‘From Hollywood to the World’ Overview: José Iturbi, Film-Star Pianist

José Iturbi’s

name may possibly spark some vague recognition in these of a specific age, although most probably as a cultural figure lauded by prior generations. Iturbi, who died at age 84 in 1980, was a celebrated Spanish pianist and conductor who migrated into Hollywood motion pictures in the 1940s, when he simultaneously held a coveted recording contract with RCA that endured for 20 years, beginning in the mid-1930s. But although beloved by a lot of, he never ever very entered the pantheon of musicians whose names nonetheless resound.

Sony Classical begs to differ, apparently, possessing just reissued all of Iturbi’s RCA recordings in a collection of 16 compact discs. This lavish excavation bears the rather flippant title “From Hollywood to the World”—though, if something, the nouns ought to be reversed in this case. Like prior sets from the label devoted to the pianist

Oscar Levant

and the excellent contralto

Marian Anderson,

this one particular, also, is primarily a coffee-table book with CDs inside—the music handsomely supplemented by a multitude of historic photographs, discographies and an extended, if fulsome, biographical essay from the set’s co-producer, the crooner and Tin Pan Alley scholar

Michael Feinstein.

Iturbi was nothing at all if not catholic in his musical tastes, and a lot of of the common repertory’s largest names get at least some representation right here, which includes Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel and Rachmaninoff. Only Brahms and Schubert are conspicuously absent. Additional useful is the trove of Spanish keyboard music performed by Iturbi—a excellent portion of it in duet with

Amparo Iturbi,

his talented younger sister. For excellent measure, this set generously involves all her solo-piano recordings for RCA (about two CDs’ worth) as a welcome fillip.

Her contribution to this set ought to not be minimized for in her modest way, Amparo is her brother’s equal in talent—and arguably his superior in musicality. Her really feel for the operates of Spanish composers like

Isaac Albéniz,

Enrique Granados

and

Joaquín Turina

is as uncanny as his. But she summons extra colour and vigor in Ravel than he achieves, just as her Mozart exceeds his in elegance and elasticity. And care to guess which sibling, in 1954, recorded Shostakovich? (A single suspects this release is, inadvertently, an additional indictment of 20th-century classical-music culture, in which gifted females seldom enjoyed renown equal to their male counterparts.)

Although very first and foremost a pianist, José Iturbi also carried out and, as confirmed in this set, managed credible performances of orchestral warhorses, a lot of led from the keyboard, which includes two concertos by Mozart: the No. 20 (K. 466) and, with his sister as companion, the No. ten for Two Pianos (K. 365). Each operates are integrated twice in this set, recorded 12 years apart, with the earlier versions, from 1940, regularly superior in verve and character.

The identical can be stated about Iturbi’s two recordings of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. three, from 1941 and 1952, although each are gratifyingly animated accounts deserving renewed focus. Two purely orchestral operates, Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony and Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, possess moments of scrappy excitement inside a foursquare framework, their principal interest now getting examples of Iturbi’s association with the Rochester Philharmonic, exactly where he served as music director from 1936 to 1944.

In addition to the concertos, various pieces for solo piano are repeated, amongst them Schumann’s “Arabesque,” Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” and “Rêverie” and Chopin’s “Heroic” Polonaise. And after once again the earlier readings commonly yield higher pleasure, the standard wisdom getting that Hollywood sapped Iturbi’s artistry even as it expanded his fame.

As is in some cases the case in compendiums like this, material previously unissued finds its way to wide availability. Right here the most enticing exhumation—

Manuel de Falla’s

endlessly listenable “Seven Spanish Folk Songs,” with the fine Spanish soprano

Consuela Rubio

accompanied by Iturbi on piano—is, regrettably, one particular that ought to have remained buried. The singer sounds uncharacteristically shrill and enunciates poorly, and the balances do Iturbi no favors.

None of Iturbi’s contributions to seven MGM musicals seems on these discs. But a effectively-annotated filmography demonstrates his notable involvement with this after-common medium. His face, immediately after all, opens “Anchors Aweigh” (1945), starring

Frank Sinatra

and

Gene Kelly.

And his look in “Music for Millions” (1944) confirms he could hold his personal against such seasoned screen stars as

Margaret O’Brien,

June Allyson and

Jimmy Durante.

These interested adequate will discover most of his motion pictures on DVD and in frequent rotation on the cable channel Turner Classic Motion pictures.

So, beyond its aural pleasures, this set documents a time when classical music and its practitioners have been not regarded exclusively as elitist, but rather as some of the sturdy yarn from which America’s cultural tapestry was woven. That time now appears just about as distant as when stove-pipe hats and higher-buttoned footwear have been trendy. José Iturbi, in his sophisticated but unpretentious way, reminds us that wasn’t usually accurate.

—Mr. Mermelstein is the Journal’s classical music critic.

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