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Chopin, Jose Iturbi, and Me
-- by Henry Ewert
How to entertain me, a four-year-old, when
my mother took me along to Mrs. Milne in Kerrisdale for tea, was Mrs.
Milne’s kindly concern, or so it seemed to me. (It was the early 1940’s
and her husband was in Europe, at war, and my father was at work.)
Before I knew it, she had laid an RCA Victor
12-inch 78 r.p.m. record on the turntable of her mahogany
radio/phonograph console, and glorious music ---piano music!---filled
her apartment. She explained to my mother and me that it was the great
pianist and movie star, Jose Iturbi, playing Chopin’s so-famous
Polonaise in A flat. My reaction was of such enthusiasm that three
actions followed, and in quick succession: my parents went with me to
Sterling Furniture at 10th Avenue and Main Street and bought that
recording for me; and I began a decade of piano lessons immediately, a
piano having been purchased for me, also immediately.
Just a few years later, I attended my very
first piano concert, Jose Iturbi himself, performing at Vancouver ’s
only concert venue at the time, Georgia (formerly Denman) Auditorium,
at the northwest corner of Georgia and Denman streets. What a
revelation that was, and when he played a noon-hour recital in the old
auditorium at U.B.C. during my first year there as a student, I could
hardly wait to bound up on stage--- with dozens of other students---
after his performance to tell him that his Chopin had been a seminal
experience in my life. Still stoking his pipe into action, he gave me a
hug and a pat on the cheek.
That 78 r.p.m. recording of Chopin’s
Polonaise in A flat, Op. 53 is actually the first classical recording
to have sold a million copies, and today, some seventy years after its
release, it is still available, one of thirteen compositions on Turia
Records CD-105. Over a period of 42 years, 1933 to 1975, Jose Iturbi
made hundreds of recordings, including much Chopin.
It has been estimated that Jose Iturbi
brought the music of Chopin to a vaster audience than all other
pianists combined since Chopin himself first publicly performed his own
works. Iturbi was the off-screen pianist for the movie of Chopin’s
life, “A Song to Remember,” which, monumentally successful around the
world in its own year (1945), is still seen regularly on television.
Iturbi’s Chopin selections from the film became one of the best-selling
collections of all time. Long before the film, however, Iturbi’s Chopin
was prized as one of the particular delights of his repertoire.
From late 1918, age 23, through 1923, Iturbi
was Professor Superior of Piano (the chair once held by Franz Liszt) at
the Geneva Conservatory of Music. He relinquished this position when
his concert engagements became too numerous, and moved to Paris , to
become one of the most sought-after pianists. He played in all of
Europe , Africa , the Far East , Russia , and South America . In 1929
Jose Iturbi made his debuts in Canada and the United States (with the
Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic), and in 1933 he
made his debut in Mexico City and stayed to form and conduct a symphony
orchestra.
When he returned to New York , he was
immediately engaged to conduct the summer concerts of both the New York
Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Iturbi was Music Director
and Conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic from 1936 to 1944; and he
co-starred in seven Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical films between 1942 and
1949.
Born in Valencia in1895, Jose Iturbi died on
June 28, 1980 in Los Angeles , having made an extraordinarily massive
impact on the world of music during his lifetime. His Chopin will
always be indispensable.
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