(Oscar Levant in a Recital of Modern Music
Oscar Levant, p...)
Oscar Levant in a Recital of Modern Music
Oscar Levant, piano
Recorded December 17, 1941, and January 20, 1942, in Liederkranz Hall, New York City.
Side 1 (CO 32288): Gershwin: Preludes Nos. 1 and 3
Side 2 (CO 32287): Gershwin: Prelude No. 2
Side 3 (CO 32412): Debussy: Les Collines d'Anacapri (Préludes, Book I, No. 5)
Side 4 (CO 32409): Debussy: Jardins sous la pluie (Estampes, No. 3)
Side 5 (CO 32410): Jelobinsky: Etudes, Op. 19 - No. 1 (Toccata); No. 2 (Nocturne)
Side 6 (CO 32289): Shostakovich: Prelude, Op. 34, No. 2; Polka from "The Golden Age"
Side 7 (CO 32413): Ravel: Sonatine - Second movement (Menuet)
Side 8 (CO 32411): Levant: Sonatina - First movement (Con ritmo)
I present the three Gershwin preludes as one track, rearranged in their correct order.
When sold by Amazon.com, this product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
(Track Listing Track # Title 1 Rhapsody In Blue 2 Second R...)
Track Listing Track # Title 1 Rhapsody In Blue 2 Second Rhapsody For Piano And Orchestra 3 Concerto In F For Piano And Orchestra: I-Allegro 4 Concerto In F For Piano And Orchestra: II-Andante Con Moto 5 Concerto In F For Piano And Orchestra: III-Allegro Con Brio 6 'I Got Rhythm' Variations 7 Prelude I: Allegro Ben Ritmato E Deciso 8 Prelude II: Andante Con Moto E Poco Rubato 9 Prelude III: Allegro Ben Ritmato E
(Anton Rubinstein
Piano Concerto No. 4 in D minor
for Pian...)
Anton Rubinstein
Piano Concerto No. 4 in D minor
for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 70
Oscar Levant, piano
Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York, Dimitri Mitropoulos
When sold by Amazon.com, this product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
Oscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author and raconteur.
Background
Oscar Levant was born on December 27, 1906 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, the youngest son of Max Levant, a watchmaker, and Annie Radin. Max Levant ran a jewelry store from their home; Annie encouraged their four sons to study music.
Education
Oscar first studied piano with his brother Benjamin, who was ten years his senior, and subsequently with Martin Miessler, who had attended the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany. Upon his father's death, Levant, a young man of medium height and with curly black hair and large dark eyes, left high school at age fifteen to live in New York City, where he studied piano with Sigismund Stojowski. Later he studied composition with Joseph Schillinger, a Russian theorist living in New York and for two years with composer Arnold Schoenberg.
Career
When Levant was twelve he went to the theater to see Ladies First, conducted by his uncle Oscar Radin. The show's pianist, George Gershwin, would later become his close friend. Levant was an ardent fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Charles Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks; this was an early indication of his lifelong passion for sports and movies. He earned money playing piano for dance classes and attended many concerts. His brother Harry, who was conducting a Shubert revue at the Winter Garden Theater, let him play in the pit orchestra, which led to work with various dance orchestras.
On February 14, 1924, Paul Whiteman premiered George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. It was the sensation of the season and a seminal inspiration for Levant, who immediately learned the piece and played it with Whiteman's orchestra on one occasion. He recorded it for Brunswick Records in 1925, the first pianist after Gershwin to do so. He persuaded a mutual friend to introduce him to Gershwin, whom he idolized, and thus began a close friendship that lasted until Gershwin's untimely death in 1937.
In 1926 Levant went to England as accompanist to Rudy Wiedoeft, a classical saxophonist; they made several recordings for British Columbia Records. In 1927 his role as a pianist in the Broadway hit Burlesque led to a part in Paramount's film version of the play, entitled The Dance of Life (1929). For the next few years he--except for a time in 1934 when he played in radio jazz bands--devoted himself to composition, writing popular songs, Broadway show music, a sonatina for piano, and a string quartet.
He returned to Hollywood in 1935 to write film music and complete the string quartet and Nocturne. After George Gershwin succumbed to a brain tumor in 1937, Levant played Gershwin's Concerto in F at the Gershwin Memorial Concert at the Hollywood Bowl. He recorded all Gershwin's piano compositions: Concerto in F, Rhapsody in Blue, Second Rhapsody, "I Got Rhythm" Variations for Piano and Orchestra, and the three Preludes.
He returned to New York City in 1938 to conduct two Broadway shows, The Fabulous Invalid and The American Way, and was invited to join panelists Clifton Fadiman, Franklin P. Adams, and John Kieran on the nationally broadcast radio quiz show "Information Please. " Listeners tried to stump the panelists with questions on literature, sports, music, theater, and movies. Levant's remarkable memory of music, movies, and sports trivia, along with his acerbic wit, made him an instant celebrity and launched his career as a concert pianist.
In 1940 his best-selling book A Smattering of Ignorance was published. He appeared as a soloist with Pierre Monteux and the San Francisco Symphony, then resumed his film career with Rhythm on the River (1940) and Kiss the Boys Goodbye (1941). In 1942 he premiered his piano concerto with Alfred Wallenstein and the NBC Symphony, went on radio and toured as a solo pianist-raconteur with his "Program of Piano Music with Comments, " and made three movies for Warner Brothers. Rhapsody in Blue (1944) was reviewed in the New York Sun by Eileen Creelman, who wrote, "His acid, smart-alecky remarks are one of the hits of the film. " Humoresque (1947) and Romance on the High Seas (1948) followed. In 1947 he was invited to play for President Harry S. Truman at the White House. The same year he moved to Beverly Hills with his wife and three daughters, and he collaborated with Al Jolson on the "Kraft Music Hall" radio show for two years.
His next movie was The Barkleys of Broadway (1948). Eileen Creelman's review stated: "His snarling comedy and his [piano] playing are equally entertaining. " By 1949 he was appearing regularly on NBC-TV's "Who Said That?" In 1950 he again performed for President Truman, and played the Gershwin Concerto in F in the hit movie An American in Paris (1951), but his frenzied schedule--a concert tour, television appearances, a performance and recording of Rubinstein's Concerto in D minor, and work on another movie--led to an addiction to prescription drugs and he suffered a heart attack in 1952.
For the next ten years he was plagued with addictions, hospitalizations, and shock treatments, which impaired his memory. Between 1956 and 1958 he became, in his own words, the "verbal vampire of television, " on his own shows--one was canceled because of a vulgar witticism he made--and as a guest on network television. Describing a movie actress who wore bangs and dressed in daring, extreme décolletage, he said, "I've seen every part of her anatomy except her forehead. " After his appearances on "The Jack Paar Show" in 1961, where his witty barbs were often aimed at his own eccentricities, he became a recluse until his death. Levant died in Beverly Hills.
Quotations:
“There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line. ”
“I was once thrown out of a mental hospital for depressing the other patients. ”
"Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome. "
"Happiness isn't something you experience, it's something you remember. ”
“Once I make up my mind, I'm full of indecision. "
Connections
On January 5, 1932, Levant married Barbara Smith, a dancer, who was then appearing in Ziegfeld Follies of 1931. They divorced in 1933. Later he met June Gilmartin, then working on Broadway as June Gale, and on December 1, 1939, they were married. June Levant filed for a legal separation in 1947 and a divorce in 1958.