scherzo for Orchestra, Opus 7, hisFirst Piano Trio, Opus 8, Three Pieces for Cello and Piano, Opus 9, and the Symphony No.1 in F minor, Opus10.

Shostakovich became an overnight sensation on May 12, 1926, when the Leningrad Philharmonic underNikolai Malko gave the first performance of his First Symphony. The score was his graduation work,presented in December 1925 on completion of his composition studies with Maximilian Steinberg. The 19-year-old composer’s work was soon after performed in Moscow, then in Berlin conducted by BrunoWalter, then Philadelphia under Leopold Stokowski, followed by Otto Klemperer and Arturo Toscanini. Theworld was singing the praises of Dmitri Shostakovich. Needless to say that Shostakovich continued from 1926until his death in Moscow on August 9, 1975 to create masterpiece after masterpiece and astound the musi-cal world with his talent. He eventually wrote a total of 15 symphonies, 15 string quartets, 4 operas, 4 bal-lets, 36 film scores, numerous piano, choral, and chamber works, songs and incidental music.

Shostakovich composed the Twenty-Four Preludes, Opus 34 during the period 1932-33, between hisopera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and his bright and theatrical Concerto No.1 for Piano, Trumpet and Strings. Thebackground tradition of Opus 34 is that of the line begun by Bach, continued by Chopin and later byScriabin and Rachmaninov. Thus we find Shostakovich’s preludes ranging through all twenty-four majorand minor keys, their moods swinging from majesty to slapstick, from sorrow to ecstasy. During the 78rpm

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era some of these short preludes were recorded by the composerhimself, as well as by Harriet Cohen, William Kapell, OscarLevant and in arrangements by Jascha Heifetz and Artie Shaw.Cherkassky recorded only two: Prelude in C-sharp minor,Opus 34, No.10 and Prelude in D minor, Opus 34, No.24(DISC 2, - ).

Piotr I. Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)Tchaikovsky poured out his emotions in an astounding

number and variety of works: ten operas, six symphonies, sixsymphonic poems, three ballets, three overtures, four orchestralsuites, chamber music, concertos, a large number of piano pieces,and a hundred or more songs. His music is not flawless in formlike that of Beethoven, nor is it serene and thoughtful like that ofBrahms. Sometimes it is true that his “manner is better than hismatter,” but as beautiful music it is unrivaled for lovely melodyand exquisite coloring. Careless critics have labeled Tchaikovskya master of melancholy. It is true that nowhere in music may befound such an expression of overpowering grief as in the lastmovement of Sixth Symphony. It is true that his music reflects hislife, the life of a nervous, highly sensitive man. Tchaikovsky wasa thinker, and if his thoughts on the mysteries of life cast a shad-ow over his work, he was not alone in his gloom. However, notall his music is gloomy, in fact he produced some of the happiest

melodies of his time. Only a man as complex could have created a masterpiece as wonderful and full of joy asThe Nutcracker. Among his finest piano works is his set of twelve portraits, entitled The Seasons. The editor of“Nouvelliste,” Nikolai Bernard convinced Tchaikovsky to contribute a monthly piano piece to his publication.From December 1875 onwards Bernard enticed his readers with these words: “Our celebrated composerTchaikovsky is giving his support to the magazine; month by month he will provide a work for piano illus-trating a seasonal event by its title and content.” The result eventually was published as Opus 37bis. October:Autumn Song (DISC 2, ) is one of the most beautiful in the set. In the first edition of the score, the piecewas preceded by a few lines from a poem:

Jctym> jcsgftncz dtcm yfi ,tlysq cfl> Autumn! Our poor garden strewn with leaves,Kbcnmz gj;tkntdibt gj dtnhe ktnzn... Yellow leaves fly in the wind...

From A. Tolstoy’s poem “Autumn! Our poor garden is strewn with leaves”

–Notes by Marina and Victor Ledin, ©2000

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Cherkassky with conductor JacquesRachmilovich (May 7, 1946)

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SHURA CHERKASSKYThe Historic 1940s Recordings

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DISC 1SAINT-SAËNS: Prelude and Fugue in F minor, Op.90, No.1 3:57

(HMV D.B.9599 (2EA-14737-1))

RACHMANINOV: Polka de W. R. (1911) 3:39(CUPOL 6027 (1627))

POULENC: Toccata from Trois Pièces 1:57(CUPOL 6026 (1668))

CHAMINADE: Autrefois, from Six Pièces Humoristiques, Op. 87, No.4 4:23(HMV D.B.21183 (2EA 14733-1))

BRAHMS: Sonata in F minor, Op.5 30:13(VOX Set 626 and VLP-6260)

I. Allegro maestoso 6:49II. Andante espressivo 8:56III. Scherzo: Allegro energico 3:55IV. Intermezzo (Rückblick): Andante molto 3:30V. Finale: Fugue 7:03

LISZT: Liebesträum No.3 in A-flat Major (S541/R211) 4:17(ELECTROLA E 41145 (7TRA50166)

LISZT: Concert Étude No.2 – Gnomenreigen (“Dance of the Gnomes”) (S145/R6) 2:55(CUPOL 6027 (1669))

LISZT: Four Hungarian Rhapsodies (S244/R106)(VOX Set 175 (698-701 A/B))

Hungarian Rhapsody No.5 in E minor 5:53Hungarian Rhapsody No.6 in D-flat Major 6:08Hungarian Rhapsody No.11 in A minor 4:25Hungarian Rhapsody No.15 in A minor (“Rákóczi March”) 4:4315

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DISC 2KHACHATURIAN: Toccata (1932) 3:08MEDTNER: Fairy Tale in E minor, Op.34, No.2 2:25PROKOFIEV: Suggestion Diabolique, Op.4, No.4 2:32LIADOV: Music Box, Op.32 2:28GLINKA: Tarantella in A minor (1843) 1:24SHOSTAKOVICH: Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op.34, No.10 2:17SHOSTAKOVICH: Prelude in D minor, Op.34, No.24 0:28SCRIABIN: Prelude for the Left-Hand Alone, Op.9, No.1 2:41TCHAIKOVSKY: October: Autumn Song, Op.37bis, No.10 3:16REBIKOV: Waltz from The Christmas Tree, Op.21 1:45

(Tracks - originally issued as VOX Set 165 (16023-16026 A/B))

GOULD: Prelude and Toccata (1945) 4:18(CUPOL 6026 (1666))

GOULD: Boogie Woogie Étude (1943) 2:02(CUPOL 6026 (1668))

CHOPIN: Polonaise in A-flat Major, Op.53 6:14(CUPOL/TELEFUNKEN A15028 (1670 and 1671))

CHOPIN: Mazurka in C Major, Op.68, No.1 1:37(HMV 7ER 5142 (7TEA 641-N))

CHOPIN: Mazurka in D Major, Op.33, No.3 2:12(HMV D.B.21137 (2EA14736-1))

CHOPIN: Impromptu No.2 in F-sharp Major, Op.36 5:32(HMV 7ER 5142 (7TEA 641-N))

CHOPIN: Fantasie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op.66 4:49(HMV 7ER 5142 (7TEA 642-1N))

CHOPIN: Fantasie in F minor, Op.49 12:34(HMV D.B.9599 (2EA14751-1A), D.B.9600 (2EA14752-1A) and (2EA14753-1A))

CHOPIN: Étude in C minor, Op.10, No.12 2:31(HMV D.B.21183 (2EA14738-1))

CHOPIN: Étude in C-sharp minor, Op.10, No.4 2:10(HMV D.B.21137 (2EA14736-1))20

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Credits� � � � �

Executive and Remastering Producer: Michael Rolland Davis

Transfer and Remastering Engineers: Ed Thompson and Victor Ledin

Liner Notes: Marina and Victor Ledin

Design: Communication Graphics

Cover Photograph and Pages 7, 8, 11, 17, 21, 22, 23: Courtesy of the University of Southern California,on behalf of the USC Library, Department of Special Collections. Special thanks to Dace Taube.

Inside Tray Photo and Page 3: Courtesy of Music Center of Los Angeles County.Photos by Otto Rothschild, taken in Cherkassky’s Hollywood home on January 14, 1946.

Special thanks to Julio Gonzalez.

Source Materials Provided By: Daniel Berman and Joseph Patrych.Additional recordings provided by Encore Archives. Additional photographs courtesy of IPAM.

Thanks to Ms. Christa Phelps and the Cherkassky Estate

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