This release replaces APR’s deleted edition of the tragically short-lived Mischa Levitzki’s complete HMV recordings. All of the material is now remastered and correctly pitched. To be sure, the pianist’s HMV output was included in Naxos’ three volume complete Levitzki series alongside his Columbia and RCA discs and surviving broadcasts. Yet APR’s transfers convey more fullness, dynamic presence, and timbral definition.
Levitzki (1898-1941) achieved great success and popularity at an early age, and managed to make a fair number of recordings before his death from a heart attack at 42. In his book, Speaking of Pianists, Abram Chasins singled out Levitzki’s recordings for special praise. By contrast, Vladimir Horowitz dismissed him as “awful…just fingers.” To my ears, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
The polished and poised 1927 Bach/Liszt A minor Prelude and Fugue differs from Percy Grainger’s more vigorous, hard-hitting version from four years later, while the Schumann Sonata No. 2 makes its expressive points through color, voicing, and accentuation. On the other hand, I’ve always been bothered by Levitzki’s tendency to lurch into the Liszt E-flat concerto’s unaccompanied passages, although the same composer’s 6th, 12th, and 13th Hungarian Rhapsodies are on the cool side when measured against more ardent 78-era versions.
Levitzki’s Chopin is largely solid yet uneventful; you don’t get the force and personality of Cortot, Friedman, or Moiseiwitsch in the Ballade No. 3, nor the joyous swagger of the A-flat Polonaise in the hands of Lhevinne or the young(ish) Rubinstein. But it’s interesting how Levitzki goes against “tradition” in the C-sharp minor Scherzo by pacing the Trio’s chorale-like theme and subsequent cascading arpeggios in more-or-less strict tempo.
His broad pacing of Scarlatti’s A major K. 113 sonata allows breathing room for the gorgeously sculpted ornaments and tonal shadings. If Levitzki’s stodgy Rachmaninov G minor Prelude Op. 23 No. 5, heavy-handed Mendelssohn Rondo Capriccioso, and matter-of-fact Rubinstein Staccato Etude are nothing to write home about, he sails through Eugen d’Albert’s overly upholstered edition of Beethoven’s Ecossaises with no effort at all.
Specialist collectors may respond more positively than I to Levitzki’s artistry, and as such will welcome the sonic upgrades in APR’s “re-reissue”.
