Ervin Nyiregyhazi
ABM
I heard some recordings of him. One of them when he was 17 years old , he
played the Etude d'execution transcendante no.4 'Mazeppa'.
I was stunned, he played it really good.
Anybody knows more details of him?
Sem
Alan Cooper
A really sad case of a prodigy who descended into oblivion. He was
rediscovered near the end of his life, his former talent almost
completely dissipated, but there was an attempt to retrieve (and I
daresay exploit) him as some sort of golden-age holdover. You might
give a listen to his recording of several of his own operatic
transcriptions on VAI, or try to find the IPA recording that contains
the two St. Francis Legends. The latter, despite technical lapses,
show how gifted he must have been.
AC
Matthew B. Tepper
pondered what I'm pondering as follows:
>
>Any people who know this pianist?
Well, I did meet him about 20 years ago, at a Baldwin Piano Store in
Palo Alto, California. However, he has since died.
>I heard some recordings of him. One of them when he was 17 years old ,
>he played the Etude d'execution transcendante no.4 'Mazeppa'.
>I was stunned, he played it really good.
>Anybody knows more details of him?
He was a notable child prodigy whose adult career failed disastrously,
supposedly because of poor management. He also must have had a strange
personal life, since it is known that he married eleven times.
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://www.deltanet.com/~ducky/index.htm
My main music page --- http://www.deltanet.com/~ducky/berlioz.htm
And my science fiction club's home page --- http://www.lasfs.org/
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
Danny Goodman
>
> Any people who know this pianist?
> played the Etude d'execution transcendante no.4 'Mazeppa'.
> I was stunned, he played it really good.
And does anyone have notions of what recorded legacies from his prime await excavation?
Danny
Matthew B. Tepper
>
> ABM wrote:
> >
> > Any people who know this pianist?
> > I heard some recordings of him. One of them when he was 17 years
> > I was stunned, he played it really good.
>
> And does anyone have notions of what recorded legacies from his prime
> await excavation?
>
> Danny
Gregor Benko has been looking for "lost" Nyiregyhazi material for years.
Sem !
LP with Nyiregyhazi.
It's a Columbia recording. 'Nyrigyhazi plays Liszt'. It contains a biography
of him and it is really interesting.
He had been a prodigy. At 3 years old he had a perfect pitch, when he was 6
he played in public, including
a concerto appereance with Arthur Nikisch on the podium. In 1920 he came to
New York, where he turned the music world upside down. His american debut
program : Toccata & Fugue in d minor (Bach/Busoni),Wandererfantasie
(Schubert-Liszt), Sonata in F sharp major (Scriabine), Poeme Stanique
(Scriabine), Barcarolle op.60 (Chopin), Nocturne (Grieg), Etude Heroique
(Leschetizky), Sonnetto 104 del Petrarca (Liszt), Mephisto Waltz (Liszt).
And this at the age of 17 playing in Carnegie Hall.. He had to repeat
the concert in C.H. But after a while he got into problems with managers and
started a lawsuit which he lost.
After this he got out of the picture and nobody heard of him for 40 years.
The LP contains recordings which were made after these 40 years, he recorded
it without practising and
he didn't even had a piano for thirty years.
The Hungarian Rhapsody no.3 (Liszt) on this LP is one of the best i ever
heard.
I think he 'makes music', but he has a very very bad technique! (not strange
after 40 years)
Anybody who heard this recording? What do you think?
Sem
Kalman Rubinson
> I (the same guy who started this thread , only an other name now..) found a
> LP with Nyiregyhazi.
> It's a Columbia recording. 'Nyrigyhazi plays Liszt'.
> Anybody who heard this recording? What do you think?
I have it and he certainly shows flashes of style and grip but they're
submerged in poor technique and excessive self-indulgence. Fascinating
at times.
Kal
R.J. Zock
1. "N. plays Liszt" Intern. Piano Archives IPA 111
(En Reve; Ballade nr 2; Sunt lacrimae rerum; Abschied; Legendes '73/74)
2. "All Liszt Program" CBS 79219
( Hung.Rhaps 3; Mosonyi's Funeral proc.;Weihnachtsbaum 1/2; Nuages
Gris;Hamlet; ... Miserere; March; Ann. de perilinage 1)
The playing is wildly romantic, he has an almost organlike sound. Quality is not
good but it is worth it.
Ross Williams
await excavation?
>
I believe he got work in the film studios sight-reading the new scores.
Maybe he can be heard anonymously on umpteen classic Hollywood movies!
Matthew B. Tepper
For example, the hand pounding out Bach's Chaconne (in a left-hand piano
version by Brahms) in "The Beast with Five Fingers."
Paul Friedrichs
Liszt's Hamlet or Macbeth (I don't remember which), apparently one of the
many wonderful things hidden away in the RAI archives. It was astonshing!
Very dramatic. Furtwanglerian tempo changes. Pedalling washing over measure
after measure - like huge brush strokes. It was as if I were standing in
front of a (huge) Delacroix painting. But I felt as though I were listening
to Liszt, not a pianist. It's a shame we no longer live in an age when
playing like this is acceptable. We are poorer because of it.
BTW, VAI 1066-2 has his 3rd Hungarian Rhapsody. It doesn't strike me quite as
much as the above, but it's from the same mold: certainly not "correct," but
powerful.
I would *love* to hear his Apres une lecture du Dante.
Paul
ABM wrote:
> Any people who know this pianist?
> I heard some recordings of him. One of them when he was 17 years old , he
> played the Etude d'execution transcendante no.4 'Mazeppa'.
> I was stunned, he played it really good.
> Anybody knows more details of him?
>
> Sem
ANicholls
>For example, the hand pounding out Bach's Chaconne (in a left-hand piano
>version by Brahms) in "The Beast with Five Fingers."
I've always been intrigued by who played this (it's damned good!), & the movie
gives no credits to the performer. Is it certain that it's Nyireghazi?.
Incidentally, after his 'comeback' he did give quite a few concerts in Japan
(paid for by a bunch of Shinto monks, I believe), & there are tapes of these
around - I once heard his 1st Mephisto Waltz - as well as a quite long video
interview with him, in which he was shown living in a 'flop- house' & drinking
whisky like a fish! (he seemed to like living in the seediest of places,
wandering amongst the whores & down & outs at night). The extraordinary
egocentricity revealed in the video immediately explained why he'd never had
the career his talent would normally dictate: it was difficult to imagine a
more obnoxious (in an uninteresting way) personality.
Of his recordings, I think 4 in particular stand out & are well worth having,
all of Liszt - the 2 St Francis Legends, the B minor Ballade & the early (piano
roll) Mazeppa.
Mark
A Schmeder
Nyiregyhazi playing and *improvising* opera paraphrases. Never seen this recording
before. It's used and is priced at $4 - can find it in the bargain bins at the
Green Apple in San Francisco.
Max Schmeder
mmsc...@cats.ucsc.edu
ral...@my-dejanews.com
"Sem !" <S.Tuk...@cable.a2000.nl> wrote:
> I (the same guy who started this thread , only an other name now..) found a
> LP with Nyiregyhazi.
> It's a Columbia recording. 'Nyrigyhazi plays Liszt'.
Hi, i also have that Columbia LP along with the IPA 111 :"Nyiregyhazi Plays
Liszt"and the Columbia album of Grieg/Tchaikowsky/Bortkowicz...i've seen the
video documentary also. He was a very "still" player from what i could see,
very old school, dignified, quiet, barely moves a muscle... and according to
the engineers recording him, had an enormous sound, that was never harsh. I
have heard his piano rolls "live" on a friend of mine's Steinway Ampico, as
well, including the Liszt Mazeppa, and some Brahms. Though these recordings
were not supposedely really representative of his playing, according to him.
In those early days, it sounds like he had a tremedous technique, along with
the color palette he retained into old age. The playing is much "cleaner" and
assured. He never seems to be limited at all.
For me, most remarkable at the time of the 1970's recordings was the utter
conviction in his playing, and emotion that had a very human, (or superhuman)
compelling sound to it....(depending on your view)....that his technique was
not what it had been should not be a surprise, as he was 70+ at the
time...and had not really played or practiced for years...not to say anything
of his personal life, which was tragic. Strangely enough, he was not bitter
about it. There were aspects of his playing yet to admire, and others, not to
be admired. But, one has to marvel at what was left!!!!... I believe, you
would have to hear someone like this "live" to get the real effect, and i
didn't have that pleasure. I have yet to hear anyone get the effects he did
on the 2 Legends of Liszt. No doubt, there are many readers here who have a
different view, or share the sentimetns expressed by Earl Wild ...dismissing
him as an "old drunk"....but, not I.
Special thanks should go to Gregor Benko, record producer, for his
prodigeous efforts to bring some of these recordings (along with dozens of
other great pianists, i.e. Hoffman, Rachmaninoff,or relatively obscure but
wonderful pianists like Francis Plante, et. al)to light, both on major
labels, as well as the IPA label.
Unfortunatey circumstances prohibited the release of some of these other
Nyiregyhazi recordings made for Columbia in the 70s, some resons for which
were aired in "Variety" for anyone who cares to dig into the matter. I'm sure
there was alot more to it than we were told. And ...that's how things stand.
He was not the only "forgotten" pianist out there... and there are many other
marvelous players to be found on CDs, today.
************************************************************************
If anyone has tapes from the recitals in Japan, i would be grateful to
hear back from you, about the possibility of acquiring some of
them.
************************************************************************
[On a related note,_only_ if you like pianists like Nyireghazi, you might like
"Ernst Levy: Forgotten Genius"...on the Marston label
Beethoven, Ludwig van: Sonata for Piano no 29 in B flat major, Op
Liszt, Franz: Sonata for Piano in B minor, S 178
>>>>Reviewed in "Fanfare" (5-6/98, p.84) - "...the first encounter with these
recordings will stun you: these are huge, rough-hewn readings that seem not to
present the music so much as erupt it..."<<<<<
I personally think the piano sounds like it needed some voicing and is
a bit rought/uneven at times, but not a fault of the pianist
its obviously a studio or "house" piano...well used from the looks
of it....unfortunate for the listener...
Some of the readers here would be very "turned off" by Levy, as well
as by Nyireghazi.
Just one guy's opinion, please don't take it too seriously.
Ralf
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Jim Greif
I agree with your reaction to Nyiregyhazi, and I second your enthusiasm
for the new Marston discs of Ernst Levy. My post about Levy several
weeks ago drew few responses, but his playing is hypnotic. His Liszt
sonata is the most intense I have heard (and I include the beautiful
Richter version in that assessment). His late Beethoven also is
excellent.
Jim
A S Graham
In article <361DE5...@earthlink.net>, Jim Greif <bg...@earthlink.net>
writes:
>
>I agree with your reaction to Nyiregyhazi, and I second your enthusiasm
>for the new Marston discs of Ernst Levy. My post about Levy several
>weeks ago drew few responses, but his playing is hypnotic. His Liszt
>sonata is the most intense I have heard (and I include the beautiful
>Richter version in that assessment). His late Beethoven also is
>excellent.
>
>Jim
>
>
Heartily seconded. This is one of the best Liszt sonatas one will ever hear
and deserves to be heard by anyone that even partially appreciates the piece.
_________________________________________________
Scott Graham
Monterey, CA
ral...@my-dejanews.com
anic...@aol.com (ANicholls) wrote:
- as well as a quite long video
> interview with him, in which he was shown living in a 'flop- house' & drinking
> whisky like a fish! (he seemed to like living in the seediest of places,
> wandering amongst the whores & down & outs at night). The extraordinary
> egocentricity revealed in the video immediately explained why he'd never had
> the career his talent would normally dictate: it was difficult to imagine a
> more obnoxious (in an uninteresting way) personality.
I saw that video, and I don't agree with your summing up of it. As to his
drinking, if you call having 4 shots of wiskey drinking like a fish, alot of
other conductors, musicians,jazz players, rock stars, etc, etc,...would have
to be classified as the same. I don't like drinking either, but i didn't see
that he was the least bit "obnoxious" from the video.... He lived in the
tenderloin section of SF, becauase he could afford it, and "everything he
needed" was within walking distance. He had no car and no money to allow him
to live in the suburbs....the implication of the protitutes is well taken,
though...at over 70, he evidently didn't need viagra! ....not that he could
afford to pay a prostitute. I believe his last wife Elsie(?) had just died
and he'd used the money he earned giving recitals to pay for her hospital
bills....sheeesh...what do you want from this guy?????? Anyhow...he's dead
now, and can't be kicked around anymore....(except in a ng)....no one cared
much then...and fewer care now....the sensationalized story, gave news
viewers something to marvel at... a cheap vicarious thrill....prestige to
CBS/Columbia Records, The Ford Foundation patted itself on the back....and
everyone went on their way.... i don't think Ervin got much from all the
attention....except to be _used_....it seems his life was alot about abuse
and bashing, set up from the beginning, genius or not, starting with his mom,
the psychiatrist who wrote the book on his genius, his managers, the business
community, and finally the media........but...this is a very common story in
the history of the world...sad, but true, mankind has not progressed
much....though we're so smug about our technology. Sadly, even the trips to
Japan didn't occur until he was in his 80s.....the circumstances of his death
found him forgotten just as he was before all the hubub of the 70s....yes,
according to his producer Ervin could be a "dirty rotten old bastard"...but
is this becuase he refused to compromise his art?....insisted on certain
conditions...and perhaps put a few people out along the way...after the age
of 70, how many of you know some old guys, who are not geniuses who could
fall into this category?.... I prefer to take a kinder view of Ervin.
What is great about this video is seeing him play the piano...the tremendous
sounds comming from the piano with such little movement, quiet intensity,
and none of the extraneous elements so common of today's pianists....the big
round tone...almost totally absent from todays concert world of "spikey"
gliteratti.... Real inner dignity while living an outside life in the most
undignified of circumstances....perhaps we got a glimpse of the real Ervin
surviving inside that outer character, only when he played....something
eternal and undefeated...'til the end and beyond, regardless of what
life threw at him.
just my other 2 cents...found in my winter coat pocket...