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This 1928 & 1929 home movie was fillmed in
Cincinnati, Ohio at the home of Dr. Karol
Liszniewski, my late father's (pianist David
Edward Smith's) music teacher.
Horowitz made his debut in New York in 1928
and then came to Cincinnati for a concert
with the symphony and this home movie was
filmed at a party after the concert.
In 1944, music critic J. Harold Harder,
writing for the Toldeo Blade newspaper
(April 17, 1944) after a concert by my
father, (who was then 19 years old) said
:"The best title to give him is the 'American
Horowitz". See:
http://www.drslawfirm.com/toledoblade1944.jpg
See also 1951 review of David Smith's concert
at the National Gallery of Art, Washington
DC where critic Glen Dillard Dunn, of the
Times-Herald said his playing "belongs in the
same category with Solomon, Curzon, and even
the venerable Arthur Rubenstein".
http://www.drslawfirm.com/natlgallery51review
.pdf
My father played Horowtiz's variations of
Bizet's theme from Carmen several times in
concert to very great reviews. I have the
sheet music (notes/fingering) he prepared.
Horowitz's "Carmen variations" was never
published. My father wrote and asked Horowitz
for the music/fingering but Horowitz
declined, albeit respectfully. So my father
had an sound engineer at the college where he
was teaching in Oregon slow down the music so
he could listen to the notes. He then
prepared sheet music and played the piece. If
anyone would like a copy of this music I
would be happy to provide a copy. He said (my
father) it was very difficult to play. But I
would love to see/hear it played again.
Some of you have commented or e-mailed me as
to my father's style of play. A bit of
history. David Edward Smith, studied piano
from the age of 12 (1936) until age 20 (1944)
with Dr. Karol Liszniewski of the Cincinnati
Conservatory of Music. What is no doubt lost
to history is Dr. Liszniewski's exceptional
background and lifestyle that so suited him
to be a master teacher of the piano. Born in
Poland, in his youth Liszniewski studied
with Mikuli who had studied with Chopin.
After receiving a law degree he went to
Vienna to study with Leschetitsky, the great
teacher of piano. There Liszniewski fell in
love with another student (who was
English)--Marguerite Melville--whom he
married. Liszniewski was then involved in a
duel--a matter of honor--and tendons in his
right hand were severed, ending his concert
career. Eventually he and his wife were both
asked to join the faculty at the Cincinnati
Conservatory of Music. My father became a
pupil at the age of 12.
My father wrote in a letter: "All the Polish
celebrities knew Dr. Liszniewski (who speaks
Polish besides the Poles?). Arthur Rubinstein
and Mieczyslaw Munz often stopped by when
they were on tour. So did Rachmaninoff and
Paderewski. I would be allowed to sit right
next to them--only inches from the
keyboard--to watch them practice by the
hour--preparing for their solo recitals and
concerto performances. They would give me
lessons and sometimes, when I was practicing
in my room upstairs, they would open the door
at the bottom of the stairs and yell such
things as 'Practice SLOWLY' or, for example,
'Who told you to do that crescendo in the
left hand' (I had done something terrible, no
doubt). 'That's good-don't ever change that!'
(What a pleasant surprise). Sometimes they
would come to my room to watch me
practice--stopping me to show better
fingering, a more beautiful interpretation,
or how to solve some difficult problem 'at
hand'. To an artist there is nothing quite so
satisfying as the solving of an 'aesthetic
problem'."
Tags : Vladimir Horowitz piano movie |
