In its time, pianist
Eugene List's 1956 Vanguard recording of the piano music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk touched off a revolution. When this album initially appeared, Gottschalk was still widely viewed as a composer of antique curiosities and salon trash. Fifty years later, Gottschalk's reputation is far more in line with his substantive achievements as the first American composer and piano virtuoso of international stature. No twentieth century pianist did more for Gottschalk's cause than
List, who approached this music with respect, care, and a scholarly understanding still highly unusual in the '50s.
Now Artemis Classics has produced a generous two-disc package that combines these indispensable recordings with multi-hand piano and concerted Gottschalk works recorded by Vanguard between 1963 and 1976. Artemis has taken the time to do the earlier, monophonic Gottschalk recordings justice, and one very pleasing by-product of that effort is that for the first time you can enjoy what excellent piano recordings these are for the era, an attribute difficult to appreciate from the "rice krispies" quality vinyl pressings issued on Vanguard Cardinal back in the 1960s. The master tapes of
List's 1956 session are actually in better shape than those on the second disc, made nearly two decades later.
List's interpretations of these pieces were the only ones available for many years, and long served as the standard by which most others were judged.
List's readings of Gottschalk still remain among the best, but it is also clear that by now tastes have changed. Pasquinade is taken a bit too cautiously here, and
List's Tournament Galop is probably the slowest on record. But it isn't that
List couldn't get up to speed if he had wanted to;
List was working in the service of the composer, attempting to ensure that Gottschalk's themes were delineated clearly, de-emphasizing decorative elements and sentimentality. Later pianists, such as
Leonard Pennario and
Cecile Licad, have discovered that re-introducing some of these attributes do not necessarily hurt the composer. Nonetheless, there is something magical about the way that
List spells out the opening of La Savane, lingering over each phrase with thoughtfulness and dedication.
The second disc is more of a mixed bag.
List partners with pianists Cary Lewis and Joseph Werner in four-hand works recorded in 1976, and these range from excellent, such as in Souvenirs d'Andalousie and Marche de Nuit, to a train wreck, as in The Union. In the concluding orchestral pieces, conductor
Maurice de Abravanel and the
Utah Symphony catch fire in Gottschalk's Grand Tarantelle in its exciting orchestration by
Hershy Kay; pianist Reid Nibley can barely keep up with the band! The symphony Night in the Tropics is of course heard in the familiar, older orchestration, now to some degree superseded by
Richard Rosenberg's edition. Nonetheless, this symphony belongs here and sounds terrific. As a whole, this Artemis Classics collection supersedes all previous issues on disc of Vanguard's Gottschalk recordings and should be regarded as definitive.