Schubert-Liszt Der Lindenbaum Liszt Gnomenreigen Egon Petri

It is to Philips' everlasting shame that Egon Petri(along with Moriz Rosenthal and others)were omitted from their "Great Pianists of the 20th Century"series. I understand that Leopold Godowski was nearly excluded!

A desciple of Busoni,Petri had a colossal technique and a huge repertoire.The Busoni circle called him a "musical cataloque." Egon's father was a prominent violinist and it was with that instrument that he began his musical studies at the age of five. Two years later, he began piano studies with Buchmayer and Teresa Carreno.However,his primary instrument remained the violin.Egon played second violin in a quartet that his father had organized and was a member of the Dresden Royal Opera Orchestra. It was only after the young Petri came under the influence of Busoni that he,with the encouragement of Busoni,decided to concentrate on the piano rather than the violin.
Petri is often associated with the music of Liszt(and of course Busoni) but he was also a splendid Beethoven player who knew and could play all of that composer's 32 sonatas from memory.One of his last recordings was that of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata.
After a heart attack in 1946,Petri decided to take a position at Mills College in Oakland California where he held the post of "Pianist in Residence." His many students included Eugene Istomin,Grant Johannesen,John Ogden,Ruth Slenczynska and Earl Wild. He died in Berkeley,California on the 27th of May 1962 at the age of 81.
The Schubert-Liszt was recorded in 1938 and the Liszt Concert Etude in 1929

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Liszt
• Gnomenreigen
• Etude
• Schubert
• Petri

[stan724]

I agree with your statement about the omissions in the Great Pianist series. Among other excluded pianists were Guiomar Novaes, Harold Bauer and Percy Grainger. Yet, among the included was Andre Previn.

[Sinfoniette]

They included Uchida too, although I respect her Schoenberg, I think I would have rather liked a nice set of Petri-dishes.

[ChopRachma]

Fabulous! Listen at 4:33

[ElEsquisProductions]

I was because of the peoples opinion... But it has also to do with the quantity of recorded material (2 hrs min). However, the philips edition did include rare and precious recordings.

[ElEsquisProductions]

Superior to Brendel, you must say.... Kempff was by far the greatest tone monipulator of his time. He had a control that Argerich did not possess... However, Brendel has some mediocre playing that could be eliminated from there.

[soami2u]

Fabulous! Petri's "Gnomenreigen" is unbelievable and just about transcends any other performance I have ever heard (though I adore the Novaes version). Petri was indeed one of the 20th century's greatest pianists--I can only surmise that his omission from the Philips CD series (and that of Novaes and others) had something to do with politics and cronyism and maybe even ignorance!

[marcusaz]

How about Phillips negating the greatest duo piano team ever (Vronsky and Babin)? Shame!

[bluesrunthegame]

For a pun of that caliber you should be drawn and quoted.

[pianopera]

Politics and non-musical interests.

[aardvaark069]

What perfectly beautiful and masterly playing!

[jghancockjr]

Yes, Petri is grossly underappreciated. Hopefully someone will put his Westminster

performance of the Bach-Busoni "St. Anne"

prelude and fugue on YT one of these days.

His Liszt and Busoni performances are

virtually without peer and he was a superb

pedagogue as well.