72004 for PDF 11/05

Morley and Gearhart Rediscovered
DISC 1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Gearhart: Three Blind Mice (Traditional Round) +
R. Strauss: Waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier, Op.59 +
Falla: Danza del terror (Dance of Terror) from El Amor Brujo +
Kern: All The Things You Are, from Very Warm for May (1939) *
Brahms: Eight Waltzes, from Op.39 +
Poulenc: Mouvements perpétuels †
Gershwin: I Got Rhythm from Girl Crazy (1930) *
Dominguez: Frenesi (1940) +
Arensky: Waltz, Op. 15, No.2 +
Gershwin: An American in Paris †
Berlin: Russian Lullaby (1927) *
Fauré: Nocturne from Shylock, Op.57 †
Gershwin: Concerto in F (Finale) +
Duke: April in Paris, from Walk a Little Faster (1932) †
Carmichael: Star Dust (1926) *
J. Strauss, Jr.: Blue Danube Waltz, Op.314 +
Ravel: Pièce (Vocalise-étude) en forme de Habañera (1907) †
Glière: Sailor’s Dance from The Red Poppy (1927) +
2:39
4:54
2:18
2:17
9:08
1:30
2:33
2:00
3:08
9:49
1:41
2:47
4:26
2:04
2:18
5:04
2:23
3:18
TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 64:03
DISC 2
1
2
3
4
Keeney: Mountain Tune +
Braham: Limehouse Blues, from Andre Charlot Revue of 1924 *
Tailleferre: La Tirelitentaine, from Jeux de plein air (“Outdoor Games”) (1917) †
Brahms: Waltz in A Major, Op.39, No.15 +
–2–
2:42
3:06
2:22
1:46
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Offenbach: Can-Can, from La Vie Parisienne †
Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumblebee, from The Tale of Tsar Saltan +
Youmans: Tea for Two, from No, No Nanette (1925) +
Chopin: Waltz in D-flat Major (“Minute Waltz”), Opus 64, No.1 +
Debussy: Fêtes, from Nocturnes †
Arndt: Nola (1915) +
Gearhart: Baby Boogie *
Falla: Ritual Fire Dance from El Amor Brujo +
Liadov: Music Box, Op.32 +
Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 in C-sharp minor +
Lenoir: Parlez moi d’amour (“Speak to Me of Love”) †
Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (“Jesu bleibet meine Freude”)
from Cantata No.147 (“Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben”) +
Rachmaninov: Prelude in G minor, Op.23, No.5 +
Prokofiev: March from The Love for Three Oranges, Op. 33 *
Rodgers: With a Song in my Heart, from Spring is Here (1929) +
Kodály: The Viennese Musical Clock (Bécsi Harangjáték) from Háry János +
Bach: In Thee Is Joy (“In dir ist Freude”), Chorale-Prelude, BWV 615 ++
Arlen: Stormy Weather (1933) *
Confrey: Kitten on the Keys (1921) +
Green: Body and Soul, from Three’s a Crowd (1930) *
Van Alstyne: Goodnight Ladies (1911) +
1:24
1:10
1:12
2:02
5:18
2:04
2:17
3:08
2:12
5:03
1:48
3:34
3:50
1:32
1:48
1:55
2:10
2:54
1:36
3:10
1:08
TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 60:45
All Two Piano Arrangements by Livingston Gearhart
except Arensky, Brahms and Tailleferre.
+ Recorded in the Waring Workshop Music Hall, Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, 1954.
++ Recorded at NBC Studio 6A, New York City, 1949.
* Recorded in New York City for Columbia Records, August 21 and 22, 1947.
† Recorded in New York City for Columbia Records, January 24 and 25, 1951.
–3–
Virginia Morley and Livingston Gearhart
From 1940 until 1954, Virginia Morley and Livingston Gearhart made headlines in Europe
and North America, concertizing as a duo-piano team, playing over 2,000 engagements. Audiences
and critics alike were ecstatic and amazed at their musicianship.
A typical review stated: “Miss Morley is beautiful. Mr. Gearhart is good-looking. Their duopiano playing is magical...It was as if one brain were directing two pairs of hands on the same
keyboard...and the applause, to coin a phrase, was thunderous. The pianists received more than a
score of curtain calls. The audience was still calling for them when the lights went up. Miss Morley
and Mr. Gearhart could return again this
season and it would be a good idea!” (review
of Greenville concert, December 9, 1943).
Virginia Morley and Livingston
Gearhart met in pre-war Paris in 1937, both
were scholarship students of Robert
Casadesus and Nadia Boulanger. It was on
Virginia Morley’s first day at the
Fontainebleau summer school that the
young pianist shyly accepted an invitation to
join a table of fellow students in the school’s
dining room. This invitation was proffered
by the young handsome Livingston
Gearhart. A quick friendship sprang up
between them and a personal and musical
bond was formed.
Reminiscing many years later, Virginia
states: “Livingston was unlike any boy I had
ever known – with his brilliance, intensity,
musicality, wit and good looks. It was an
instant mutual attraction. We became inseparable. Our scholarships were extended and
that fall I shared an apartment on the Left
Livingston and Virginia in Fontainebleau Café, 1937 Bank of Paris with a Mills College chum who
–4–
was attending the Sorbonne. Livingston
lived some blocks away with an aged and
impoverished relative of the poet Paul
Valéry. My apartment contained an old
dilapidated upright piano, so I rented a
slightly better one. Livingston brought over
several two-piano pieces he had played with
his mother, a piano teacher, and I began to
learn the parts she had played. Liv and I
soon became sufficiently proficient to perform for various American clubs, churches
and in the beautiful homes of some
American expatriates.”
In true Bohemian tradition, their days
in France were poor in money but rich in
friendship with fellow-musicians, painters
and other young artists. In the home of
Mme Jacques Durand – wife of the noted
French publisher – Morley and Gearhart
played Debussy’s En Blanc et Noir on the
Boulanger students in the dining pavilion
very pianos used by the composer when he
at Fontainebleau, 1937.
wrote his greatest two-piano work. The
Livingston and Virginia on left.
Princess de Polignac loved two piano music
and often invited the two young pianists to her famous soirees where they, the sole Americans,
sat among the elite while Charles Munch conducted a chamber orchestra.
Virginia writes: “One day during our second summer (1938) at Fontainebleau, while
studying with the famous pianist and teacher Robert Casadesus, we played the two piano
Rondo by Chopin for him. At the conclusion of the Rondo, after listening very intently he said
in French, “You know, I have always detested that particular piece – but this is the first time
I’ve ever heard it played that made me like it.” He then turned to his assistant Mme. Capet
and asked, “Well, when are they going to give a concert?”
“On February 1, 1939 we gave our debut at the Salle Chopin in Paris. The critics’ rave reviews
brought us concerts in Paris, Lyons and Switzerland plus many radio broadcasts. By the end of 1939
–5–
World War II had started and we
were forced to flee Europe arriving in
New York penniless but full of hope of
continuing our duo-piano career.”
Virginia Clotfelter was born in
Dinuba, California, in the San Joaquin
Valley on October 18, 1915. She graduated from high school as a
Salutatorian, and from Mills College in
1937 with all musical honors, having
been a Mills College Scholar (193337). While at Mills she studied with
the eminent pianists Harold Bauer and
Marcel Maas. The Fleischman yeast
heiress, Mrs. Christian Holmes, heard
her play and sent her to Europe.
Virginia, who had never been out of
the state of California, boarded a train
the night of her graduation brimming
with anticipation of the unknown.
Livingston Gearhart was born in
Buffalo, New York, on December 31,
1916. He attended high school in East
Orange, New Jersey. He played first
oboe with the Newark, New Jersey
Civic Opera before attending the
Livingston Gearhart’s arrangement of Keeney’s
Curtis Institute of Music in
“Mountain Tune”
Philadelphia, where he studied oboe
with Marcel Tabuteau, piano with Nadia Reisenberg, and composition with Rosario Scalero.
In 1936 he won the Griffith Award in piano in Newark. In France he studied piano with
Robert Casadesus and Isidor Philipp, and composition with Nadia Boulanger and Igor
Stravinsky. In 1939, while at Fontainebleau, he won first prize in a composition competition.
He continued his composition studies with Darius Milhaud at Mills College, Oakland,
California in 1942 and 1943.
–6–
Virginia reminiscing: “When we arrived in New York we were married in Grace Church,
February 28, 1940 and soon after we were hired by a lanky Frenchman named Herbert Jacoby to
play twice a night for ten or twelve minutes at one of his two chic supper clubs – either the Ruban
Bleu or the Hotel Brevoort. This is what inspired Livingston to begin composing his elegant,
sophisticated two-piano arrangements of music by Gershwin, Rodgers and Berlin.”
“We realized while in Paris that the name Clotfelter was not very compatible with Gearhart –
we then decided to use the name Merritt - my mother’s maiden name. But that too was not very
euphonious, so we kept rolling the name Merritt around on our tongues until finally the name
Morley evolved – a more harmonious duet.”
“For two summers in the early 40’s Liv and I were Artists-in-Residence at my Alma Mater, Mills
College. In February of 1941, we were asked to give a concert. Fortunately the two top newspaper
critics in San Francisco decided to cross the bay to Oakland and wrote glowing reviews of our performance. That set in motion a series of successful concerts in all the major west coast cities, which
in turn caught the attention of the prestigious concert management, Columbia Artists, who offered
us a long-term contract.” For 13 years (from 1941-1954), Columbia Artists Management booked
the well-received tours of the two-piano duo of Morley and Gearhart.
“In 1943 Robert Shaw, famed
orchestral/choral conductor heard
us perform and invited us to audition for Fred Waring. Robert had
been Fred’s choral assistant on the
nightly Chesterfield ‘Pleasure
Time’ radio show since its inception four years earlier. Even
though Fred had been on the air
for ten years, we weren’t very
interested, since we were insufferable snobs – as only the young
can be. We felt our careers were
set. We didn’t need Fred Waring –
or so we thought! At that time
Fred’s Chesterfield shows, according to various polls, had the
largest audience that had ever
been known to tune in to a network broadcast from coast to Nadia Boulanger class of 1938 (Boulanger at the piano, Virginia
Morley far right front, Livingston Gearhart center back row)
coast. For our audition we went
–7–
to New York’s Vanderbilt Theater and
watched the show. When the theater
cleared, we went on stage, were introduced and then sat down at the two
pianos lined up side by side. I remember glancing up while playing to see
Fred leaning on one of the pianos, his
chin in hand, listening intently and
watching us with those penetrating blue
eyes. We had scarcely played our last
note when to our great surprise, Fred
said, “How soon can you start to work?”
It was finally decided that we would
become part-time Pennsylvanians
appearing as soloists whenever we
weren’t touring. We were much too
naïve and unsophisticated at the time to
realize the publicity bonus being on
NBC’s national radio broadcasts gave to
our booking manager, Columbia
Artists.”
“By becoming the 59th and 60th
Pennsylvanians we became regular
guests on the Fred Waring Shows for
ten years (1943-1953). In 1949 Fred
signed a five-year contract with CBS
for a one-hour television show every
Sunday evening at 9:00 p.m.
Livingston Gearhart and Virginia Morley’s
Television was in its infancy and
composition “Baby Boogie”
everything was experimental. All live
shows – no taped telecasts. The first
year they squeezed Fred, all the Pennsylvanians, cameras and crew onto a very small
stage of the then Ziegfield Theater. Fred had devised a round revolving platform to
hold our two pianos because in the cramped quarters of the set, the camera had no
room to move around as we played. The device always operated rather jerkily, but it was
–8–
really unnerving to have it stop unexpectedly in the middle of our various performances and then
lurch forward again – no Rolls Royce that one. One night we were playing Chopin’s Minute Waltz at a
breakneck speed, and the platform stopped suddenly, nearly throwing us off our benches. This time it
was stuck, so while we were madly playing away, the TV viewer saw nothing but a portion of each
piano. Finally, as we neared the end of the piece and holding our breath, the turntable started up again
with a momentous jolt that nearly finished us both off. I’m sure I sprouted a few gray hairs that night!”
Remembering other eventful television programs, Virginia recalls: “One year special guests were
invited each Sunday to perform with Fred. Victor Borge cavorted in a skit with his piano, Rudy Vallee
sang a duet, Raymond Massey, better known for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln, danced a soft shoe
routine and one week Fred dedicated an entire show to Richard Rodgers. The famed songwriter
appeared and played the piano while the Pennsylvanians gathered around him singing short excerpts
from his compositions. Livingston and I played our two-piano version of With a Song in My Heart and
we felt highly complimented that he asked for our recording of it as well.”
Between 1941 and 1954, Morley and Gearhart crisscrossed the U.S. and Canada twenty-six times,
performing annual concert tours always
accompanied by their two nine-foot
Steinways in a separate custom van with
Ray Lee at the wheel. They played in all
states (except Montana) and were heard
by enthusiastic audiences from
Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl,
always receiving rave reviews and standing ovations. In 1953, they gave a command performance at the White House
for President Eisenhower and his wife as
well as all the Supreme Court Justices.
Their unique brand of programming,
combining sophisticated arrangements
of popular music with two-piano classical standards, along with new commissions (David Diamond, Norman Dello
Joio and Darius Milhaud all wrote twopiano works for them), made them a
truly unique two-piano team.
Alexander Fried, writing in the San
Francisco Examiner, called Morley and
Gearhart “The best native American Livingston and Virginia with the eminent French composer
Darius Milhaud, at Mills College, California (1943)
duo-pianists before the public…”
–9–
In addition to their many
concerts
Morley
and
Gearhart recorded two
albums
for
Columbia
Masterworks (in 1947 and in
1951) and two albums for
Omni Sound in 1954.
During the period from
1943-1953,
Livingston
Gearhart also served as staff
arranger on the Fred Waring
Show.
Virginia Morley and
Livingston Gearhart had one
child, Paul. Virginia writes
the following about their
marriage
and
divorce:
“During the early fifties, I
Virginia and Livingston, with son Paul, welcome Raymond Lee
was having trouble keeping a
as he returns in the specially designed truck used to transport
their two nine-foot concert-grand pianos on tour.
balance in my marriage with
Livingston. On the surface
we looked to be the ideal couple, and in some ways we were. I was crazy about Livingston.
Unfortunately he was brought up by a cruel and demanding mother. By today’s standards this
exceptionally gifted and sensitive human being would be considered an abused child. I found it
more and more difficult to cope with his sudden moods and withdrawals, so in 1953 I decided for our child’s sanity and my own, that I would have to leave. I told no one of my decision
except my own family.
“Leaving Livingston made my heart ache. Everybody loved him, but no one could live with
him.
“When I left Pennsylvania to be with my family in California I had no idea that Fred Waring
was going to ask me to marry him. He had done nothing to plant such a thought in my head.
There is no doubt he was charismatic, having many of Livingstons’s qualities – brilliant, handsome, affectionate, sensitive, possessed a great sense of humor, and a fabulous musician. I needed
time to grieve and remain in neutral but Fred was an impetuous man and on December 2, 1954
we were married in Indianapolis – a union that lasted thirty years until Fred’s death in July, 1984.”
– 10 –
Virginia continues: “Since I was onehalf of a two-piano team, the dissolution of
my first marriage meant the end of my
piano career, but I did not mind at all. I
really wasn’t physically strong enough to
endure those arduous tours. I think it was
Jascha Heifetz who said, ‘To be a performing artist, you need the constitution of an
ox and the digestion of a peasant,’ and
unfortunately I had neither.” When her
youngest son, Malcolm was born in 1957,
Virginia Waring reinvented herself. From
1962-68 she was the owner of a successful
interior design business in East
Stroudsburg, PA. During the period
between 1969-83 she was a creative costume designer for Fred Waring’s
Pennsylvanians. When Fred became too ill
Morley and Gearhart at home listening to the
to conduct, Virginia stepped in to conduct
test pressing of their first recording for
Columbia Masterworks in 1947.
the Pennsylvanians on a 13-week tour.
Later, Fred and Virginia shared the conducting responsibilities.
In 1984, Virginia Waring embarked on a new career. Following the death of her husband,
she became Chairman of the Board of Fred Waring Enterprises and its affiliated companies,
Shawnee Press, Inc., GlorySound, Inc. and Harold Flammer, Inc. From 1985 until 1991 she
was artistic director of the Fred Waring U.S. Chorus at Pennsylvania State University. In 1997,
she wrote a book entitled Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, published by the University of
Illinois Press.
Many civic and professional activities have kept her busy over the years. In 1965 she became
a founding member of the Board of Directors of Childhelp, U.S.A., from 1966-75 she was a
founding member of the Board of Directors of the Pocono Art Center in Stroudsburg, PA.,
from 1983-86 she was President of the Board of Trustees of the Joanna Hodges Piano
Competition, she became a founding member of the Board of Directors of the La Quinta Arts
Foundation in 1981 and is currently a board member of the Foundation of College of the
Desert in Palm Desert, California. Virginia Waring currently lives in Rancho Mirage, California.
– 11 –
In 1955, Livingston Gearhart
joined the University of Buffalo
Music Faculty where he taught various musical courses including Theory,
Choral Arranging, Orchestration,
Composition and Piano. In 1959,
sales of Livingston Gearhart’s published choral, instrumental and band
arrangements reached the one million
mark.
Livingston and his second wife,
Pamela (a violinist and conductor),
had three children – Kim, Martha
and Fritz. Pamela and Livingston cofounded Youth Makes Music
(1972-1982), a summer camp in
Alabama for young string players.
During this period, one participant
said: “Writing late into the night,
Livingston provided us with an endThe celebrated Pennsylvanian, Fred Waring, standing
less array of musical gems. His devobetween his favorite two-piano duo, Virginia Morley and
Livingston Gearhart, before one of their broadcasts.
tion and creativity made better players and more imaginative teachers of
every one of us.” Retiring in 1985 with the title of Professor Emeritus, Livingston continued
his close association with the SUNY/Buffalo Music Department until his death on July 14,
1996.
A substantial collection of writing and manuscripts are currently housed in the SUNY at
Buffalo Music Library Archives. Many of Livingston Gearhart’s orchestral, choral and
two-piano manuscripts are held in the Fred Waring’s America Archives at Penn State University.
Shawnee Press plans to draw on these sources (over 350 folders of various two-piano transcriptions, arrangements and original compositions) for additional posthumous publications.
Buffalo Music Library Archives. Many of Livingston Gearhart’s orchestral, choral and
two-piano manuscripts are held in the Fred Waring’s America Archives at Penn State University.
Shawnee Press plans to draw on these sources (over 350 folders of various two-piano transcriptions, arrangements and original compositions) for additional posthumous publications.
– 12 –
During their 14 years together,
Virginia Morley and Livingston
Gearhart performed virtually all of the
masterpieces of the two-piano repertoire. Works by Chopin, Rachmaninov,
Busoni, Mozart, Brahms, Debussy,
Stravinsky, Poulenc and others always
occupied a prominent place on their
recitals. Stravinsky personally coached
the duo in his Concerto for Two Pianos
Alone.
When they performed the Stravinsky in San Francisco, Alfred
Frankenstein wrote: “... the most taxing,
difficult, and involved piece ever written
for two pianos and it received a colossally brilliant virtuoso performance.”
The truly exceptional aspect of the
art of Morley and Gearhart was the way
they supplemented the basic two-piano
Livingston Gearhart composing at the piano, 1945
repertoire with countless extraordinarily
elegant and virtuosic new transcriptions.
They greatly expanded the two-piano repertoire by performing by cleverly written, luxurious stylizations of popular songs and melodies. In essence, because of their complete comfort, freedom and
synchronicity at two keyboards, they created musical performances of such intensity and vibrancy
that they virtually had no equals.
It is only sad that their recorded legacy was so limited. Ivory Classics’ is proud to present this
rediscovery of their recordings in the hope that it will provide performers and music lovers a lasting document into the lives of two exceptionally gifted pianists.
Virginia states: “At the time we were performing the critics felt that we played the major twopiano repertoire better than anyone – pieces like En Blanc et Noir by Debussy and Stravinsky’s
Concerto for Two Pianos. It didn’t occur to us to hire a studio and record these works for future
reference. It’s my only regret.”
– 13 –
Press Reviews
“A top-flight team of duo-pianists. It was equally a pleasure to hear serious music written for two
pianos and to hear two pianists playing any music as if it that were a serious occupation and not a
form of badminton.”
– Virgil Thomson, New York Herald Tribune
“One of the most gifted teams to enter the field. The ensemble worked in indissoluble unity at all
times, yet both asserted claims as artists in their own right. Temperament and technique went hand
in hand toward deftly interlocked art.”
– Louis Biancolli, New York World-Telegram
“The work (David Diamond’s Concerto for Two Solo
Pianos) is dedicated to them... a well deserved honor,
for they reeled off its three movements with enough
gusto to have written it themselves.”
– Robert Bagar, New York World-Telegram
“Piano playing and program making of the most
informed, intelligent and imaginative kind.”
– Alfred Frankenstein, San Francisco Chronicle
“Astonishing exhibition of virtuosity and charm. A
holiday concert for 4,014 fans.”
– Cleveland Plain Dealer
“They have not only precision but a simultaneous
musical thinking. They sound as if their perfect
ensemble and subtle manner were the most natural
thing in the world.”
– Isabel Morse Jones, Los Angeles Times
Livingston and Virginia in
California, 1943
“Perhaps never have two pianists played with such
authority, precision, elegance and flexibility of
nuances, or with such a refined and eloquent musical
sensitivity.”
– Gustave Bret, L’Intransigeant, Paris
– 14 –
“The extremely musical playing of this couple
was highly enjoyable. They made Brahms’
Variations on a Theme by Haydn gleam with a special luster. Not only was the performance polished and refined to a high degree, but it had
inner vitality and soundly paced. Equally delightful was the collaboration of these artists with the
Singers Club in a chorale from Bach’s Christmas
Oratorio, and in five of the Liebeslieder Waltzes of
Brahms.”
–
Herbert Elwell, Cleveland Plain Dealer
“The two-piano wizardry of Morley and Gearhart
spellbound a capacity audience last night...program blending classics with moderns...humorous
and scintillating.”
– Toronto Daily Star
Review of first Columbia Masterworks recording Nightlife on Two Pianos
“Virginia Morley and Livingston Gearhart (husband and wife), are a particularly talented piano
team. These young players have imagination,
Virginia and Livingston at home with
musical intelligence and the necessary technical
son Paul (1946)
accomplishments. What delights me with their
playing is its freedom from exhibitionism, its delicacy and expressive charm. Stardust is as gentle as a soft spring rain and as soothing. Prokofieff ’s
popular march has weight and substance, a nice bounce and the right suggestion of insolence. This
is duo-piano playing that has a happy spirit free from a machine-like technical ostentation.”
– James Norwood, American Record Guide, July 1948
The Music
The performances heard on this historic two-disc set were recorded during an eight-year period, between 1947 and 1954. With the exception of the works by Brahms, Arensky and Tailleferre,
– 15 –
all of the other compositions were expertly transcribed into virtuosic two-piano gems by Livingston
Gearhart. The performances illustrate Morley and
Gearhart’s astonishing ability to transform their art
and musical vision to fit a variety of musical styles.
From track to track, this piano duo effortlessly manages to create elegant, passionate interpretations of
music that made them such audience favorites.
Opening the first disc is Gearhart’s arrangement
of the traditional American round, Three Blind Mice
(DISC 1, 1 ). Fred Waring suggested this arrangement idea for one of his radio shows – a thought
which turned into a gem of pearly notes and pianistic wizardry as played by Morley and Gearhart.
The delicious romantic melodies that abound in
Richard Strauss’ masterpiece opera, Der Rosenkavalier,
Opus 59 were composed between 1909 and 1911. Set
in Eighteenth Century Austria, the opera tells the tale
of the middle-aged Marschallin and her handsome
young lover. The Waltzes (DISC 1, 2 ) in this opera
make up its most melodic and buoyant musical pages.
Virginia and Livingston at home in
Morley and Gearhart capture the true essence of
Shawnee-on-Delaware, PA, 1946
Richard Strauss’ music.
The ballet El Amor Brujo was composed by Manuel
de Falla in 1915. It was written for Pastora Imperio, the redoubtable singing dancer who had expressed
her desire for a work in which she might employ both of her talents. The two most popular selections
from Falla’s masterpiece, Dance of Terror (DISC 1, 3 ) and Ritual Fire Dance (DISC 2, 12 ) are ablaze
with color in Morley and Gearhart’s performances.
Few composers for the musical comedy theater have been so gifted with gracious flowing
melodies and stylistic elegance as Jerome Kern (1885-1945). He wrote one of his most enduring
songs, All the Things You Are (DISC 1, 4 ), to lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, for the 1939
Broadway musical Very Warm for May. The charm of the original is very evident in Morley and
Gearhart’s wonderful pianistic stylization.
The sixteen Brahms Waltzes, Opus 39, were composed in January, 1865 for four hands at one
piano. Morley and Gearhart have created their own two-piano “suite” comprised of eight of these
waltzes (they begin with No.6,, followed by Waltz No.3, Waltz No.5, Waltz No.4, Waltz No.10,
– 16 –
Waltz No.16, Waltz No.8, Waltz No.7, and conclude with a recapitulation of No.6) (DISC 1, 5 ).
Separately, they also perform Brahms’ two-piano
Waltz No.15 (DISC 2, 4 ).
The Trois Mouvements Perpétuels, were written by
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) in Paris in December
1918. These three spare, graceful, fluently charming
pieces became an instant hit with both the public
and performers. We hear one of these delightful
works in Gearhart’s two-piano transcription (DISC
1, 6 ).
George Gershwin (1898-1937) was happiest at
the piano. His unique style and exceptional gifts as
an interpreter were always inextricably linked to his
love of the piano. Virginia Morley and Livingston
Gearhart were very much a product of Gershwin’s
era, and included Gershwin’s music as an integral
part of their concert programs. This release contains
three Gershwin works in Gearhart’s scintillating
arrangements, played by the duo with aplomb, elegance and a jazzy smile that few pianists could ever
Fred Waring, Virginia and Livingston
match. I Got Rhythm (DISC 1 7 ), was written for
following one of their radio broadcasts at
the Broadway musical Girl Crazy (1930). Gershwin’s Shawnee-on-Delaware, Pennsylvania (1947)
sassy and brilliant orchestral work, An American in
Paris (1928) (DISC 1, 10 ), is performed in Gearhart’s compact two-piano transcription with
vivacity and bubbling exuberance. In the Finale of Gershwin’s Concerto in F (DISC 1, 13 ),
Gearhart combines the orchestra and piano into a Fantasy that glitters when executed on two
pianos with the virtuosity of Morley and Gearhart.
One of the most popular hit songs of 1940 was Frenesi (DISC 1, 8 ) by Alberto
Dominguez, and lyrics by S.K. Russell and Ray Charles. The work was an instant hit.
Fred Waring and America’s greatest songwriter, Irving Berlin (1888-1989) remained close
friends throughout the years – always sending wires to each other on their birthdays. Fred said,
“In the early fifties during our television years, Berlin called and said he would like me to hear a
new score he’d written for a show called Miss Liberty. He came on a Saturday and brought his own
upright piano to my office at 1697 Broadway. Irving played only in one key but was able to change
the key by shifting a gear and pulling a lever on his specially built piano. Berlin sang and played
‘Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor.’ He said it was based on words on the Statue of Liberty and he
– 17 –
had written the melody in fifteen minutes. I told
him it was magnificent and he replied, ‘It’s yours –
you publish it and record it.’ ”
Virginia remembers: “Sometimes Fred built
entire half-hour radio shows around Irving Berlin’s
music. To honor Berlin’s Russian heritage, Livingston
composed a two-piano arrangement of his lovely and
gently flowing Russian Lullaby (DISC 1, 11 ) which
was originally composed in 1927.”
Anton Stepanovich Arensky (1861-1906) was
one of the most lyrically gifted Russian composers of
the nineteenth century. Today he is best remembered
for his Piano Trio No.1 in D Minor, Opus 32 and the
delightful Waltz from the two-piano suite Opus 15
(DISC 1, 9 ). He also left his mark as professor of
harmony and counterpoint at the Moscow
Conservatory. Among his students were Alexander
Scriabin, Sergei Rachmaninov and Reinhold Glière.
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) was one of the great
French melodists. As a teacher his influence has been
felt to the present day, not only in the music of
Morley and Gearhart performing on the
France but among all the composers who have ever
Fred Waring Show (GE Show) in 1952
studied in that country. Among his pupils whose
gifts he developed and encouraged were such colossal figures as Nadia Boulanger, Roger-Ducasse,
Aubert, Ravel, Laparra, Florent Schmitt and many others. Fauré’s Nocturne (DISC 1, 12 ) was
composed in 1889 as part of the incidental music to the play Shylock by E. de Haraucourt, after
Shakespeare.
In an interview published a few years before his death in 1937, Maurice Ravel spoke about
himself: “I am not a ‘modern composer’ with a flair for writing radical harmonies and disjointed
counterpoint because I have never been a slave to any one style of composition. Nor have I ever
allied myself with any particular school of music. Great music, I have always felt, must always
come from the heart. Any music created by technique and brains alone is not worth the paper it
is written on.” He composed his ethereal Vocalise-étude en forme de Habañera (DISC 1, 17 ) in
1907 as a response to a commission by the Paris Conservatoire. Originally cast for voice and
piano, it was later orchestrated. The published edition of the work, transcribed for violin and
piano is entitled Pièce, rather than Vocalise, and it is this version of the work that is the basis for
Gearhart’s beautiful two-piano transcription.
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Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1951) wrote what is perhaps the greatest popular-music standard, the
immortal Star Dust in 1926 (DISC 1, 15 ). According to his own autobiographical notes,
Carmichael was a law student at the University of Indiana, and he was standing near the campus’
“spooning wall,” thinking of girls he’d known. He thought of one in particular, Dorothy. He’d been
very fond of her, yet they had drifted apart. “Never be 21 again, so in love again, never feel the
things I felt – the memory of love’s refrain,” Carmichael thought, and suddenly started humming
the tune that was to become Star Dust. He rushed to a piano at a local college candy shop to put
the song down on paper. The rest is history.
Although Vernon Duke (born Vladimir Dukelsky in Russia) studied composition with
Reinhold Glière and was one of Sergei Prokofiev’s closest friends, he is today best known for his
songs for many Broadway musicals. In 1932 Duke wrote his first full score for a Broadway production, Walk a Little Faster, a revue starring Beatrice Lillie and Clark and McCullough. Duke’s
score, written to Harburg’s lyrics, included a song that has remained a favorite, April in Paris (DISC
1, 14 ). “April in Paris,” wrote Isaac Goldberg in a letter to Duke, “is one of the finest musical compositions that ever graced an American production. If I had my way, I’d make the study of it compulsory in all harmony courses.”
Of the many light-hearted pleasures in which the 19th century Viennese indulged with so lusty
a spirit, none was dearer to them than dancing. It has been recorded that one out of every four in
Vienna danced regularly. They
danced the polka, and the quadrille;
but most of all they danced the
waltz. The waltzes of Johann
Strauss, Jr. (1825-1899) hold a
unique position in the history of
music. Not only are they popular
with the masses of music lovers, but
their particular individuality is
envied by most serious composers.
The story is told that once at a party
in Vienna the wife of Johann Strauss
asked Johannes Brahms to autograph her fan. Brahms sketched on
the fan a fragment from the
Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz, and
beneath it wrote “Unfortunately –
not by Johannes Brahms.” On the
Morley and Gearhart performing in 1952
Beautiful Blue Danube, Opus 314
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(DISC 1, 16 ) is singularly one of the most
recognized and beloved of all waltzes. It has
prompted countless transcriptions, of which
the one for solo piano by Schulz-Evler is the
most effective and virtuosic. Using the original work and Schulz-Evler’s version as points
of departure, Livingston Gearhart transforms
the work into a brilliant two-piano showcase.
Reinhold Glière (1875-1956) occupied a
patriarchal position in the history of music in
modern Russia. From 1914 on, after studies
in Berlin, he was director of the music conservatories at Kiev and Moscow. His pupils
have included Prokofiev, Miaskovsky,
Khachaturian and others. Glière is today best
known for his ballet music, The Red Poppy,
and his Third Symphony (“Ilya Mourometz”).
The Sailor’s Dance (DISC 1, 18 ), from The
Red Poppy, became an instant hit when it was
heard first in 1927. Livingston Gearhart’s
two-piano transcription is a veritable tourde-force!
Morley and Gearhart performing
Wendell Keeney (1903-1989) was a
in 1952
Juilliard graduate and student of Nadia
Boulanger, where he met Virginia Morley and Livingston Gearhart. They became close friends.
From 1935-1948, Keeney was head of the music department at Furman University. He published
his evocative Mountain Tune (DISC 2, 1 ) in 1936. Based on a Kentucky mountain song, Keeney’s
rousing miniature was transcribed and published by Livingston Gearhart in 1943. Pure Americana,
this gem echoes with joyous melodic invention and stylistic embellishments.
Philip Braham’s hit song, Limehouse Blues (DISC 2, 2 ) to lyrics by Douglas Furber, was the
highlight of a, mostly forgettable, Broadway musical which opened on January 9, 1924, called
Andre Charlot Revue of 1924 and starred Gertrude Lawrence, Bea Lillie and Jack Buchanan.
Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) was a contemporary of Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger and
Darius Milhaud at the Paris Conservatoire. She was acquainted with Erik Satie, a founding member of the “Groupe des Six.” To the group, Haydn, Rameau and Scarlatti were the orientation figures of a music in accordance with new standards, a music that one should no longer listen to
“with one’s eyes closed” – music of classical clarity, vigorous and sophisticated, dynamic and intel– 20 –
ligible. La Tirelitentaine (DISC 2, 3 ) is the first of two short pieces for two pianos in the set Jeux
de plein air (“Outdoor Games”) which she composed in 1917.
For sheer fun, wit and exuberance, it would be hard to find anything in the musical literature
to rival the tongue-in-cheek Parisian compositions of Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880). Well known
for his many delightful operettas, Offenbach inserted can-cans into his scores when possible. The
word “can-can” originally meant gossip, tittle-tattle, particularly of a scandalous nature, so it is no
wonder that the Can-Can (DISC 2, 5 ) developed into a fast and furious dance performed by
groups of women in frilly dresses, with high kicks, splits, and other acrobatic movements designed
to offer interesting revelations to the audience.
Before his death in 1908, Rimsky-Korsakov produced an incredible number of masterpieces. One
of his most recognized compositions is The Flight of the Bumblebee (DISC 2, 6 ) from his opera, The
Tale of Tsar Sultan. The opera is a magical adventure full of intrigue and sorcery. A young Prince banished from the kingdom as a child returns to his father’s court in the guise of a bee. The Flight of the
Bumblebee is an interlude from the opera’s third act when the prince revenges himself on his wicked
aunts who were responsible for his exile.
Tea for Two (DISC 2, 7 ) is one of the half dozen greatest songs Vincent Youmans (1898-1946)
ever wrote. Composed in 1924 for
the Broadway musical No, No
Nanette (1925), the melodic line to
the songs came to Youmans while
he was sitting in a lunchroom. In
fact, in his most productive years
Youmans almost always composed
away from the piano. When a
melody struck him, he whistled it
through first – he would then write
it down.
Chopin’s so-called “Minute
Waltz,” the Waltz in D flat Major,
(DISC 2, 8 ), in earlier editions
also bore the anecdotal title “Valse
du petit chien.” The story goes that
George Sand had a little dog that
used to run after its own tail, and
Fred Waring, Mamie Eisenhower, President Eisenhower,
one evening she said to Chopin, “If
unknown man and Virginia Waring at the “Little White
I had your talent I would improvise
House” in Augusta, Georgia, on Christmas Eve, 1954.
a valse for that dog,” and the com– 21 –
poser promptly sat down to the piano and
played the piece that was to become his Opus
64, No.1. Virginia states: “Few people realize
that while I am playing the piece as written
throughout, Livingston is playing a third
below and improvising in the middle section.”
Like the paintings of the Impressionists,
Debussy’s music is inspired by the out-ofdoors. It is not descriptive, but suggestive of
the moods which various glimpses of nature
aroused in the artist. It is “a sympathetic
transposition,” says Debussy, “of that which is
invisible in nature.” For him music always
began where words and sight left off. Fêtes
(DISC 2, 9 ), the second of the Nocturnes is
iridescent and vibrant with ever-changing
lights that quiver in their momentary intensity. Debussy’s imagination dwelt upon “the
restless dancing rhythms of the atmosphere,
interspersed with abrupt scintillations.”
Midway is an incidental procession, which
Livingston in Summer 1975
the composer described as “a wholly visionary
pageant – passing through and blended with the revelry; but the background of the uninterrupted
festival persists; luminous dust participating in the universal rhythm.” This luminosity of vibration
and glitter is superbly captured by the two-piano artistry of Morley and Gearhart.
Felix Arndt (1889-1918) was a pioneer in writing syncopated pieces for the piano. He composed special material for vaudeville entertainers, including Nora Bayes, Jack Norworth, and Gus
Edwards. One of the most prolific recording artists of his day, Arndt made over three thousand
piano rolls for Duo-Art, Q.R.S., and others, as well as 78rpm records for the Victor Talking
Machine Company. Arndt wrote Nola (DISC 2, 10 ) in 1915 as a musical portrait of his sweetheart,
Nola Locke, a gifted singer and pianist. The piece became a best seller when it was published in
1916 and eventually became the signature music of noted bandleader Vincent Lopez. Only in 1958
did Sunny Skylar write a set of lyrics for Arndt’s melody.
Collaborative efforts are rarely recognized when sheet music is published, but the duo-composition by Morley and Gearhart, Baby Boogie (1948) (DISC 2, 11 ) was written for their son Paul and
based on a popular children’s tune.
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Anatoly Liadov (1855-1914) studied composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and
eventually joined the faculty of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, teaching harmony, theory and composition. Liadov’s orchestral works show incredible imagination and resplendent musical coloring. As a piano composer, Liadov was primarily a miniaturist, producing countless beautiful preludes, mazurkas, bagatelles, and études. His most popular and
most-recorded piano piece is his Music Box in A Major, Opus 32 (DISC 2, 13 ) which he
composed in 1893, and subtitled “valse-shutka” (waltz-jest). Livingston Gearhart decided
to carry the “joke” a little further in his arrangement for two-pianos. He made the music
box slightly schizophrenic after it was rewound. This delightful tone-picture preserves the
tinkling ethereal sounds we are accustomed to associating with a toy music-box.
Franz Liszt (1811-1886) conceived the Hungarian Rhapsodies, as a kind of collective
national epic. He composed the first in 1846 at the age of 35, and his last in 1885 at the
age of 74. In order to collect Gypsy tunes and absorb the strong flavor of their rhythms –
the slow pride of the Lassan and the dervish rampage of the Friska – Liszt lived in Gypsy
encampments. His first fifteen Hungarian Rhapsodies were published by 1854 (the remaining five were to come in his last years). The most famous of these is the Hungarian Rhapsody
No.2 in C sharp minor (DISC 2, 14 ). Dedicated to the politician and patriot, Count László
Teleki, the rhapsody begins
grandly and heroically.
Liszt converts the piano at
one point into the likeness
of a pulsating, many
stringed cimbalom (dulcimer), at others into a suggestion of a brilliant,
impetuous Gypsy violin. In
Livingston Gearhart’s twopiano transcription, Liszt’s
passionate music is even
more exciting.
Jean Lenoir’s French
cabaret hit Parlez moi
d’amour (“Speak to Me of
Love”) (DISC 2, 15 ) was
composed in the late 1920s
Livingston with his second wife Pamela Gearhart at the
and first recorded in 1930 by
University of Buffalo, 1979.
– 23 –
the inimitable Lucienne Boyer, who popularized
the song not only in Europe but also in the
United States. This “torch song” became a staple
of the cabarets and supper clubs.
There are literally hundreds of piano transcriptions of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music in
print. Virtually all of his major organ works, his
violin, cello and chamber music, and much of
his choral music has been transformed by ardent
pianists over the last two centuries into virtuosic
piano arrangements. Among these are the aria
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (DISC 2, 16 ) from the
Cantata No.147, and the organ chorale-prelude
In Thee Is Joy (“In dir ist Freude”) (DISC 2, 21 ).
Although both of these works are better known,
respectively, in their transcriptions by Dame
Myra Hess and Ferruccio Busoni, the arrangements for two pianos by Livingston Gearhart
provide a depth and dimension that only two
keyboards could provide.
The ten Preludes, Opus 23 were written by
Sergei Rachmaninov in 1903, except for No.5,
which was written in 1901. The set was dedicated to his teacher and friend, Alexander Siloti.
The Prelude in G minor, Opus 23, No.5 (DISC
2, 17 ) is only second in popularity to
Virginia and Fred Waring in 1963
Rachmaninov’s more famous Prelude in C sharp
minor, Opus 3, No.2. The G minor work possesses much of the same rugged and impetuous beauty
as its earlier cousin. The rhythmical and martial feel of the work is largely derived from its alla marcia opening, which is contrasted with an exquisite lyric figure in the middle portion sumptuously
accompanied by sweeping left-hand arpeggios.
Love for Three Oranges, Opus 33, commissioned by the Chicago Opera Company, was written
in 1919 by Sergei Prokofiev. Although he actually composed the opera in New York, the inspiration for the work had been conceived before he left Russia in 1918. Prominent Russian dramatist,
Vsevolod Meyerhold suggested Carlo Gozzi’s 1761 play, Fiable dell’amore delle tre melarance, be
cast by Prokofiev as a perfect vehicle to mock the stereotype forms of romantic theater. Fascinated
by the games, processions and festivities of the play, Prokofiev created an opera with music at once
– 24 –
amusing and capricious, yet ironic. The celebrated March (DISC 2, 18 ) appears in the opera in the second act, as a connecting interlude to the second scene.
Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) is largely remembered today for his fabulous musicals (in collaboration
with Oscar Hammerstein II and Lorenz Hart): Babes in Arms (1937), Pal Joey (1940), Oklahoma! (1943),
Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951) and The Sound of Music (1959). Spring is
Here (1929) was an early vehicle for the collaboration of Rodgers and Hart. Although the musical had a
disappointingly short run of 104 performances, the lovely number, With a Song in My Heart (DISC 2, 19
) became a hit.
Zoltan Kodály believed passionately in nationalism in music. He wrote: “The works of art that
exert the most powerful influences throughout the world as a whole, are those that express most fully
the national characteristics of the artist.” To his success as a national composer Bártok is witness: “If
I were asked in whose music is the spirit of Hungary most perfectly embodied, I would reply, in
Kodály’s. His music is indeed a profession of faith in the spirit of Hungary.” To examine his larger
scores, the folk operas Háry János (1926) and The Spinning Room, his Marosszek Dances and Dances
from Galanta , and the Psalmus Hungaricus, is to find a synthesis of Hungarian folk and art music.
The delightful Viennese Musical Clock (DISC 2, 20 )
is an orchestral segment (where the clock strikes
twelve noon) in the second adventure of Háry
János, peasant, dreamer, veteran and poet. Kodály’s
humor and wondrous music is magically preserved
in Gearhart’s two-piano arrangement.
Composer Harold Arlen is today best remembered
for his Academy Award winning score to the 1939
movie classic, The Wizard of Oz. His 1933 song, Stormy
Weather (DISC 2, 22 ) became a classic in American
popular music. Originally composed for Cab Calloway,
it was recorded by Arlen himself before it was presented in the Cotton Club revue sung by Ethel Waters.
When 20th Century-Fox released the film Stormy
Weather in 1943, the title song by Harold Arlen and
Ted Kohler, was thrillingly sung by Lena Horne, placing the song on the best-selling charts.
Edward Elzear “Zez” Confrey (1895-1971) was a
musical phenomenon. Precocious, immensely talented, with an absolutely natural ability at the keyboard,
he became a major celebrity after publishing in 1921
Virginia Waring in 1998
his evocative and rhythmically intricate masterpiece,
– 25 –
Kitten on the Keys (DISC 2, 23 ). In the introduction to
Zez Confrey’s Modernistic Piano Solos, the story behind
the music is explained: “Concerning Kitten on the Keys,
the composer tells an amusing story of its origin. Zez was
staying at his grandmother’s house over the weekend and
after a quiet evening had retired to his room. Suddenly
he was awakened by a strange series of sounds, which
seemed to be emanating from the old fashioned upright
piano in the parlor. He went down to investigate and discovered – the house cat promenading back and forth
across the keyboard! That incident was later developed
into one of the most famous of all piano fantasies.”
Kitten on the Keys became an instant success for the composer, eventually selling over a million copies.
Although Johnny Green won Academy Awards for
Best Scoring of a Musical Picture in 1948 (“Easter
Parade”), 1951 (“An American in Paris”), and 1961
(“West Side Story”), and for Best Scoring of a Short
Subject in 1953 (“The Merry Wives of Windsor”), he is
Virginia Waring and Earl Wild
most often remembered today for his most famous song,
at Virginia’s home in Rancho Mirage,
Body and Soul (DISC 2, 24 ). The song became an interCalifornia, 2001 – both celebrating
national hit before it was introduced in the Broadway
their 85th birthdays.
revue, Three’s a Crowd (1930). Green wrote it as special
material for Gertrude Lawrence, whose accompanist
Green was at the time. She took the unpublished manuscript to England, sang it over the BBC, and
made it so popular that in a short time it was published in England and played there by many leading
popular orchestras. It was then that Max Gordon, producer of Three’s a Crowd, bought it for his revue.
Egbert Van Alstyne (1882-1951) was a piano prodigy with a gift for creating memorable lyrical songs.
He collaborated with many fine lyricists, including Harry Williams and Gus Kahn, producing many best
sellers, including: In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree, Pretty Baby, Memories and the lovely ballad, Goodnight
Ladies (1911) (DISC 2, 25 ).
Morley and Gearhart quote: “From personal experiences attending many concerts, we were both
convinced that most concert programs were too long; and that, for many listeners, encores represented the most enjoyable part of a musical evening. So we usually played at least four encores at all of our
performances. It was fun for us to sometimes give a sophisticated audience a jolt of humor and see and
hear their reactions by ‘signing off’ with Goodnight Ladies, especially after we had performed a weighty
program of serious original two-piano works by Mozart, Brahms, Chopin and Debussy.”
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Credits
Executive and Remastering Producer: Michael Rolland Davis
Transfer and Remastering Engineer: Ed Thompson
Noise Restoration by: Glenn Meadows and Ed Thompson
Original Engineer of Delaware Water Gap recordings in 1954: Peter Kiefer
Remastered using High Definition 24-Bit State-of-the-Art Technology — HDCD Encoded.
Liner Notes: Virginia Waring, Marina Ledin and Victor Ledin
Design: Communication Graphics
Cover, Inside Tray, and Photographs on Pages 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18,
19, 20, 21, 24, and 25: Courtesy of Virginia Waring
Photographs on Pages 13, 22, and 23: Courtesy of Pamela Gearhart
Photographs on Pages 5, 6, 7, and 14:
Courtesy of University of Buffalo Livingston Gearhart Archive
Music on Page 8: Courtesy of Fred Waring’s America Archive
Source Materials and Masters Provided By:
Virginia Waring and Fred Waring’s America, Penn State University, Peter Kiefer, Curator.
Morley and Gearhart Columbia Masterworks recording dates courtesy of Anthony Fountain.
Special Thanks to Virginia Waring for all her helpful assistance and support.
Various quotes taken from Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians by Virginia Waring,
published by University of Illinois Press, 1997.
To place an order or be included on our mailing list:
Ivory Classics® • P.O. Box 341068 • Columbus, Ohio 43234-1068
Phone: 888-40-IVORY or 614-761-8709 • Fax: 614-761-9799
e-mail@ivoryclassics.com • Website: www.IvoryClassics.com
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