WOSU Public Media - Classical

To celebrate Earl Wild’s extraordinary life and career, WOSU FM will

present three installments of Mr. Wild’s 1995 radio series, Earl Wild’s Grande Piano (’Grande’ with a e, please) produced here at WOSU.  These programs will pre-empt Music in Mid Ohio, which resumes March 7th.

Please see www.earlwild.com for more information about this great artist and raconteur, and join us Sunday evenings at 6: Feb. 7, 14, 21, and for an extended interview with music on February 28th on WOSU 89-7 FM or on line at www.wosu.org.

Earl Wild’s Grande Piano grew out of discussions I had with Mr. Wild and his partner Michael Rolland Davis, after recording a one hour special with the artist in 1994.  Mr. Wild was living in Columbus at the time, and making exquisite recordings at his home, Fernleaf Abbey, in Linworth.  Earl Wild in conversation was hysterical, opinionated, profane, intelligent, brilliant, smart, off-color and often unsuitable for broadcast. Earl Wild’s commentary on Grande Piano, his choice of artists, his knowledge of and passion for music, and his own artistry were second to none.  I have hours of outtakes and you’ll have to go to my funeral to hear them (it will be worth it).

I served as Producer of the series, since it was in large part my”fault” for asking in the first place as the gentlemen himself was wont to say. Kevin Petrilla did all the editing and made the series a fit for radio.  As you listen, you are hearing Kevin’s work as much as Earl Wild’s. Michael Rolland Davis was crucial in making all of this happen, and  lot of the work was his. (You wanna know from magnificent recordings, go to www.ivoryclassics.com).  I made notes, coordinated, got Earl into the studio, did some edits and stayed out of the way. Nobody functioned as a producer for Earl Wild.  He knew exactly what he wanted to do and he did it. Thank God.

Here’s an outline of the four programs to be heard in February.  Music in Mid Ohio returns March 7th.  Please join us.

Sundays, 6 PM WOSU 89-7 FM or on line www.wosu.org

So many of today’s artists who have big recording contracts are just plain old fashioned boring. B-O-R-I-N-G.

FEB 7

Earl Wild plays and discusses performances by

Arthur Rubinstein Schumann: Arabeske

COMPARISONS:  Mozart: Don Giovanni Serenade

arr. Busoni with Leslie Howard; arr. Backhaus with Earl Wild

Brahms: Rhapsody 1 Ivo Pogorelich

Prokofiev: Visions fugitives Deborah Arder

Debussy: Images (selections) Ivan Moravec

Leslie Howard, the British pianist who performed the Busoni transcription you just heard, has been working for years on the project of recording the complete solo works of Franz Liszt. I say, good luck!

FEB 14

Earl Wild plays and discusses performances by

Egon Petri  Beethoven: Sonata in F# Op. 78

COMPARISIONS Tchaikovsky: April (The Seasons)

Brigitte Engerer; Mikhail Pletnev

Schumann: Blumenstueck Christopher Saiger

Liszt: Transcendental Etude 5 Minoru Nojima

Debussy: 2 Etudes Paul Jacobs

Rachmaninoff: Preludes in G Major and g minor Earl Wild

Record companies are responsible for foisting on the public through their massive publicity budgets hundreds of mediocre discs…usually a necessary to a library of recorded music as a plague of locusts.

FEB 21

Earl Wild plays and discusses performances by

Vladimir Horowitz Scarlatti 3  Sonatas

COMPARISONS

Brahms Capriccio Op. 76 no. 2

Walter Gieseking; Murray Perahia

Schumann: Buente-blaetter Clara Haskil

Schumann: Fantasie, Op. 2 Ania Dorfamn

Chopin” Nocturne in f#, Op. 48, no. 2 Earl Wild

Busoni: Carmen Variations Marc-Andre Hamelin

Most competitions today have descended to the level of state fairs, where the competitors rattle off their wares in a sideshow of technique and endurance

FEB 28

Earl Wild with music and in conversation with Christopher

Earl Wild on Ivory Classics. www.ivoryclassics.com

Purdy (rec. 2006)

EARL WILD’S GRANDE PIANO-SUNDAYS AT 6 PM BEGINNING FEB 7 on WOSU 89-7 FM

P.S. Earl Wild was called in late in the day to join Maria Callas for one of

her last concerts, on her 1973-1974 world tour. I believe it was in Dallas. Callas was playing to cheering houses but her voice was gone. She knew it, everyone knew it. Earl Wild was and remained at the height of his powers. He told me she would sit backstage, in Halston and pearls, thumbing through music to try and find something she could sing, deciding only as they walked out on stage. The public cheered and went nuts anyway. Coming off stage after a harrowing performance (hers) and listening to the cheers, La Callas took Mr. Wild by the hand and said, “Come Earl, they love us” and sailed out with him to the applause.

–Christopher Purdy

Tags: Ania Dorfman, Arthur Rubinstein, Brahms, Busoni, Christopher Purdy, Clara Haskil, Classical Music, Earl Wild, Earl Wild's Grande Piano, Egon Petri, Haskil, Leslie Howard, Liszt, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Maria Callas, Mikhail Pletnev, Murray Perahia, Pogorelich, Schumann, Walter Gieseking, WOSU

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