“Supervirtuoso,” “Romantic Master,” “Mr. Wild has one of the great piano techniques of the 20th century...”
These are just a few of the copious accolades given to pianist Earl Wild and would be sufficient to give some clarity to his genius - but this is limited and doesn’t take into account the rarity of him also being a prolific composer and arranger, an achievement quite infrequent among modern pianists.
His technical skill is only one part of the picture -- as skill alone, no matter how important, does not a musician make!
Fortunately for us, his imagination was limitless so that notes were transformed into fragrance, dances, flavours, cellos, colours; the piano being a diving board for all these.
(It’s with some caution that I attempt to give clarity to Earl Wild’s genius but it’s my opinion that this is best left to you, dear reader/listener, so I invite you to investigate his music and playing to form your own opinion - which I think may corroborate my own - of this “national treasure.”)
In his transcription of Rachmaninoff’s song,“Vocalise,” Earl Wild’s creative prowess is self-evident and cannot be missed.
In the original form, “Vocalise” is a song conveying despair and it is unique in that this is a wordless song; lyrics have been replaced by the vowel sound “oo.”
While the voice, with its subtle nuances can adequately convey emotion, the piano is severely constrained by the unavoidable fact that the sound produced by pressing any key begins immediately to dissipate the moment the sound is given its birth.
Wild calls on the considerable resources of the piano and his own creativity in replacing the voice in Vocalise. Through some very elaborate writing - that he referred to sometimes in conversations as “just adding curtains and draperies” - Wild’s fingerprint is unmistakable but without distracting from or diminishing Rachmaninoff’s intent.
Listen to Vocalise
On Spotify
On Apple Music
On Deezer
On YouTube Music
On Pandora
...and hear a guided tour by John McArthur through Vocalise in the short film Grief & Hope