Rachmaninoff & Gershwin transcriptions by Earl Wild

Featuring

John Wilson
Sergei Rachmaninoff
George Gershwin
Earl Wild

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Composer Biography

Earl Wild, the American pianist and transcriber, was inspired to make his virtuoso arrangements of Rachmaninoff's songs by his friendship with Russian soprano Maria Kurenko, who had been accompanied by Rachmaninoff himself.

Notable Performances

Earl Wild became known as a Gershwin specialist after performing as soloist in a live radio broadcast of Rhapsody in Blue with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1942, an event that made front-page news.

Composition History

Between 1893 and 1916, Sergei Rachmaninoff, the Russian composer, wrote 85 songs for solo voice, a form he never returned to after leaving Russia in 1917.

Performer Biography

John Wilson played piano on the San Francisco Symphony's 2021 Grammy-winning recording of Michael Tilson Thomas's Meditations on Rilke, which won 'Best Classical Compendium'.

Cultural Impact

Earl Wild, along with Jorge Bolet, Raymond Lewenthal, and Vladimir Horowitz, is credited with reviving appreciation for the art of piano transcription in the 1950s and 60s.

Composition History

George Gershwin, the American composer, wrote a total of six preludes in January 1925, but only three of them, heard on this album, were selected for publication and became immediately popular.

Performer Biography

John Wilson, the pianist on this album, has performed extensively in North America, including at Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco and Carnegie Hall in New York.