A new Sony/BMG box set encompassing pianist Raymond Lewenthal’s complete RCA Victor and Columbia Masterowkrs recordings includes a major, previously unpublished discovery.
Although Lewenthal (1923-1988) taped Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage Books I and II in 1966, the recordings remained in RCA’s vaults for more than half a century, unpublished and unedited. However, two Lewenthal devotees, the International Piano Archives at Maryland’s curator Donald Manildi and writer/musicologist Farhan Malik, arranged to have the tapes restored, auditioned their complete contents and edited the performances for publication.
Manildi and Malik join The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler on the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys this week. They discuss their restoration work, and present other landmark performances by this maverick pianist who helped spearhead the so-called “Romantic Revival” in the 1960s and early 1970s.
“Having two of the world’s leading authorities on historic piano recordings together in the same room is quite humbling,” says Distler. “Both Farhan and Donald went about their Lewenthal restorations in the right way, cutting no corners, and never taking the easy way out. The end result is some of the greatest Liszt playing you’ll ever hear, with Lewenthal at the top of his form.” Distler, incidentally, wrote the booklet notes for thos release.
Tune in this Tuesday night at 10 to Between the Keys, an exclusive production of The Classical Network and WWFM.org