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LEONARD
PENNARIO
The Early Years 1950-1958
BARTOK:
Piano Sonata, Sz.80 - CHOPIN:
Complete Waltzes, Polonaise in A-flat, Op.53, Piano Sonata No.2 in B-flat minor,
Op.35 - DEBUSSY:
La Plus que Lent; Reverie - FRANCK:
Prelude, Chorale & Fugue - LISZT:
Sonata in B minor, S.178 - MUSSORGSKY:
Pictures at an Exhibition (First Complete Recording of Original version)
- PENNARIO:
Midnight on the Cliffs (First Recording); Variations on The Kerry Dancers
(Private and Only Available Recording) - PROKOFIEV:
Vision Fugitives, Op.22 (First Recording of Complete Score) - RAVEL:
Gaspard de la Nuit; La Valse (First Recording of ravel's Piano Version); Miroirs
- ROZSA:
Piano Sonata in A minor, Op.20 (First Recording) - SCHUMANN:
Fantasia in C, Op.17 DELUXE
4CD SET ~ LIMITED EDITION
CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED
AUTHORIZED by LEONARD PENNARIO
Digitally
remastered from original Capitol
Classics master tapes
MS1188 ~ $24.95
* * *
"[Pennario's]
virtuosity left colleagues and admirers slack-jawed with envy and
admiration......[the Mussorgsky is] bold and incisively characterised...Visions
Fugitives are brilliantly alive to all of their flashing whimsy... lavishly
presented and brilliantly re-mastered, make for a superb souvenir of a very
special time in Pennario's long and glittering career."
Gramophone
International Edition ~ June 2007
"Recommended."
Fanfare
~ July / August 2007
"[This
retrospective] is long overdue...The [Chopin] Sonata is excellent...like
everything in the collection, played to near-perfection...[the Polonaise] is as
sweeping and grandiose as I gave ever heard...I have never heard a more
satisfying rendition of the Schumann...[Liszt] to dazzling effect...[Mussorgsky]
is one of the most colorful, well-structured performances around...Pennario's
versatility and skill [in the Visions Fugitives]...[Bartok] dispatched with all
the panache Pennario was known for...[Rozsa's Sonata is] the summit of the
collection...[it is] the greatest recorded performance of any Rozsa work...Ravel's
Miroirs are projected with crystal-bright clarity...Alborada del Gracioso is
brilliantly done...Pennario's radiant colors and irresistible momentum may make
you momentarily forget there is an orchestral version [of La Valse]...Those old
Capitol vinyls never sounded as good as these remasterings...a collection that
should be welcomed by every pianophile..."
American
Record Guide - May / April 2007
"...Chopin's
B-flat minor Sonata stands out in the Scherzo for Pennario's rhythmic verve and
secure marksmanship...you can infer Pennario's sense of long line
and sensitively shaded soft playing in the Franck...Pennario delivers a
serious, concentrated, fastidiously prepared, and intelligently paced
interpretation [of the Mussorgsky]...Pennario taps into
]Prokofiev's] lyrical beauties that sometimes elude other pianists...energetic,
sparkling readings of sonatas by Bartók and Rózsa further reveal Pennario's
affinity for the music of his time. For surface sheen and suave fingerwork
alone, Ravel [works] command respect..."
Classics Today - March 2007
"The
importance of this set cannot be emphasized highly enough!"
Classical
Net - April 2007
"For
many fans of the piano, Leonard Pennario: The Early Years 1950-1958 will
represent the fulfillment of a wish held for a long, long time — availability
on CD of a pianist who once sold millions of records and was practically a
household name in the United States at one time...The music flows off the page
and appears as though spontaneously created; you don't think of how he executes
it, it's simply there...Pennario's steely, efficient Prokofiev,
his indescribably jazzy Bartók Sonata, his definitive reading of the Miklós
Rósza Sonata — these were pieces in which Pennario was matchless. His technical transparency in the Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit
is literally out of step with history — pianists of his era really didn't have
that piece under their fingers, and truly accurate performances of the work are
a late twentieth century phenomenon. However, Pennario had it down and was the
only pianist of his time who could play it well."
H&B
Recordings Direct - March 2007
"Sound
quality for these [remastered] mono recordings is supremely better than any of
the original LPs that I compared and give new life to Pennario's incredible
pianistic art."
Lance
Hill, Classical Music Guide - March 2007
"The
present set includes recordings made 1943 (the private record of The Kerry
Dancers) to 1958 (Chopin Sonata). Significant is Pennario's unearthing of the
solo arrangement of Ravel's La Valse (1954), a truly blazing moment of bravura
and dynamic finesse... A silken tone, breathed phrasing, and a penchant for
arriving at what Rachmaninov called "the point" of a musical piece are
Pennario's strong suits. Just to have an integral set (1950) of Prokofiev's
twenty Visions Fugitives (it was their debut as a complete unit) is a must for
collectors... Pennario is an elegant Lisztian... The Prelude, Chorale, et Fugue
of Franck (1957) proves a durable, intelligent, stylish performance. The Bartok
Sonata (1956) is one of several kinetic performances of repertory ... The
Moussorgsky Pictures (1953) enjoys a grand line from start to finish, an
intelligently graded series of arches to the Great Gate of Kiev, and never less
than committed emotionally. The Funeral March Sonata caught me at the eponymous
Funeral March and its tender, nostalgic middle section...The 1956 performance of
the A Minor Sonata by Miklos Rozsa is a delicious find: it begins in the manner
of a Bach toccata... Pennario draws forth a liquid tone out of an oft percussive
Steinway in this polyphonic, moody music. The first movement concludes with some
echt Hungarian razzle-dazzle. The second movement, Andante con calore, displays
some exotic, Debussy-inspired harmonies, and we recall that Rosza composed his
Piano Concerto (1986) especially for Leonard Pennario. The musical tiger emerges
for the Allegro gusto e vigoroso, another toccata demanding rapid shifts of
touch, dynamics and knotty, jazzy fingering. The set of Chopin Waltzes (1952)
stands as fine testimony to a clean, polished salon rendition of the standard
cycle of fourteen, played in the manner of Lipatti... When Leonard's
"Minute" Waltz came over my speakers, my daughter (aged eleven) ran
in, saying that it was played the way she loved her favorite waltz
played...Crystalline, icy perfection for Ravel's Miroirs (1952), the Noctuelles
fluttering in the cold, clear ether of outer space. Stasis and twittering for
Oiseaux Tristes, a haunted collection of birds they are. Watteau for Une Barque
sur l'Ocean, and we can hear the waves slap against the prow of the boat.
Wizardly trills and arpeggiated runs. Collectors measure performances of
Alborado del Gracioso by the standard Lipatti set; and while those by Julius
Katchen and Leon Fleisher are indeed powerful, Pennario adds considerable
Spanish panache and dexterous magic to the blaze of colors. The Vallee des
Cloches rivals Richter's famous inscription for clarity, nuance, and sustained
pulsation. The same sustained, blue-green sheet of ice water saturates Ondine,
the first of the Gaspard suite. Infinite degrees of touch for Le Gibet, followed
by the fiercely punishing agogical frenzies of Scarbo carried off in
masterfully. To conclude the Ravel group, we have Pennario's inimitable
contribution to keyboard lore, the solo version of La Valse, the performance of
which became Pennario's trump card. During the playing of Debussy's Reverie
(1957), my daughter asked if his piano were a harp. Leonard's own Lisztian
piece, Midnight on the Cliffs (1942), depicts the Atlantic crashing against the
jagged shores of Newport, Rhode Island...Variations on The Kerry Dancers, 1942,
was inscribed at Pennario's Buffalo, New York home. The Brahms influence is
clear, and the piece bids a fond, albeit temporary, farewell to the honest
virtuoso who is never less than a gentleman." -
Audiophile Audition, March 2007
"These
performances by American pianist Leonard Pennario are all Capitol studio
recordings, made at a time (1950-1958) when that label’s monaural sound
set the standard for the industry. Digitally remastered from the original
session tapes...they seem as fresh and vibrant as when they were first
made. Indeed, they are the living record of such an amazing artistic and
interpretive prowess, captured in full-bodied sonics that explore the full
range and depth of the instrument that we can only wonder why the EMI people
didn’t choose to reissue this treasure trove of music themselves.
For whatever reason, EMI’s loss is MSR’s (and
our) gain. When you hear these recordings, you will be as glad as I was that
more than 300 minutes of some of the best piano playing on record was not
left to quietly gather dust in the vaults. Such an embarrassment of riches
is really too much to take in at one or two marathon auditions, so I
recommend spacing your listening sessions out for greater enjoyment (in
other words, don’t listen as a critic with a deadline is often
compelled to!) The payback will be more rewarding than you could possibly
imagine.
Disc 1. All
Chopin, beginning with a stirring account of Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor,
the famed "Funeral March," and concluding with another full-bodied
account of the Polonaise in A-flat Major. In the sonata, the melody in the
Lento middle section of the Marche funébre
is memorably recounted. Pennario gives a sweeping treatment to the
Polonaise, a genre so transformed by Chopin that often, as here, it is
literally undanceable, even by the Fred Astaires of this world. In between,
we have the traditional 14 Waltzes, played with elegance, taste, and deepest
feeling. Not only are the memorable waltzes such as the poignant C-sharp
Minor or the bittersweet "Valse Triste" in A Minor strikingly
rendered here; even as comparatively light a piece as the Waltz in G-flat
Major is given its due proportion by Pennario.
Disc 2
What a line-up! Schumann’s Fantasia in C Major, Liszt’s Sonata in B
Minor, and Cesar Franck’s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue. The full compass of
a grand piano that seldom been sounded as superbly as Pennario does in the
opening movement of the Fantasia, appropriately marked by Schumann Durchaus
phantastisch und leidenschaftlich verzutragen ("throughout
fantastic and laden with sorrowful emotion." Oh brother, did he say a
mouthful!) The Liszt starts and ends slowly and softly. In between, it
builds to three separate climaxes before the finale, all as sure and
inevitable as fate, so beautifully structured is this work. Pennario’s
performance is utterly spellbinding. He shows us that the deeply felt
Franck, a work often misunderstood and ill-performed, belongs in the same
fast company as its disc-mates.
Disc 3
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition gives a full measure of the piano’s
orchestra-like sonorities. I’m particularly intrigued with the poetry
Pennario brings to moody pieces like The Old Castle and Catacombes, though
in terms of sheer excitement, his Baba Yaga gives away nothing to the well
known orchestral version. Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives are the
tantalizing beginnings of compositions, witty, enticing, compelling, and
atmospheric. I like the way individual visions seem to recede to make way
for their successors in Pennario’s performance. My favorite is the
wistfully melancholy No. 8. In Bela Bartok’s Sonata, the pianist brings
out the element of folk-influenced lyricism that is often missed among the
highly rhythmic proceedings. Finally we have Pennario’s world premiere of
Miklos Rozsa’s Sonata in a Minor, shunned by more timid pianists as a
career-breaker. It runs the gamut from calm and meditative to vigorous and
agitated, a real tour-de-force of the pianist’s art.
Disc 4
Mostly Ravel, beginning with Miroirs, five pieces with
descriptive titles, such as Noctuelles, Oiseaux
tristes, and La Vallée
des cloches. Une
Barque sur l’océan
has more to do with the watery element than the
ship; elaborate, massive chords suggest its vastness, and spiky ones its
terror. Alborada del gracioso, well known
from Ravel’s orchestral version, alternates a spirited dance with a
melancholy, reflective central section. The three pieces in Gaspard de
la Nuit are, as the title implies, nightmares visualized in music.
In "Ondine" the splash of tone color at the end seems to be the
mocking laughter of the water nymph as she torments her human lover.
"Le Gibet" describes a macabre scene: the corpse of a hanged man
turning slowly in the red glow of sunset. "Scarbo" is the most
horrifying of all: the incubus who drifts into the sleeper’s room with the
evening fog, settling menacingly in the chimney corner or running around the
room with a sheer manic frenzy.
As if we haven’t had enough musical thrills on
Disc 4, Pennario gives us a stunning account of Ravel’s La Valse. Once
again, with piano playing like this who needs an orchestra? The
pianist concludes with two of his own compositions, Midnight on the Cliffs,
a piece by turns both scintillating and tender, depending on whether the
focus is on the crashing surf below the cliffs or the moonlight itself, and
The Kerry Dancers, a thoroughly delightful piece that someone ought to
orchestrate (it would play very nicely in an evening of one-act ballets).
The program heard here was personally approved by
Leonard Pennario, whom I am pleased to note is still very much with
us. At $19.95, the 4-CD limited edition is a terrific bargain. I’ll go
further: if you don’t buy another classical box set this year, get this
one!"
Atlanta Audio Society, Feb 2007
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LEONARD PENNARIO
(1924 - 2008)
Few artists can match the brilliant
accomplishments of American pianist Leonard Pennario. Equipped with a glittering
technique and masterful musicianship, he successfully appeared with every major
orchestra in America, and acclaim emanated from audiences and critics alike for
his performances. He appeared with the "Big Five": Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York
Philharmonic and Cleveland Orchestra, and as a regular guest artist with the Los
Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra,
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony
Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Honolulu
Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Dallas Symphony
Orchestra, New Orleans Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, St. Louis
Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and
many others. Pennario appeared as an invited soloist at the White House, and was
a regular guest artist at summer festivals, including the Hollywood Bowl, Mann
Music Center in Philadelphia, Waterloo in New Jersey, and Brevard Music Center
in North Carolina. In Carnegie Hall and in Los Angeles, Pennario collaborated in
history-making concerts with Heifetz and Piatigorsky.
Being a soloist of choice, Leonard
Pennario performed under the batons of such eminent conductors as Eugene Ormandy,
Sir Georg Solti, André Previn, William Steinberg, Seija Ozawa, Otto Klemperer,
Fritz Reiner, Rafael Kubelik, Leopold Stokowski, Thomas Schippers, Arthur
Fiedler, André Kostelanetz, Sir John Barbirolli, Edward Van Beinum, Sir Adrian
Boult, Vladimir Golschmann, Josef Krips, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Pierre Monteux,
Charles Munch, Artur Rodzinski, Kenneth Schermerhorn, Robert Shaw, Gerard
Schwarz, Alfred Wallenstein and Zubin Mehta .
Leonard Pennario gave his first
public performance at the age of eight when he presented a solo program in his
hometown of Buffalo, New York. However, a much more auspicious event marked the
beginning of his career in the major music circles. In 1936, the Dallas Symphony
Orchestra urgently needed a pianist to replace an indisposed artist. Conductor
Sir Eugene Goosens (who knew of the dilemma) wired his high recommendation of
the pianist, at that time a youngster of 12 years. The concerto to be performed
was the Grieg, and although Pennario had never seen, heard or studied the score,
he made his professional debut within six days and played such a stunning
performance that he was immediately launched on a glorious career. In September
1986, Mr. Pennario celebrated the 50th anniversary of this debut in a concert
appearance with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, this time playing the Rozsa
Concerto, a new work composed especially for him. He was also honored on this
anniversary by receiving the Dean's Award for Outstanding Contributions to Music
from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in May 1987.
Beginning in 1952, Leonard Pennario’s international career took him to cities
in Holland, France, England, Italy, and then to Yugoslavia and Bulgaria
(appearances which resulted in immediate invitations for re-engagements). He
also toured the Far East, where he appeared in recital and with orchestra in
Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Manila. He appeared in concert with the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London
Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC
Symphony Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Hague Philharmonic, Orchester der
Bayerischer Rundfunk, Tonhalle Orchestra and Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra, among
others.
Other highlights of Mr. Pennario's
career included his acclaimed debut with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie
Hall on November 17, 1943. At this concert, Pennario, who had just been enlisted
by the United States Army (he would eventually earn three Bronze Stars),
performed Liszt's powerful Piano Concerto in E-flat in his Army uniform. Virgil
Thomson, eminent music critic of the New York Herald Tribune at the time
described Pennario’s performance as "brilliant". Pennario also had
the honor of playing Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto with the Minneapolis
Symphony Orchestra at the request of conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos in a memorial
concert dedicated to the great composer.
Leonard Pennario was one of the
foremost interpreters of Gershwin, and appeared at New York’s Alice Tully Hall
as part of a Gershwin celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the composer's
death. He also made a nationwide television appearance on the PBS "Gala of
Stars" hosted by Beverly Sills, performing music of Gershwin with the
American Symphony Orchestra under Metropolitan Opera Music Director James
Levine. Pennario’s original Capitol Classics recording of Rhapsody in Blue
with the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra under Felix
Slatkin was one of the best-selling classical albums
of the LP era. Pennario was the first, other than Rachmaninov himself, to record
all four of the composer's piano concertos, and he premiered several of Miklos
Rozsa's works on record as well. He was the first to record the piano music of
Gottschalk, and uncovered previously uncataloged works of the composer in the
Library of Congress and recorded them. Further, Pennario discovered and
premiered in public and on record Ravel's own piano version of La Valse.
For many years it was one of his "signature" pieces.
As a recording
artist, he was very successful, with a great many of his LPs appearing on
Billboard Magazine’s "Most Popular Classical Records" listings over
the years. Pennario recorded for the Angel, Capitol, Columbia, EMI, Orion,
Pantheon and RCA labels.
As a composer, Leonard Pennario
composed a number of works for piano which have been published, and is a member
of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). He studied
with Ernest Toch. His work "Midnight on the Cliffs", a piece he played
as an encore throughout his performing career, was composed in 1939 as a musical
picture of the picturesque cliffs of Newport, Rhode Island. It was featured,
with Pennario at the keyboard, as the theme music to the 1956 film
"Julie", which starred Doris Day.
Leonard Pennario received
instruction in piano performance from Guy Maier, Isabelle Vengerova and Olga
Steeb. He is one of the great American pianists of the 20th century,
having an innate and penetrating sense of musicianship and with a career that
spanned more than 50 years. As Dimitri Mitropoulos once put it, describing a
performance he shared with Pennario: "Collaboration with this young
musician has been one of the happiest experiences of my life. I say musician
because, although he possesses the technique necessary to virtuosity, he
possesses what is more important, a soul".
"superb
technique and keyboard touch of exceptional sensitivity."
Die Welt, Berlin
[on a concert with Berlin Philharmonic under Rafael Kubelik]
"a
phenomenon of the piano."
Le
Figaro, Paris
"Nobody
today plays the piano better than Pennario."
Andrew
Porter, The New Statesman, London
"Pennario
is endowed with temperament, interpretive imagination and the capacity to
express it, above and beyond the flyingest ten fingers you ever saw. He made
the concert one of the most exciting and exhilarating musical experiences in
a long, long time."
Critic, Minneapolis
"He has a
spiritual maturity and a musical control that only a few pianists achieve in
their lives."
De
Tijd, Amsterdam
"It is
not his fabulous technique that sets Pennario apart. It is his artistic
soul."
EMI
Producer, 2004
"[Pennario]
is an infinitely better pianist than one remembers [Prokofiev] ever to have
been."
Albert
Goldberg, The Los Angeles Times
"Brilliant
American pianist…"
Baker’s Biographical
Dictionary of Musicians
"The bravura
playing was effortless, and the play of tone and color, a joy…"
The New York Times
"For Pennario’s
performance, nothing but praise. An extremely impressive example of piano
playing all-around"
Harold Schoenberg on Pennario’s
Capitol recording of La Valse
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