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Webster Aitken plays Beethoven & Schubert Webster Aitken plays Beethoven & Schubert, a 2CD set issued by Bandoneon Recordings, founded by the seller (redgarnett). This set was professionally pressed by Nimbus Records in England, although my label is entirely separate from theirs. Nevertheless, the production quality is equivalent to the finest industry standards. All sets are unplayed and still shrink-wrapped; i.e., in absolutely pristine, new condition. Contents In addition to the 2 CDs (housed in a double-wide jewel case), this set also includes a handsome 32-page booklet featuring rare archival material, including photographs, concert bills, and an extensive discussion of the Beethoven and Schubert Piano Sonatas on record. The Beethoven Sonata performances were taken from the original master tapes, while the Schubert Sonatas recordings were painstaking transferred from the LPs. These unique and rare historical recordings should be of interest to all pianophiles, indeed to all those who care about the art of the piano. Of note: I've provided several photos of the set. The image of the light with the black background and titles is the front panel of the CD case. The Musical America publicity ad was used for the booklet front cover, Aitken's NYPO concert bill for the booklet back cover. The two black and white photos of Aitken appear on the inner traycards, below the CDs. A full track listing is provided below, as is a biography of Aitken. The cost of the set is $30.00. Shipping is free worldwide. Within the USA, sets will be sent via USPS First Class Mail. Shipping outside the USA will be via USPS First Class International Mail. ------------------------------------------------------- Introduction This 2CD set profiles American pianist Webster Aitken (1908-1981), a pupil of Emil von Sauer and Artur Schnabel. The critic Virgil Thomson once wrote of him: "Mr. Aitken is the most masterful of our American pianists, and his musical culture is the equal of anybody's from anywhere" (New York Herald Tribune, 13 March 1948). Aitken gave the world premieres of Elliot Carter's Piano Sonata, given in a New York broadcast 16 February 1947, as well as Charles Ives's Four Transcriptions from Emerson (Town Hall, 12 March 1948). In November of 1938 he gave in both London and New York the most comprehensive Schubert Piano Sonata cycle to date, taking in the Piano Sonatas D. 537, 568, 575, 664, 784, 840 (in a completion by Ernest Krenek), 845, 850, 894, 958, 959, and 960. Of note, Aitken also gave the American concert premiere of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major K. 503, with Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on 31 January 1942. His name last appeared in the record catalogs via 2 LP releases on Delos during the mid-1970s, comprising 'live' performances of Beethoven, Schubert, Handel, and Webern. ------------------------------------------------------- With this new CD release Bandoneon Recordings hopes to return his artistry before the public, in previously unissued (in any format) in concert performances of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Nos. 28, 29 Hammerklavier (different from the Delos release), and 31, as well as Aitken's long-unavailable 1950 studio accounts, made in New York for EMS Records, of Schubert's Piano Sonatas D. 959 & D. 960. Please visit our website (www.bandoneonrecordings.com) to read more about Mr. Aitken's life and artistry, and to sample musical extracts not only from this 2CD set (BDN-6703), but also from Aitken's early 78 rpm recording on Gamut of Mozart's Fantasy in C minor K. 475. ------------------------------------------------------- Track Listing CD 1 Webster Aitken plays Beethoven (1770-1827) Total Playing Time 75:06 Piano Sonata No. 28 in A Major Op. 101 1 Etwas lebhaft, und mit der innigsten Empfindung, Allegretto ma non troppo 3:29 3 Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll. Adagio ma non troppo, con affetto 3:30 4 Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr und mit Enstschlossen. Allegro 6:14 recorded in performance 11 July 1962, Smith Memorial Hall, University of Illinois Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major Op. 110 5 Moderato cantabile molto espressivo 6:35 6 Allegro molto 1:48 7 Adagio ma non troppo - Fuga. Allegro ma non troppo 9:27 recorded in performance 5 July 1961, Smith Memorial Hall, University of Illinois Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major Op. 106 Hammerklavier * 8 Allegro 9:30 9 Scherzo. Assai vivaci 2:27 10 Adagio sostenuto. Appassionata e con molto sentimento 15:00 11 Largo - Allegro risoluto 9:50 recorded in performance 11 July 1962, Smith Memorial Hall, University of Illinois * (different performance from that issued on LP by Delos Music, DEL-24101/2) all performances previously unreleased in any format CD 2 Webster Aitken plays Schubert (1797-1828) Total Playing Time 78:10 Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major D.959 1 Allegro 13:37 2 Andantino 8:00 3 Menuetto. Allegro - Trio 4:40 4 Allegro 9:46 studio performance taped by EMS Records, New York City, circa 1950, venue unknown Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-flat Major D.960 5 Molto moderato 19:48 6 Andante sostenuto 9:48 7 Scherzo. Allegro vivace con delicatezz 4:03 8 Allegro ma non troppo 7:40 studio performance taped by EMS Records, New York City, circa 1950, venue unknown ------------------------------------------------------- Biography "Mr Aitken is the most masterful of our American pianists, and his musical culture is the equal of anybody's from anywhere." Virgil Thomson, New York Herald Tribune, 3.13, 1948 Webster Aitken Early Years Born June 17, 1908 in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Webster Aitken would move with his parents to Los Angeles, California, in 1910. He was drawn to his future instrument from a young age: "I 'played' the piano from my earliest years, for hours on end, I am told, setting up dazzling towering effects that put everybody's teeth on edge, for of course I couldn't read music and had no idea of any rules and regulations." Blessed with perfect pitch, Aitken's gifts were soon recognized, and both his father, a newspaperman, and his mother, a fine amateur pianist, greatly encouraged their son. He auditioned for the Leschetizky pupil Jode Anderson, and after several lessons was turned over to his assistant, Eunice Landrum. He would also work with pianist Alexis Kall and attend the master classes of Alfred Mirovitch. Transatlantic Musical Training and European Debuts Aitken would study for a year with Herbert Simpson at Curtis, before departing for Europe in 1925 at the tender age of 17. In Berlin he worked under Emil von Sauer, and with Leschetizky's one-time assistant Marie Prentner. After 3 years intensive study, he was accepted as a pupil of Artur Schnabel, making his recital debut in Vienna in 1929. Also the scene of his first orchestral engagement, Aitken played the Schubert-Liszt Wanderer Fantasy with the Vienna SO and conductor Paul Kerby. A happy period in the pianist's life, Aitken wrote: "As a student, Berlin was the scene of much hard work and gayety: the rest of Germany and Austria, in the late twenties and thirties seemed expressly to exist for skylarking about in." An American Homecoming: Debuts and Engagements Aitken's American debut came 17 November 1935 at New York's Town Hall in a program that included Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, the New York Times writing: "There was individuality in all of the pianist's work and a seriousness of purpose and loftiness of ideals which were reflected in the chaste and severely classical program he had chosen." Then in 1937 he played Beethoven's Concerto No. 2 Op. 19 with Klemperer and the LAPO, a homecoming for a local boy made good. The 1938 Schubert Piano Sonata cycle at Æolian Hall Although he first appeared in England as early as 1933, his most important European foray came in 1938 at London's Aeolian Hall, where - in a 4 recitals given November 10, 17, 22, and 29 - he presented that city's first Schubert Piano Sonata cycle, embracing D. 537, 568, 575, 664, 784, 840 (in a completion by Ernest Krenek), 845, 850, 894, 958, 959, and 960. Well-received, this path-finding survey prompted an article by Richard Capell for the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post entitled "Re-evaluation of a Neglected Heritage," which for many years was held as a landmark in Schubertian literature. War-time Engagements Other engagements followed: at Carnegie Hall in 1939, in Bach's Concerti for 2 (BWV 1061 with Kurt Applebaum) and 3 Pianos (BWV 1064 with Rosalyn Tureck and Frank Sheridan) accompanied by Fritz Stiedry and the Friends of New Music Orchestra. That same year, Aitken was soloist in a broadcast of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 15 K. 450 with Leon Barzin and the National Orchestral Association. During the war years, Mozart remained his principal calling card, Aitken appearing with Koussevitzky and the BSO (1940, Piano Concerto No. 15 K. 450), with Walter and the NYPO (1941, No. 27 K. 595), and with Goossens and the Cincinnati SO (1942, No. 25 K. 503). New Music and New Directions - Premieres of Ives and Carter In the post-war years, Aitken broadened his musical activities by way of teaching and collaborating with contemporary composers. In 1947 he joined the Department of Music, Carnegie Institute of Technology as Visiting Professor of Piano, spurned perhaps by his appearance in Pittsburgh the year before at the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) Festival. There, Aitken played the Piano Sonatas of Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, and Virgil Thomson. In a New York broadcast February 16, 1947, Aitken would give the world premiere of Elliot Carter's Piano Sonata, one of the last works of its kind to enter the central repertoire. Alas, the broadcast does not appear to have survived, nor did Aitken ever take it into the studio. At New York's Town Hall on March 12, 1948, he gave the first known complete performance of Charles Ives's Four Transcriptions from Emerson. Also on the program: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 32, Scarlatti Sonatas in E and D Major, and Menotti's Ricercare and Toccata. A Return to Europe: "Journey Into Darkness" In 1949 Aitken traveled to Berlin under the auspices of the U.S. Army's Visiting Artists Program, finding the battle-scarred city's destruction stupefying, and recording his impressions in a 47-page essay entitled Berlin Diary, Journey Into Darkness: "The city of Berlin today looks as though the blueprints for its construction might have been prepared by Edgar Allen Poe in a fit of necrophilia. The ruins have a terrifying timelessness that puts them beyond every canon of architectural taste, utility, and soundness. The Reichstag, the Kroll Oper, tangles of twisted girders, resembling empty bird cages. Beyond the Brandenburger Tor, the blocks seem to be made of brown sugar that has gone hard in lumps and streaks: what is left of block after block of buildings, sits there, with the rubble drawn up to its knees. There are no concert halls left in Berlin: the familiar haunts no longer exist: Beethovensaal, Bechsteinsaal, Singakademie." He appeared with Celibidache at Titania Palast, played Beethoven's Emperor Concerto in Munich, and recorded a recital for radio broadcast (now lost). He would miss by days separate Schubert recitals given by pianists Wilhelm Kempff and Eduard Erdmann. Later Years Aitken seems never have allied himself permanently with any institution, preferring the route of 'visiting artist,' a position he assumed at the School of Music, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign during the years 1961/62. In 1950 he had given programs devoted to late Beethoven at Harvard University and at the Frick Collection in New York, a series he would reprise at Urbana-Champaign. Subsequently, Aitken - then only 54 - largely withdrew from public life, turning inward towards a sort of serene existentialism lived out in New York City, Hollywood, and Santa Fe, time reputedly given over to studies of Bach, with occasional forays into Stockhausen and Boulez. He died in Santa Fe, New Mexico May 11, 1981. The Man Tall and lean, his frame often draped in a black leather jacket, Aitken cut a striking figure, both in appearance and personality, with wry iconoclastic implications. His musical tastes ran wide, from Bach to Szymanowski, as did his interest in other arts, Aitken cultivating an expert's knowledge of baroque architecture and modern painting. He was an accomplished linguist, highly proficient in French, German, Italian, and Greek, and his passion for literature remained life-long. The present author has had access to select excerpts from his writings, and they all display a marvelously cultured and extraordinarily vivid command of the language. It is hoped his Berlin Diary will be published online at Bandoneon's website. Concert Repertoire A pianist of eclectic tastes, his programs often juxtaposed the old with the new (e.g., Handel with Webern) or were limited to an alternating, but recurrent, mix of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. Late Beethoven remained a life-long study, and musically, his spiritual center. He was playing Bach's Goldberg Variations as well as Schubert's Piano Sonatas long before the divide that was the WW II. And he was a potent advocate of American music, performing works of Ives, Copland, Thomson, Menotti, and Carter. His concerto repertoire does not seem to have gone beyond Mozart and Beethoven, the Schubert-Liszt Wanderer Fantasy his furthest excursion from the classical style. A fuller listing can be found on Bandoneon's website. Recordings Aitken's recording career was even briefer than his performing career, beginning with 78 rpm sets for Gamut (Mozart's Fantasy in C minor K. 475 - available for audition on Bandoneon's website - and Schubert’s Piano Sonata in G Major D. 894) and extending only to the earliest years of the new LP era. For EMS he taped Schubert's D. 845, 850, 894, 958, 959, and 960, and for Lyrichord a superb Copland album, which includes quite the finest Piano Sonata on record. Near the end of his life, Delos restored his name to the catalog with two LP releases drawing upon his University of Illinois recitals. Preserved therein are riveting 'live' performances of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Handel's Six Grand Fugues, Webern's Variations, et al. An intriguing document is the 1939 broadcast of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 15 K. 450 with Barzin and the NOA, preserved in the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound in New York (only Mvts II and III survive). An exhaustive search of Europe's radio archives proved fruitless. ------------------------------------------------------- Condition All sets are factory-sealed, unplayed, and in absolutely pristine, new condition. Shipment Shipping is free worldwide; within the USA, this set will by 1st Class Mail; outside the USA, this set will be sent by 1st Class International Mail. Payment Payment by PayPal is greatly preferred. Payment should be made within 7 days. Feedback I will promptly leave feedback for all buyers. Please do not leave negative, or even neutral, feedback without first giving me an opportunity to resolve any dissatisfaction you might have with an item or transaction. I do understand that, on occasion, a buyer might believe the item description to be inaccurate or that a buyer may be disappointed in some other way regarding the sale. I promise I will do my very best to resolve any unhappiness you've experienced in your buying experience with me to your complete satisfaction. Thank you. Refunds Returns are honored, and any buyer you makes a return will be refunded in full. Please contact me before making a return. Please see my other classical LP and CD auctions, and feel free to write with any questions, I'll be glad to help. |
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Item location: Port Orchard, WA, United States
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30 days | Money back | Buyer pays return shipping | These are new, factory-sealed CDs. Condition is not an issue. If the set is lost, I will provide either a replacement copy or a refund, whichever the customer prefers. If the jewel case is damaged in transit, I will either PayPal the buyer $2.50 to cover the cost of a new jewel case, or I will send a new case myself, free of charge. If for some reason, a buyer is truly unsatisfied with the contents of the set and insists upon a return, this will be honored, but please contact me beforehand. |
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