Sony Classical publishes a fascinating and luxurious 190-page book-disc, From Hollywood to the World: The Rediscovered Recordings by Pianist and Conductor José Iturbiretracing the life and career of a true phenomenon in the history of classical music.
The case of José Iturbi (1895-1980) is unique. Apart from Leopold Stokowski, who shook Mickey’s hand in Fantasiahe was the best-known musician in America from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Iturbi was a pianist and bandleader turned radio personality in the United States. His notoriety was such that Hollywood made him a movie star. Thus, José Iturbi shot in Hollywood, between 1943 and 1951, ten feature films, most often playing himself.
And then, nothing else but oblivion, relative or total. It almost disappeared, like a cinematic fade, and nothing remained. When Sony claims on the cover that these recordings have been “rediscovered”, one did not have to look particularly far; no one wanted it. As if this artist had been a “fashion”, as if Hollywood had not led him ” to the world “, but ” to the artistic grave “.
Compartmentalisation
Before being a fad, Iturbi was a special case, a phenomenon. We mentioned his name in our article on the history of pianists directing themselves on the occasion of the publication, in 2021, of concertos of Brahms by András Schiff. “Edwin Fischer (1886-1960) had formed his own chamber orchestra, expressly to defend his conception of Mozart’s piano concertos and symphonies. He recorded the 20e Concerto in London with the Philharmonic in 1933, and the 17e Concerto on May 7, 1937 in Berlin, the very day when, in Vienna, with the Philharmonic, another great young Mozart, conductor Bruno Walter, followed in his footsteps for a 20e Concerto, the most legendary “self-accompanied” recording in history. The artist, who then expanded the repertoire in this exercise, was the very forgotten and multitalented José Iturbi, Spanish pianist and conductor in Rochester from 1936 to 1944. He was the first to record Beethoven on the piano (3e Concerto), but also Mendelssohn (1er Concerto) and even Liszt (1er Concerto) and Tchaikovsky, an audacity with no future. »
To publish this very luxurious work today is to restore his place in history to an artist who finally suffered from having wanted to cast too wide a net. The various biographical notes also attest that José Iturbi’s propensity to avoid political correctness has sometimes damaged his image. Nicknamed himself “Iturbi, disturbi”, he could ask for the expulsion of a coughing spectator, or even refuse to conduct during a radio show, because his music would be mixed with that of Benny Goodman’s sextet. , a musician he also admired. “Classical and jazz do not mix”, had then ruled the one who recorded more than one Rhapsody in Blue swaying with her sister Amparo.
Eventually, he himself fell victim to this compartmentalization, because despite his many appearances in Hollywood, film audiences were not interested in concerts that would have programmed the Sonata of Liszt or theOpus 111 of Beethoven, while the classical public snubbed an artist judged to have gone astray in the cinema.
A star
Born in Valencia, Spain, in 1895, José Iturbi already earned his living as a professional pianist at the age of seven by accompanying silent films at the local cinema. He provides his family with additional income: “We were poor, but we had enough to eat. Just enough. If it is necessary to add butter to the spinach, he goes to play, late, in the neighboring cafes.
At 15, he moved to Barcelona. It was there that he met Albéniz and Granados, then the great pianist Emil von Sauer, who encouraged him to audition at the Paris Conservatoire. He went to Paris the same year and, at 19, left the Conservatoire with a 1er price. After the war, he was hired in Geneva to direct the piano department of the Conservatory, which he left in 1922 to return to Paris and focus on his career. At this point, it was no longer just Albéniz and Granados who knew who José Iturbi was, but De Falla, Stravinsky, Fauré, Prokofiev, Ravel and Gershwin!
The life of José Iturbi is a novel. In 1936, he even survived a plane crash. He then had a career for seven years in the United States, where a real “iturbimania” reigned. As he had formerly worked with Wanda Landowska, he sometimes gives half-harpsichord, half-piano recitals. But the piano was not enough for him, so he started conducting in 1933. He quickly established conducting from the keyboard, a genre then lost. The Philadelphia Orchestra, seduced by his talent, gave him many concerts in the years 1934 and 1935, including on tour, where he shared the baton with Ormandy. While Ormandy was appointed to Philadelphia, he gleaned the musical direction of the Rochester Orchestra, which he conducted from 1936 to 1944. Iturbi also composed, notably Soliloquy.
Memorial
The object published by Sony, under the direction of Michael Feinstein and Robert Russ, in collaboration with the Iturbi Foundation, is to be classified in the category of “beautiful books” with sound. This is not a CD box, but a book with 16 CDs on two double cardboard pages with eight sleeves.
What strikes first is the quality of the object, its finish. We remember the quality of the paper and the incredible iconographic profusion, as well as the richness of it. The object is in English only and details both the musical, discographic and cinematographic journey: very difficult to imagine more beautiful and more precise. It’s like a museum moving into everyone’s home.
An obvious pragmatic aspect, however, did not appear to Feinstein and Russ. Establishing a list of recording sessions, and further the discography by catalog numbers, certainly satisfies the mind of the maniacal librarian, entomologist in his spare time. But the buyer, if he is flattered that we go into detail in this way, needs one thing above all: an alphabetical list of works by composer, with the number of the disc and the range where they are found. This list, we do not have it. With it, one would easily see, for example, that there are two versions of the 3e Concerto by Beethoven, one from 1941, another from 1953.
For information, Iturbi had a “second career”. After quitting recording for RCA in 1952, he made records for Columbia. EMI certainly published in 2006, drawn from this legacy, The very rare ones by José Iturbi, but this two-CD album does not contain everything. In particular, it lacks its 1er Concerto by Tchaikovsky with the Colonne Orchestra, his sonata “Moonlight” by Beethoven and his Mozarts.
The Sony Classical book resurrects his RCA Victor recordings, but not the unreleased ones like The hunter damn from Frank. We set off to discover the chef in the coupling of the 3e Symphony of Mendelssohn and the 9e Symphony by Dvorak. His direct, spectacular direction reminds Paul Paray a bit, with a few more effects (big brass bellows in Dvořák’s finale). We would have liked to know more about the chef, who we also hear directing Morton Gould and William J. Reddick.
His Mozart (20e Concerto And Concerto for 2 pianos with her sister Amparo Iturbi), upright and elegant, has nothing of Hollywood about it. But a certain disillusion begins from the 2e CD, concertos by Liszt, Mendelssohn and Beethoven with the RCA Victor Orchestra in 1952, a caricature where the orchestra is mixed as a stooge. In addition, the sound is distorted, as, alas, in many documents.
In general, the pianist is not spoiled by sound engineers. His piano is often dry, when it is not badly regulated. Luckily RCA took much more care in recording Arthur Rubinstein at the time. The recordings offer a significant place (including two complete CDs) to Amparo Iturbi, four years the youngest of the star.
So here there is documentation on a forgotten artist, a prolific talent, but no major revelation, CD 13, recorded in Spain, representing the best surprise. Nevertheless, the character’s story remains unique and the setting that celebrates him is wonderful.