Leonid Hambro
Leonid Hambro led many lives from behind the keyboard of a grand piano, crossing over from classical to popular music and back again, with side trips into comedy. The virtuoso was noted for his prodigious memory, improvising genius, and sense of humor -- which enabled him to play straight man as Victor Borge and on the compositions attributed to P.D.Q. Bach -- but also as the official pianist for WQXR, New York's premiere classical radio station for decades. He was born in Chicago in 1920, the son of Simeon Musicant, who was himself a son of Russian musicians (who changed his name to Hambro while using a borrowed identity card). The elder Hambro was a pianist who made part of his living playing accompaniment to silent films. Leonid was a child prodigy who gave his first recital in 1925, at the age of five years old. He later attended Juilliard and, in addition to studying there, was a frequent accompanist to other students. He served stateside in the Navy as a musician during the Second World War, after which he secured a Naumburg Foundation Award in 1946 -- he was later appointed the pianist of the New York Philharmonic.
As a pianist, Hambro developed a huge repertoire, and knew almost all of them from memory, which he frequently demonstrated in his "Command Performances," where he gave a list of 100 pieces to audience members and allowed them pick the program from the list. He also put that facility to use in more pressing situations, such as substituting for an ill pianist in a concert of music by Paul Hindemith, conducted by the composer, at New York's Town Hall, for which he learned the complex work in question on 24 hours' notice. Hambro's skills also allowed him to serve as the serious half of a partnership with Victor Borge from 1961 until 1970, and generated a huge amount of laughter as well as immense interest in classical music. And he participated in even less conventional settings, such as teaming up with electronic music virtuoso Gershon Kingsley to record George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," as a duet for grand piano and Moog synthesizer, on the album Gershwin Alive & Well & Underground (1970). He participated in Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach concerts, and also the Huffnung concerts, both long-established satires of classical music.
Around these engagements and recordings, he had a serious side, and toured extensively and appeared as a soloist with the orchestras in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and London. He was also noted for his work as a chamber musician, and across his career performed with Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Leonard Rose, and Pierre Fournier. He was also a pianist for WQXR in New York for 17 years, and throughout the 1960s performed and recorded with another WQXR colleague, pianist Jascha Zayde. From 1970 until 1987, he was also the head of the piano faculty at the California Institute of the Arts.
© Bruce Eder /TiVo
Discographie
14 album(s) • Trié par Meilleures ventes
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Brahms: Sonatas for Violin and Viola
Musique de chambre - Paru chez Musical Heritage Society le 5 mai 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Switched-On Gershwin
Gershon Kingsley, Leonid Hambro
Électronique - Paru chez Vinyl Masters le 1 sept. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Romantic Music of Rachmaninoff (Album of 1957)
Leonid Hambro, André Kostelanetz And His Orchestra
Classique - Paru chez Kosta le 2 nov. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphony For Two Pianos / Prayer And Toccata For Organ And Two Pianos
Chet Swiatkowski, Leonid Hambro, Leonard Raver
Classique - Paru chez Baroque Records le 23 août 1980
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Concertos pour piano Nos. 17 & 19 (Mono Version)
Leonid Hambro, Victor Alessandro, Oklahoma City Philharmonic
Divers - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Romantic Music of Tchaikovsky (Album of 1958)
André Kostelanetz And His Orchestra, Leonid Hambro
Classique - Paru chez Kosta le 1 nov. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Cello Sonatas No.1, 4 & 5 & 7 Variations on "Bei Männern" - Encores by Bizet, Chopin, Fauré, Pianelli and Pierné
Felix Salmond, Simeon Rumschisky, Leonid Hambro
Classique - Paru chez Infinity le 9 juil. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No. 1 & No. 2
Joseph Szigeti, Joseph Levine, Leonid Hambro
Classique - Paru chez Past Classics le 15 mai 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Milhaud: Cantate de l'enfant et de la mere - La muse menagere (1945, 1950)
Madeleine Milhaud, Leonid Hambro, Juilliard String Quartet, Darius Milhaud
Classique - Paru chez Naxos Classical Archives le 3 mai 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy, C: Violin Sonata / Villa-Lobos, H.: Violin Sonata No. 3 (Odnoposoff, Hambro) (1951)
Ricardo Odnoposoff, Leonid Hambro
Musique de chambre - Paru chez Naxos Classical Archives le 30 sept. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Perspective of Beethoven-Pianoforte
Classique - Paru chez Cook Records le 1 janv. 1953
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Milestones of a Violin Legend: Ricardo Odnoposoff, Vol. 4
Ricardo Odnoposoff, Orchestre Symphonique d'Utrecht, Leonid Hambro, Jean Antonietti, Walter Goehr
Musique concertante - Paru chez Intense Media GmbH le 5 oct. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Romantic Music of Rachmaninoff
André Kostelanetz And His Orchestra, Leonid Hambro
Pop - Paru chez Leverage le 1 janv. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Romantic Music Of Tchaikovsky
André Kostelanetz And His Orchestra, Leonid Hambro
Classique - Paru chez Leverage le 1 janv. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo