LEONARD PENNARIO/STRAUSS-SCHULZ-EVLER/Arabesques on 'The Blue Danube'

The American super-virtuoso Leonard Pennario was the second pianist (after Josef Lhevinne)

to record the treacherously challenging Schulz-Evler transcription of Johann Strauss Jr.'s

"Blue Danube" Waltz. Pennario's recording made history also because it was the first to

include the piece's dreamlike introduction, which Lhevinne had left out. When this record

burst on the scene in 1953, British critic Andrew Porter -- later the longtime critic for

the New Yorker -- wrote in Gramophone magazine: "To find comparisons with Pennario one casts

for the names of the greatest pianistic giants. His playing knows no limits. ... One awaits

with no anxiety, only excitement, fiendishly difficult passages. The range of tone colour

and dynamics is enormous."

Photographs and information in this video are courtesy of Mary Kunz Goldman, who is the

music critic of The Buffalo News and the authorized biographer of Leonard Pennario. Mary

blogs daily about the adventure of chronicling a great pianist's life on her Web site,

http://www.marykunzgoldman.com

Facebook users, we invite you to join the group "Leonard Pennario, America's Greatest Pianist."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• leonard
• pennario
• blue
• danube
• piano
• strauss
• evler
• schulz
• mary
• kunz
• goldman
• america's
• greatest
• pianist

[Concertek]

Possibly more technically correct than the Bolet version but it lacks the emotion and flair. I still think Bolet played it better than anyone else, including Lhevine

[Bruce88keys]

the only great version I know is the Lhevinne recording without this intro...

[kpunkt]

Brillant!!!

[thehivesrock]

I love this! Thanks.

[RobElliottMusic]

Im almost lost for words...breathtaking! That intro nearly had me crying..just amazing. Thanks for posting Larry, its in my favs, i love it :)

[pligana]

simply wonderful!