Leonard Pennario - The Complete RCA Album Collection

 
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FRANCK / DVORAK / RACHMANINOV / GERSHWIN / LISZT / etc
Leonard Pennario - The Complete RCA Album Collection
Leonard Pennario (piano) with Gregor Piatigorsky (cello), Jascha Heifetz (violin), William Primrose (viola), Israel Baker (violin)

[ Sony RCA Red Seal / 12 CD Box Set ]

Release Date: Sunday 10 February 2019

"Nobody plays the piano better than Leonard Pennario," wrote the eminent critic Andrew Porter in London's New Statesman in 1952, when the competition would have included none less than Horowitz in his prime. That year, Pennario began recording for Capitol Records in Los Angeles, and a decade later he moved to RCA Victor, for which label he made a series of distinguished albums. To mark the tenth anniversary of Pennario's death, Sony Classical reissues all of the pianist's RCA recordings together for the first time in a single box.

Born in 1924 in Buffalo, New York, Pennario gave his first public performance there at the age of seven, later moving with his family to Los Angeles, where his teachers included the legendary Isabella Vengerova. His breakthrough came in 1936, when he made his orchestral debut deputizing for an indisposed soloist with the Dallas Symphony. On that memorable occasion, the twelve-year-old performed the Grieg Piano Concerto, a work he had never heard, let alone played, until a few days earlier.

Dazzling concertos would, of course, feature prominently in Pennario's discography, and his first RCA Victor releases in 1964 included Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the Franck Symphonic Variations with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops (High Fidelity: "immense dexterity and bravura") and the two Liszt concertos with René Leibowitz conducting the London Symphony (Gramophone: "magisterial accounts of both works … it is a constant delight to listen to his effortless brilliance and power … vivid 'hi-fi' recording").

Among the acclaimed solo recital albums in this set are a collection of popular short pieces by Beethoven, Schubert, Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, Rubinstein, Grieg, Falla, Debussy, Gershwin and Rachmaninoff which Pennario plays "with admirable care and impeccable taste" (High Fidelity) as well as both books of Debussy Préludes: "This is a most beautifully played set" (Gramophone).

· The first ever release of Pennario's complete RCA recordings, issued between 1963 and 1968, in a single 12 CD edition

· 4 LPs appearing for the first time on CD, remastered from the original analogue masters using 24 bit / 192 kHz technology

Tracks:

Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43
Franck, C: Symphonic Variations for piano & orchestra, M46
Litolff: Concerto symphonique No. 4 in D minor, Op. 102: Scherzo
Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, S124
Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, S125
Strauss, J, II: Kaiser-Walzer, Op. 437
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream: Scherzo
Saint-Saëns: Danse macabre, Op. 40
Shostakovich: Polka from The Golden Age, Op. 22
Prokofiev: The Love for Three Oranges: March
Ravel: La Valse
Kreisler: Liebesleid
Gounod: Faust - Waltz, Act II
Dvorak: Humoresque in G flat major, Op. 101 No. 7
Tchaikovsky: Humoresque, Op. 10 No. 2
Rachmaninov: Humoresque in G major, Op. 10 No. 5
Rachmaninov: Morceaux de fantaisie Op. 3 No. 4
Debussy: Golliwog's Cakewalk (from Children's Corner)
Gershwin: Preludes (3)
Schubert: Moments Musicaux, D780: No. 3 in F minor
Beethoven: Für Elise (Bagatelle in A minor, WoO59)
Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, Op. 37b: November (Troika)
Grieg: Lyric Pieces Op. 43: No. 6 - To Spring
Grieg: Lyric Pieces Op. 43: No. 1 - Butterfly
Falla: Cuatro piezas españolas: Andaluza
Tchaikovsky: Scherzo humoristique (No. 2 from Morceaux (6), Op. 19)
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 1
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40
Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54
Turina: Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 35
Beethoven: Piano Trio No. 5 in D major, Op. 70 No. 1 'The Ghost'
Brahms: Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, Op. 87
Dvorak: Piano Trio No. 3 in F minor, Op. 65 (B130)
Franck, C: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 14