Raymond Lewenthal

Created in San Antonio, Raymond Lewenthal was informed in LA from an early on age, you start with Lydia Cherkassky, mom to famous concert pianist Shura Cherkassky. Lewenthal after that joined the Curtis Institute of Music to be able to research with Olga Samaroff. Posessing huge power and a stunning technique, Lewenthal quickly gained a status as an up-and-coming pianist with another interpreting modern functions. His rendering from the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 was therefore compelling that in 1948, conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos involved Lewenthal to try out the solo component at a fresh York Philharmonic concert that Mitropoulos led. This is uncommon as Mitropoulos was known because of this function and under regular circumstances carried out it from your key pad while playing the single component himself. In 1952, Lewenthal documented a edition of Prokofiev’s Toccata, Op. 11, for Westminister that’s still thought to be among the best-ever recordings of this function. In 1953, Raymond Lewenthal was attacked by muggers in New York’s Central Recreation area and experienced both of your hands and hands damaged in the struggle. Psychologically smashed by this misfortune, Lewenthal fled america, vowing to never perform again. Nevertheless, once in European countries, Lewenthal started to retrain his hands beneath the individual assistance of Alfred Cortot. Also, Lewenthal’s fascination with musicology deepened and he begun to undertake a report of neglected Intimate composers, specifically the task of Charles-Valentin Alkan. In 1963, Lewenthal came back towards the U.S. and performed a two-hour radio present on WBAI specialized in Alkan. Critical fascination with both participant and composer was enormously positive and Lewenthal repeated this program at a City Hall concert in Sept 1964, his initial in 11 years. In the intervening period, Lewenthal edited an array of Alkan’s music for Schirmer. Lewenthal documented the LP Piano Music of Alkan for RCA Victor in 1965, that was a critical achievement, but not a huge vendor. Lewenthal justifed his lifestyle to RCA through documenting some more simple materials for the label, however in 1971, he turned to Columbia Masterworks and instituted the Raymond Lewenthal Intimate Revival Series. This went to just a few albums and Lewenthal’s program went well beyond that, as he was after that focusing on reviving composers such as for example Hummel, Herz, Thalberg, Henselt, and Czerny. By this time around, some critics experienced begun to group their wagons against Intimate revivalism and ridiculed Lewenthal for wanting to champion the reason for composers whose function was widely thought to be obsolete. Following the Intimate Revival series found a finish, Lewenthal documented forget about and concertized small. However, Lewenthal’s idea of an enchanting revival had not been lost on more youthful pianists and almost when Lewenthal himself experienced died, there is a digital explosion of recordings and shows in the genre through such pianists as Marc-André Hamelin, Stephen Hough, Piers Street, as well as others. Critics still discover cause to nitpick with Lewenthal which is feasible that he by no means fully retrieved from his accidental injuries as a result of the muggers. There are occasions in Lewenthal’s recordings where in fact the technique has tough sides and he appears to have got some difficulty projecting in noiseless passages. But anyone who may also browse the enharmonic spellings of ratings such as for example Alkan’s Quasi-Faust provides better than typical capability and Lewenthal understood several difficult functions by center. Raymond Lewenthal coined the term Intimate revival and would without doubt have been thrilled wih the strides the motion has produced since his transferring.