A Walk On The Wild Side - A Memoir by pianist Earl Wild
A Walk on the Wild Side  Ivory Classics Foundation  886 pages, $45.95 plus postage  (760) 327-5826      It took me a week to read this (I read about two hours a day). That is partly because it is a long book and partly because it is just so interesting - but also partly because I knew and liked Earl Wild and reading this was like having pleasant evenings together talking about music and musicians - like old times. It's not just 'and then I did this'. It is full of ideas as well as stories and gossip and memories. He says a great deal abut playing the piano, interpreting music, giving concerts, making recordings. For those chapters alone I recommend it. But above all I recommend it to you because this man was a great conversationalist and teacher as well as a great pianist. He is a good observer of life and sees its ridiculous side, rather than making pompous pronouncements from a lofty height.   He is frank about how he rates other pianists (he hates all the same ones I do), but he isn't writing this to hit at them. He also talks about critics--there's a great deal about Harold Schonberg, for example, and of course Virgil Thomson--but he can talk about them without bile.    I like all his ideas; we always did agree on everything musical. He hated the musical purists, from period-instrument sorts to people who think we should seek out the original versions of things and people who insist that we dare not change anything. 'Musicologists have frightened everyone into uniformity. There is no such thing as a great performance by an artist who observes only the composer's wishes; without the artist's personality and sound you have only bare bones. Music has to be an emotional event. Poetic musical interpretation has gone out of fashion.'   'When playing old music on the piano you should use everything the modern piano has to offer, including pedals. Music must have flow and should sound relaxed, not tense. Tone and elegance are essential. Classical music is not a visual art; the pianist should sit calmly at the keyboard and not grimace or shake his head or stare ecstatically at the ceiling.'   He was not a teetotaler, but he never drank a thing before a performance. It would affect his memory and coordination. I have heard this from other pianists, but it's also true that some musicians were actually better with a drink or two under their belt.   There is a CD with the book--about 77 minutes. It includes music by Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt and an interview. The interview is a bit unnecessary if you have read the book - it lasts 50 minutes.   The pictures in this book (about 50 pages of them) are amazing. But everything about Earl Wild was amazing. Thanks to Michael Rolland Davis for seeing this thru to publication after Earl Wild died.   Don Vroon, American Record Guide July/Aug. 2011 --American Record Guide July/Aug. 2011