It is interesting to note that Earl Wild uses a Baldwin piano in ''The Art Of The Transcription'' and a Bosendorfer in the Schumann—certainly his extraordinarily varied sonorities in the former are something very special indeed. There is a softness to the timbre of the instrument that encourages the player to exploit pedalling effects and the cantilena melodic line that is so much an essential part of this repertoire. At once from the first bars of Sgambati's sensitive transcription of Gluck's Melodie d'Orphee one can tell that Wild is in his most musical mood and from here until the closing cascades of notes of the Schulz-Evler transcriptions the listener can enjoy a feast of sumptuous piano-playing. It is truly wonderful that such an exceptional recital was captured with such natural recorded sound.
The Rameau/Godowsky items come from his set called Renaissance, in which the Pole has transformed baroque pieces: they are given new tempos and complicated polyphonic lines that wholly alter the original genre of the pieces. They now ooze decadence. The Bach/Tausig work is to my mind a musical dinosaur that sounds especially dreadful when placed alongside these other reworkings of familiar pieces. However, Earl Wild does treat the fugue with a disciplined, yet fresh approach that perhaps compensates for the gothic melodrama of the toccata.
I have long thought that Moszkowski's version of the Isoldens Tod is in every way superior to Liszt's. The transcriber has managed to integrate the orchestral textures with the sonorities of the piano in a much more thorough manner and the way in which the scene leads towards its climax is a thrilling achievement. The remaining transcriptions on this first CD are played with a whimsy that is never contrived. The Liebesleid, arranged by Rachmaninov from Kreisler's miniature, is more idiosyncratic here than in Jorge Bolet's recent Decca recording, and the effect is more ephemeral.
One of the first discs that drew piano lovers' attention to Earl Wild's playing over here was his performance of Thalberg's Don Pasquale Fantasy, recorded way back in the mid-1960s for Vanguard. Now we have an equally enjoyable virtuoso piece which quite explains to me how Thalberg's compositions were once regarded to be on a par with Liszt's early ones. Occasionally Thalberg falls prey to over-exploiting a particularly brilliant figuration, but in general his miraculously refined way with writing accompaniments, so that the melodic strands are very carefully delineated, is something that marks him as a superb writer for the instrument. The Chopin/Liszt items I enjoyed slightly less, because the concentration here is very much on sonority, rather than on expressing the mood and the message of the music.
Wild's own transcription is very much in the Rachmaninov mould, without, perhaps, the daring harmonic twists. Although I personally prefer a rhythmically tighter approach to the Blue Danube, as reworked by Adolf Schulz-Evler, I found this performance immensely enjoyable. Wild reinstates the cuts that are present in Lhevinne's classic RCA recording.
Moving to Schumann, Earl Wild takes the F sharp minor Sonata very much as a work for piano, rather than opting for a reading that tries to imitate orchestral textures. He does not play the exposition repeat in the first movement. Somewhat over-detailed, there is a degree of monumentality lacking here. After some lovely pianism in the Aria and splendid articulation in the awkwardly written Scherzo, it is the finale—the longest movement—that comes off best. Variety of touch and sentiment are controlled with absolute security.
The same comments rather apply to Papillons. Each item in this short work needs to have a different character and I think that Wild's rather balletic way with it is apt only if one is content to see the suite as depicting a series of prettily coloured insects. The remaining encore pieces convey the pianist's love of music with disarming directness—I have seldom heard ''Vogel als Prophet'' played so imaginatively. The sound-quality on this Schumann CD is good, without being exceptional; the Bosendorfer is a bit clangy in fortes.'