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Leonard Pennario in Three Concertos · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:07
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  recording obsessions and anything we want to
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  subscription to help keep this podcast in production
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  throughout the rest of the year. When I was growing
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  up, the American pianist Leonard Panario seemed
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  to get picked on a lot by record reviewers, probably
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  because he made a lot of recordings of popular
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  repertoire, and he was not averse to having his
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  recordings. at least for the Capitol label or
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  the EMI label, marketed in a kind of pops or
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  semi -pops context. You know, you'd have titles
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  like Concerto Under the Stars or Leonard Panario
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  plays your favorites. So probably because of
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  the way he sometimes was marketed, critics would...
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  just assume that he was a lightweight. But if
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  you listen to his best recordings, you will realize
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  immediately that Leonard Panario had tremendous
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  technique, and he was a colossal workman, and
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  he could play with more color and flexibility
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  of phrasing than he was often given credit for.
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  I wrote the booklet notes for a box set that
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  Sony BMG issued a few years ago containing Leonard
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  Panario's complete recordings for RCA Victor.
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  His recordings for EMI, mainly for the Capitol
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  label in the 1950s and 60s, and then his EMI
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  recordings in the 70s and 80s are... all over
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  the place discographically speaking. They've
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  never been completely and systematically reissued.
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  Although there was a box set that MSR brought
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  out quite a few years ago, which were mostly
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  mono solo recordings. But there were a lot of
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  concerto recordings and a lot of things that...
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  still haven't been digitized. So, as I said,
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  the EMI, Capital, Angel, you know, all those
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  labels that are now controlled by Warner Classical,
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  these releases are all over the place. In the
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  mid -1990s, though... EMI resurrected its budget
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  Seraphim label. And on this label, they reissued
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  a whole bunch of Leonard Panario discs, some
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  of his concerto recordings for Capitol, as well
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  as some solo material. And I generally found
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  these in charity shops or secondhand record stores,
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  usually selling for next to nothing, like 99
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  cents or $1 .99. And I'm looking right now at
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  this disc in my collection. I did pay 99 cents
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  for it. And this is a disc that brought the Grieg
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  Concerto, the Liszt Concerto No. 1, and the Chopin
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  Concerto No. 2 all together. The Grieg and the
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  Liszt are with Erich Leinsdorf conducting the
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  Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Greek is a really
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  strong and sensitively inflected and I think
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  well -characterized interpretation that treats
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  the music seriously, but never reverentially.
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  The Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 is a tad heavy
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  in the orchestral department, and Pannario treats
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  the piano part really in the grand manner, but
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  very tastefully. I prefer tighter and more vividly
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  detailed recordings from the same era. I'm thinking
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  about, of course, this Stanislav Richter recording
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  and the Byron Janis recording. And also there
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  are the remakes that Panario did with Rene Leibowitz
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  for RCA, which I prefer. It's still good to have
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  this recording. It's not that bad a performance.
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  But the Chopin F minor concerto is very interesting.
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  It has Vladimir Golshman conducting the Concert
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  Arts Symphony Orchestra. I have a feeling this
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  was a Los Angeles -based pickup ensemble. And
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  the opening ritornello is unusually forthright
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  and driving and totally unsentimental and with
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  really no lyricism about it. It was kind of a
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  striking performance. When I heard it for the
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  first time, I thought, wait, where is the singing?
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  Where is the breadth? You know, but, you know,
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  it is what it is. Goldschmidt takes a lot of
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  care over the accompaniment, more than many conductors,
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  and I think that this kind of forthrightness
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  also informs Panario's playing in the first movement.
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  But the slow movement is quite expansive and
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  poetic, and Panario's strong melodic projection
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  really helps sustain this pace. The rondo has
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  great force and forward momentum, and although
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  Panario's right -hand filigree and decorative
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  passages are as clean and as well -projected
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  as... anyone else. His attention to bass lines
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  and sometimes surprising accents hold a lot of
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  interest, but there also are moments of really
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  haunting delicacy on the pianist's part. The
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  sonics in the Chopin are a little too reverberant
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  and swimmy for my taste, but you can tell that
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  Goldschmidt is doing much more than beating time.
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  As for Erich Leinstorf, I think he accompanies
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  with more commitment in the Grieg concerto than
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  in the Liszt. Now, these may not be one's absolute
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  favorite tip -top recordings of the Grieg, the
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  Liszt No. 1, and Chopin No. 2 concertos, but...
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  These performances certainly prove that Leonard
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  Panario was a finished virtuoso and a great workman
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  who really had something to say in this repertoire.
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  So, the bottom line is, if you can find this
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  disc for 99 cents or $1 .99, or if you want to
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  pay a little more for it, I mean, I wouldn't
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  pay tons of money for it, but if you find it
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  at a modest cost, go for it, because you won't
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  go wrong. This is Jed Disler, and you've been
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  listening to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings. And I hope we will
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  be together for the next episode. Thank you so
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  much for listening, and have a good day.