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. – 18 –

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 – 19 –

(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. – 22 –

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.” – 26 –

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.

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