Giovanni Doria Miglietta - Earl Wild: The Complete Transcriptions and Original Piano Works, Vol. 3 (2019)

Thanks to his prodigious technique and phenomenal sight-reading ability, Earl Wild (1915-2010) became pianist for Arturo Toscanini in 1937, while still in his early 20s, and played Rhapsody in Blue with them in 1942. Gershwin also forms the centrepiece of this third volume in Giovanni Doria Migliettas comprehensive survey of Wilds own music. The Grand Fantasy on Porgy and Bess works all the best-known themes from the opera into a spectacular half-hour of pianistic devilry and enchantment. Lisztian in scope and in the use of Reminiscences in its title Reminiscences of Snow White (1995) opens with glistening high-note scales, taking the listener into fairy-tale territories, with fragments of the principal themes of Disneys movie scattered across the musical texture, most notably Whistle while You Work. Like Liszt, Wild had the gift of bringing popular music and high art together without compromising either idiom. Miglietta closes this dazzling album with Wilds outrageously entertaining transcription of Jarabe Tapatio, otherwise known as the Mexican Hat Dance. Before that he plays four reworkings of classical repertoire, all respectful of their originals and yet imbued with Wilds own effervescent personality: Le Rouet dOmphale of Saint-Saëns, the Air and Variations from Handels harpsichord suite The Harmonious Blacksmith, and two Tchaikovsky pieces, a song and a dance from Swan Lake. This is tremendously challenging music, remarked Fanfare of the first volume in this series containing Wilds Piano Sonata, and Miglietta certainly has the virtuosity that it requires Fans of this repertoire will want to hear his perspective and will eagerly await the rest of the series.