Paul Jacobs (pianist)
Encyclopedia
Paul Jacobs was an American pianist
. He was best known for his performances of twentieth century music but also gained wide recognition for his work with early keyboards, performing frequently with Baroque ensembles.
and attended PS 95 and DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and studied at the Juilliard School
, where his teacher was Ernest Hutcheson
. He became a soloist with Robert Craft
's Chamber Arts Society and played with the Composer's Forum. He made his official New York debut in 1951. Reviewing that concert, Ross Parmenter described him in The New York Times as 'a young man of individual tastes with an experimental approach to the keyboard that he already has mastered.'
, playing frequently in his Domaine musical
concerts, which introduced many of the key works of the early twentieth-century to post-war Paris. At a single concert in 1954, which must have lasted close to five hours and also included works by Stravinsky
, Debussy
and Varèse
, Jacobs contributed chamber music by Berg
, Webern
and Bartók
and gave the première of a new work by Michel Philippot
. In a 1958 Domaine concert he played a work written for him by the 21-year-old Richard Rodney Bennett, his Cycle 2 for Paul Jacobs.
He acted as rehearsal pianist for the incidental music which Boulez wrote for Jean-Louis Barrault
's production of the Oresteia in 1955. Jacobs later said that meeting Boulez had put an end to his own composing ambitions: 'I just gave it up. I wouldn't have dared show anything of mine to Boulez.'
During his time in Europe he appeared as soloist with the Orchestre National de Paris and the Cologne Orchestra and made many radio broadcasts. He played for the International Society for Contemporary Music in Italy and at the International Vacation Courses for new music at Darmstadt. For the 1957 course Wolfgang Steinecke invited him to give the European première of Stockhausen
's Klavierstück XI
, a key work in the development of 'controlled chance' and this may have been at the composer's suggestion.
Like many musicians with a commitment to new music his existence was frugal. For broadcasts he would be paid as little as $5, which went up to $25 when he played the premiere of the Henze Piano Concerto 'because of the special difficulty of the piece'. He lived in a hotel 'with a window facing a wall so that I had to go outside to see what the weather was. There was room only for a bed and a piano and a little alcohol burner to make stew on.' Around this time he became a close friend of the French painter Bernard Saby, whom he described as an important influence.
who arranged for some teaching work at Tanglewood
. In November and December 1961 he gave a pair of Town Hall
recitals, mixing Boulez and Copland, Stockhausen and Debussy. The New York Times described them as 'just about overwhelming ... make no mistake, Mr Jacobs is a virtuoso even in the traditional sense'. He made his recital debut as a harpsichordist at Carnegie Hall in February 1966 with a programme which included Bach, Haydn and the Falla Harpsichord Concerto.
During the 1960s and 1970s he continued to give solo recitals and played frequently for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centre. He performed with the Fromm Fellowship Players at Tanglewood, Gunther Schuller's Contemporary Innovations and Arthur Weisberg's Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. He taught at Tanglewood
and at the Mannes and Manhattan
music schools in New York. For the last fifteen years of his life he was Associate Professor of Music at Brooklyn College
of the City University of New York
.
Jacobs was the New York Philharmonic
's official pianist (from 1961) and harpsichordist (from 1974) until his death. He held the post during the tenure of three music directors. He can be heard as soloist in Bernstein
's recording of Messiaen
's Trois petites liturgies and both Boulez's and Mehta
's recordings of Stravinsky
's Petrushka. He is the pianist in the NYPO recording of Gershwin's
Rhapsody in Blue
(conducted by Mehta) used by Woody Allen
in the opening of his film Manhattan
.
He had a long collaboration with the American composer Elliott Carter
, recording most of Carter's solo piano music and ensemble works with keyboard, including the Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano, With Two Chamber Orchestras, the Cello Sonata and the Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harpsichord. He was one of the four American pianists who commissioned Carter's large-scale solo piano work Night Fantasies (1978–80), the others being Charles Rosen
, Gilbert Kalish
and Ursula Oppens
(with whom Jacobs often performed two-piano works). It was Jacobs who organised the consortium after he and Oppens realised that Carter's previous reluctance to accept a commission for a new solo piano work from one pianist might have been born out of a desire not to offend others. He gave the New York premiere of the work in November 1981. All of Jacobs's Carter recordings were re-issued by Nonesuch
in 2009 as part of a Carter retrospective set.
He also gave first performances of music by George Crumb
, Berio
, Henze
, Messiaen
and Sessions
and commissioned Frederic Rzewski
's Four North American Ballads in 1979. Aaron Copland called him 'more than a pianist. He brings to his piano a passion for the contemporary and a breadth of musical and general culture such as is rare.'
-related illness in 1983, one of the first prominent artists to succumb to the disease. At his funeral on September 27, 1983, Elliott Carter delivered a eulogy, recalling his friendship and collaboration with Jacobs dating back to the mid-1950s. A memorial concert held at New York's Symphony Space on February 24, 1984 was attended by some of America's most eminent composers and interpreters. The music ranged from Josquin
to two new compositions dedicated to Jacobs (by William Bolcom
and David Schiff). Pierre Boulez wrote in the programme: 'twentieth-century music owes him thanks for all the talent he generously put at its disposal.'
Bolcom included a lament for Jacobs as the slow movement of his 1983 Violin Concerto and dedicated his Pulitzer Prize-winning 12 New Etudes to him. He had begun to compose them for Jacobs in 1977 and completed them after his death. Jacobs was also one of the friends and colleagues commemorated by John Corigliano in his Symphony No. 1.
stressed that 'far from being an "intellectual performer", Paul was the most intuitive and spontaneous kind of musician. Few who heard him play will ever forget the splashing brilliance of his runs, the glitter of his attacks, his aristocratic sense of rhythm and phrasing ... I have never seen anyone play the piano with such feline grace and alertness.'
Of his commitment to contemporary music, Jacobs himself said this: 'I feel absolutely perplexed at times why performers don't feel at home with the music of their own century. The music that hit me first when I was an adolescent was the music of the beginning of the century, all the way up through Stravinsky, even in his later years. It just doesn't pose any stylistic problems, it's as easy to speak as if you were reading the newspaper, I just know what to do with it.'
Perhaps the composer with whom he is now most closely associated is Debussy
, most of whose major piano works he recorded, including the Préludes
, Etudes
, Images and Estampes
. His was one of the first recordings of Debussy's three 1894 Images, which had only recently been published. Writing of a reissue of one of these recordings in 2002, the Gramophone commented: 'Hearing Paul Jacobs ... is a sharp and salutary reminder of a novel‚ vigorous and superbly uncluttered view of Debussy ... one which stresses the composer’s revolutionary fervour. The power and focus of these performances remain astonishing with opalescent mists and hazes burnt away to reveal a corruscating wit and vitality. There is absolutely nothing here of the decadent and lethargic man of popular imagination. Throughout‚ Jacobs' commitment to every note of Debussy’s phantasmagoric visions is total. All his recordings should be reissued.'
, coupled with Leibowitz's own realisation of Beethoven's Piano Concerto in E flat major of 1784, written when Beethoven was 14 and of which only the piano part survives. In Paris in 1956 he gave the first complete cycle in a single concert of the Schoenberg
piano music, going on to record it for the Véga label. He also acted as producer on recordings conducted by René Leibowitz
, including the first LP recording of Schoenberg
's Gurrelieder. He was the harpsichord soloist in the 1968 Columbia recording of the Carter Double Concerto with Charles Rosen (piano) and the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Frederick Prausnitz. and played on the 1970 CRI recording of Morton Feldman's The Viola in My Life.
label, for most of which he wrote a wide-ranging accompanying essay. Beginning in 1968 and 1973 with chamber and concertante works by Carter, from 1976 onwards he concentrated on the solo and duet repertoire. Most have remained available over the years thanks to CD reissues by Nonesuch and, later, by Warner
. The small American label Arbiter has also done much to keep Jacobs' recorded legacy before the public. In 2008 Arbiter released a two-CD set of the Stravinsky two piano / four-hand repertoire (with Ursula Oppens
), coupled with some previously unpublished live recordings by Jacobs. They have also reissued his recordings of the piano music of Busoni
, whom Jacobs considered 'the great underrated master of the twentieth century'.
The list of the Nonesuch LPs is in chronological order, with CD reissues under each entry. Where available, links to the original reviews in Gramophone are also given.
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. He was best known for his performances of twentieth century music but also gained wide recognition for his work with early keyboards, performing frequently with Baroque ensembles.
Education
Paul Jacobs was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and attended PS 95 and DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and studied at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
, where his teacher was Ernest Hutcheson
Ernest Hutcheson
Ernest Hutcheson was an Australian pianist, composer and teacher.Hutcheson was born in Melbourne, and toured there as a child prodigy. He later travelled to Leipzig and entered the Leipzig Conservatorium at the age of fourteen to study with Carl Reinecke and Bernhard Stavenhagen, a pupil of Franz...
. He became a soloist with Robert Craft
Robert Craft
Robert Lawson Craft is an American conductor and writer. He is best known for his intimate working friendship with Igor Stravinsky, a relationship which resulted in a number of recordings and books.-Life:...
's Chamber Arts Society and played with the Composer's Forum. He made his official New York debut in 1951. Reviewing that concert, Ross Parmenter described him in The New York Times as 'a young man of individual tastes with an experimental approach to the keyboard that he already has mastered.'
Europe in the 1950s
He moved to France after his graduation in 1951. There he began his long association with Pierre BoulezPierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, playing frequently in his Domaine musical
Domaine musical
The Domaine musical was a concert society established by Pierre Boulez in Paris, which was active from 1954 to 1973. Composers represented at its concerts included Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, John Cage, Sylvano Bussotti, Mauricio Kagel, Hans Werner Henze, Henri Pousseur, Ernst...
concerts, which introduced many of the key works of the early twentieth-century to post-war Paris. At a single concert in 1954, which must have lasted close to five hours and also included works by Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
and Varèse
Edgard Varèse
Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, , whose name was also spelled Edgar Varèse , was an innovative French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States....
, Jacobs contributed chamber music by Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
, Webern
Anton Webern
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
and Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
and gave the première of a new work by Michel Philippot
Michel Philippot
Michel Paul Philippot was a French composer, mathematician, acoustician, musicologist, aesthetician, broadcaster, and educator.-Life:...
. In a 1958 Domaine concert he played a work written for him by the 21-year-old Richard Rodney Bennett, his Cycle 2 for Paul Jacobs.
He acted as rehearsal pianist for the incidental music which Boulez wrote for Jean-Louis Barrault
Jean-Louis Barrault
Jean-Louis Barrault was a French actor, director and mime artist, training that served him well when he portrayed the 19th-century mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau in Marcel Carné's 1945 film Les Enfants du Paradis .Jean-Louis Barrault studied with Charles Dullin in whose troupe he acted...
's production of the Oresteia in 1955. Jacobs later said that meeting Boulez had put an end to his own composing ambitions: 'I just gave it up. I wouldn't have dared show anything of mine to Boulez.'
During his time in Europe he appeared as soloist with the Orchestre National de Paris and the Cologne Orchestra and made many radio broadcasts. He played for the International Society for Contemporary Music in Italy and at the International Vacation Courses for new music at Darmstadt. For the 1957 course Wolfgang Steinecke invited him to give the European première of Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
's Klavierstück XI
Klavierstücke (Stockhausen)
The Klavierstücke constitute a series of nineteen compositions by German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.Stockhausen has said the Klavierstücke "are my drawings"...
, a key work in the development of 'controlled chance' and this may have been at the composer's suggestion.
Like many musicians with a commitment to new music his existence was frugal. For broadcasts he would be paid as little as $5, which went up to $25 when he played the premiere of the Henze Piano Concerto 'because of the special difficulty of the piece'. He lived in a hotel 'with a window facing a wall so that I had to go outside to see what the weather was. There was room only for a bed and a piano and a little alcohol burner to make stew on.' Around this time he became a close friend of the French painter Bernard Saby, whom he described as an important influence.
New York 1960-83
Tired of trying to live on $500 a year, he returned to New York in 1960 with the assistance of Aaron CoplandAaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
who arranged for some teaching work at Tanglewood
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...
. In November and December 1961 he gave a pair of Town Hall
The Town Hall
The Town Hall is a performance space, located at 123 West 43rd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in New York City. It seats approximately 1,500 people.-History:...
recitals, mixing Boulez and Copland, Stockhausen and Debussy. The New York Times described them as 'just about overwhelming ... make no mistake, Mr Jacobs is a virtuoso even in the traditional sense'. He made his recital debut as a harpsichordist at Carnegie Hall in February 1966 with a programme which included Bach, Haydn and the Falla Harpsichord Concerto.
During the 1960s and 1970s he continued to give solo recitals and played frequently for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centre. He performed with the Fromm Fellowship Players at Tanglewood, Gunther Schuller's Contemporary Innovations and Arthur Weisberg's Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. He taught at Tanglewood
Tanglewood Music Festival
The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts....
and at the Mannes and Manhattan
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
music schools in New York. For the last fifteen years of his life he was Associate Professor of Music at Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
of the City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
.
Jacobs was the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
's official pianist (from 1961) and harpsichordist (from 1974) until his death. He held the post during the tenure of three music directors. He can be heard as soloist in Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
's recording of Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
's Trois petites liturgies and both Boulez's and Mehta
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.-Biography:...
's recordings of Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's Petrushka. He is the pianist in the NYPO recording of Gershwin's
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band written in 1924, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects....
(conducted by Mehta) used by Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
in the opening of his film Manhattan
Manhattan (film)
Manhattan is a 1979 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen about a twice-divorced 42-year-old comedy writer who dates a 17-year-old girl before eventually falling in love with his best friend's mistress...
.
He had a long collaboration with the American composer Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
, recording most of Carter's solo piano music and ensemble works with keyboard, including the Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano, With Two Chamber Orchestras, the Cello Sonata and the Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harpsichord. He was one of the four American pianists who commissioned Carter's large-scale solo piano work Night Fantasies (1978–80), the others being Charles Rosen
Charles Rosen
Charles Rosen is an American pianist and author on music.-Life and career:In his youth he studied piano with Moriz Rosenthal. Rosenthal, born in 1862, had been a student of Franz Liszt...
, Gilbert Kalish
Gilbert Kalish
Gilbert Kalish is an American pianist.He was born in New York and studied with Leonard Shure, Julius Hereford and Isabelle Vengerova. He was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, a pioneering new music group that flourished during the 1960s and '70s...
and Ursula Oppens
Ursula Oppens
Ursula Oppens is an American classical pianist.-Biography:After earning her master's degree from the Juilliard School of Music, Oppens won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1968. This win led to her New York City debut at Carnegie Hall in 1969...
(with whom Jacobs often performed two-piano works). It was Jacobs who organised the consortium after he and Oppens realised that Carter's previous reluctance to accept a commission for a new solo piano work from one pianist might have been born out of a desire not to offend others. He gave the New York premiere of the work in November 1981. All of Jacobs's Carter recordings were re-issued by Nonesuch
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
in 2009 as part of a Carter retrospective set.
He also gave first performances of music by George Crumb
George Crumb
George Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...
, Berio
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
, Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
, Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
and Sessions
Roger Sessions
Roger Huntington Sessions was an American composer, critic, and teacher of music.-Life:Sessions was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a family that could trace its roots back to the American revolution. His mother, Ruth Huntington Sessions, was a direct descendent of Samuel Huntington, a signer of...
and commissioned Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
's Four North American Ballads in 1979. Aaron Copland called him 'more than a pianist. He brings to his piano a passion for the contemporary and a breadth of musical and general culture such as is rare.'
Death
He died of an AIDSAIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
-related illness in 1983, one of the first prominent artists to succumb to the disease. At his funeral on September 27, 1983, Elliott Carter delivered a eulogy, recalling his friendship and collaboration with Jacobs dating back to the mid-1950s. A memorial concert held at New York's Symphony Space on February 24, 1984 was attended by some of America's most eminent composers and interpreters. The music ranged from Josquin
Josquin Des Prez
Josquin des Prez [Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez] , often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance...
to two new compositions dedicated to Jacobs (by William Bolcom
William Bolcom
William Elden Bolcom is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, two Grammy Awards, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Bolcom taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973–2008...
and David Schiff). Pierre Boulez wrote in the programme: 'twentieth-century music owes him thanks for all the talent he generously put at its disposal.'
Bolcom included a lament for Jacobs as the slow movement of his 1983 Violin Concerto and dedicated his Pulitzer Prize-winning 12 New Etudes to him. He had begun to compose them for Jacobs in 1977 and completed them after his death. Jacobs was also one of the friends and colleagues commemorated by John Corigliano in his Symphony No. 1.
Repertoire and style
Although Jacobs was associated with some of the most challenging music of the modernist tradition, his colleague Gilbert KalishGilbert Kalish
Gilbert Kalish is an American pianist.He was born in New York and studied with Leonard Shure, Julius Hereford and Isabelle Vengerova. He was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, a pioneering new music group that flourished during the 1960s and '70s...
stressed that 'far from being an "intellectual performer", Paul was the most intuitive and spontaneous kind of musician. Few who heard him play will ever forget the splashing brilliance of his runs, the glitter of his attacks, his aristocratic sense of rhythm and phrasing ... I have never seen anyone play the piano with such feline grace and alertness.'
Of his commitment to contemporary music, Jacobs himself said this: 'I feel absolutely perplexed at times why performers don't feel at home with the music of their own century. The music that hit me first when I was an adolescent was the music of the beginning of the century, all the way up through Stravinsky, even in his later years. It just doesn't pose any stylistic problems, it's as easy to speak as if you were reading the newspaper, I just know what to do with it.'
Perhaps the composer with whom he is now most closely associated is Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, most of whose major piano works he recorded, including the Préludes
Preludes (Debussy)
Claude Debussy's Préludes are two sets of pieces for solo piano. They are divided into two separate livres, or books, of twelve preludes each. Unlike previous collections of preludes, like those of JS Bach and Chopin, Debussy's do not follow a strict pattern of key signatures.Each book was written...
, Etudes
Études (Debussy)
Claude Debussy's Études are a set of 12 piano etudes composed in 1915. The pieces are extremely difficult to play, as Debussy himself admitted, describing them as "a warning to pianists not to take up the musical profession unless they have remarkable hands"...
, Images and Estampes
Estampes
Estampes , L.100, is a composition for solo piano by Claude Debussy. It was finished in 1903.It consists of three movements:# Pagodes - approx. 6 minutes.# Soirée dans Grenade - approx. 5½ minutes....
. His was one of the first recordings of Debussy's three 1894 Images, which had only recently been published. Writing of a reissue of one of these recordings in 2002, the Gramophone commented: 'Hearing Paul Jacobs ... is a sharp and salutary reminder of a novel‚ vigorous and superbly uncluttered view of Debussy ... one which stresses the composer’s revolutionary fervour. The power and focus of these performances remain astonishing with opalescent mists and hazes burnt away to reveal a corruscating wit and vitality. There is absolutely nothing here of the decadent and lethargic man of popular imagination. Throughout‚ Jacobs' commitment to every note of Debussy’s phantasmagoric visions is total. All his recordings should be reissued.'
Early recordings
Jacobs began his recording career in Europe in the 1950s. One of his first records (in 1953) was of Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto with the Paris Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by René LeibowitzRené Leibowitz
René Leibowitz was a French composer, conductor, music theorist and teacher born in Warsaw, Poland.-Career:...
, coupled with Leibowitz's own realisation of Beethoven's Piano Concerto in E flat major of 1784, written when Beethoven was 14 and of which only the piano part survives. In Paris in 1956 he gave the first complete cycle in a single concert of the Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
piano music, going on to record it for the Véga label. He also acted as producer on recordings conducted by René Leibowitz
René Leibowitz
René Leibowitz was a French composer, conductor, music theorist and teacher born in Warsaw, Poland.-Career:...
, including the first LP recording of Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
's Gurrelieder. He was the harpsichord soloist in the 1968 Columbia recording of the Carter Double Concerto with Charles Rosen (piano) and the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Frederick Prausnitz. and played on the 1970 CRI recording of Morton Feldman's The Viola in My Life.
Nonesuch LPs
His reputation as a recording artist rests largely on a series of LPs he made for the American NonesuchNonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
label, for most of which he wrote a wide-ranging accompanying essay. Beginning in 1968 and 1973 with chamber and concertante works by Carter, from 1976 onwards he concentrated on the solo and duet repertoire. Most have remained available over the years thanks to CD reissues by Nonesuch and, later, by Warner
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
. The small American label Arbiter has also done much to keep Jacobs' recorded legacy before the public. In 2008 Arbiter released a two-CD set of the Stravinsky two piano / four-hand repertoire (with Ursula Oppens
Ursula Oppens
Ursula Oppens is an American classical pianist.-Biography:After earning her master's degree from the Juilliard School of Music, Oppens won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1968. This win led to her New York City debut at Carnegie Hall in 1969...
), coupled with some previously unpublished live recordings by Jacobs. They have also reissued his recordings of the piano music of Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
, whom Jacobs considered 'the great underrated master of the twentieth century'.
The list of the Nonesuch LPs is in chronological order, with CD reissues under each entry. Where available, links to the original reviews in Gramophone are also given.
- CarterElliott CarterElliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
: Chamber Music- Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harpsichord (with Harvey Sollberger, flute; Charles Kuskin, oboe; Fred SherryFred SherryFred Sherry is an American cello virtuoso who is particularly admired for his work as a chamber musician and concert soloist. He studied with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School before winning the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1968. In 1971 he co-founded the Speculum Musicae...
, cello) - Sonata for Cello and Piano (with Joel Krosnick, cello)
- Recorded August 1968, Rutgers Presbyterian Church, New York, under the supervision of the composer
- Nonesuch LP H-71234; published 1969
- Gramophone review
- Reissued on CD with the Harpsichord Concerto (next) on Elektra Nonesuch CD, 9 79183-2, published 1992
- Also included in Elliott Carter: A Nonesuch Retrospective, 4-CD set, Nonesuch 7559-79922-1, published 2009
- Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harpsichord (with Harvey Sollberger, flute; Charles Kuskin, oboe; Fred Sherry
- Carter: Harpsichord Concerto
- Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano with Two Chamber Orchestras
- Jacobs, harpsichord; Gilbert KalishGilbert KalishGilbert Kalish is an American pianist.He was born in New York and studied with Leonard Shure, Julius Hereford and Isabelle Vengerova. He was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, a pioneering new music group that flourished during the 1960s and '70s...
, piano; The Contemporary Chamber Ensemble; Arthur Weisberg, conducting - Recorded September 1973
- Nonesuch LP H-71314; published 1975
- Reissued with the two chamber sonatas from Nonesuch LP H-71234 (previous) on Elektra Nonesuch CD, 9 79183-2, published 1992
- Also included in Elliott Carter: A Nonesuch Retrospective, 4-CD set, Nonesuch 7559-79922-1, published 2009
- SchoenbergArnold SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
: Complete Piano Music- Three piano pieces, Op. 11
- Six little piano pieces, Op. 19
- Piano pieces, Opp. 33a, 33b
- Five piano pieces, Op. 23
- Suite for piano, Op. 25
- Nonesuch LP H-71309, published 1975
- Reissued on Nonesuch CD, 9 71309-2; Warner Apex CD,
- DebussyClaude DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
: Etudes- Etudes for piano, Book I
- Etudes for piano, Book II
- Recorded June 1975, Rutgers Presbyterian Church, New York
- Nonesuch LP H-71322; published 1976
- Gramophone review
- Reissued 1987 on Nonesuch CD, 9 79161-2, coupled with a live recording of Debussy's En blanc et noir (with Gilbert KalishGilbert KalishGilbert Kalish is an American pianist.He was born in New York and studied with Leonard Shure, Julius Hereford and Isabelle Vengerova. He was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, a pioneering new music group that flourished during the 1960s and '70s...
), Ojai Festival, Califormia, 5 June 1982
- Twentieth-century Piano Etudes
- BartókBéla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
: Three Etudes, Op. 18 - BusoniFerruccio BusoniFerruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
: Six Polyphonic Etudes - MessiaenOlivier MessiaenOlivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
: Quatre études de rythme - StravinskyIgor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
: Four Etudes, Op. 7 - Recorded April 26–28, 1976, New York
- Nonesuch LP H-71334; published 1976
- Gramophone review
- Included on Arbiter 2-CD set, arbiter 124
- Bartók
- DebussyClaude DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
: Preludes- Preludes for piano, Book I
- Preludes for piano, Book II
- Nonesuch LP HB-73031, published 1978
- Gramophone review
- Reissued on Nonesuch CD, 9 73031-2; Warner Ultima CD,
- StravinskyIgor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
: Music for Two Pianos and Piano, Four Hands- (with Ursula OppensUrsula OppensUrsula Oppens is an American classical pianist.-Biography:After earning her master's degree from the Juilliard School of Music, Oppens won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1968. This win led to her New York City debut at Carnegie Hall in 1969...
) - Concerto per due pianoforti soli
- Sonata for two pianos
- Zvietotchnoy valse (for piano, 4 hands)
- Three easy pieces (for piano, 4 hands)
- Five easy pieces (for piano, 4 hands)
- Etude for pianola (performed on 2 pianos)
- Recorded June 13–15, 1977, New York
- Nonesuch LP H-71347; published 1978
- Gramophone review
- Included on arbiter 155, a 2-CD set, which also includes previously unpublished concert recordings 1972-81
- (with Ursula Oppens
- RavelMaurice RavelJoseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
: Works for Piano, Four and Six Hands- Sites auriculaires (with Gilbert KalishGilbert KalishGilbert Kalish is an American pianist.He was born in New York and studied with Leonard Shure, Julius Hereford and Isabelle Vengerova. He was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, a pioneering new music group that flourished during the 1960s and '70s...
) - Frontispice (with Gilbert Kalish and Teresa Sterne)
- coupled with Ravel vocal and chamber works played by other artists
- Nonesuch LP H-71355; published 1978
- Gramophone review
- Reissued 1987 on Nonesuch CD, 9 71355-2
- Sites auriculaires (with Gilbert Kalish
- BusoniFerruccio BusoniFerruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
: The Six Sonatinas for Piano- Sonatina (1910)
- Sonatina seconda (1912)
- Sonatina ad usum infantis (1915)
- Sonatina in diem nativitatis MCMXVII (1917)
- Sonatina brevis. In Signo Joannis Sebastiani Magni (1918)
- Kammer-Fantasie über Carmen (Sonatina No. 6) (1920)
- Recorded June 1978, New York
- Nonesuch LP H-71359; published 1979
- Gramophone review
- Included on Arbiter 2-CD set, arbiter 124
- DebussyClaude DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
: Images and Estampes- Images (1894)
- Images Series I and II
- Estampes
- Recorded April 1978, New York
- Nonesuch LP H-71365; published 1979
- Gramophone review
- Reissued on Nonesuch CD, 9 71365; Warner Apex CD,
- Organ Chorale Preludes of BachJohann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
and BrahmsJohannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
as transcribed for Piano by BusoniFerruccio BusoniFerruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
- BachJohann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
: 10 Organ Chorale Preludes, transcribed Busoni:- Komm, Gott, Schöpfer!
- Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme
- Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland
- Nun freut euch, lieben Christen
- Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr
- Herr Gott, nun schleuss' den Himmel auf!
- Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt
- Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt (second version)
- In dir ist Freude
- Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, der von uns den Zorn Gottes wandt
- BrahmsJohannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
: 6 Organ Chorale PreludesEleven Chorale PreludesThe Eleven Chorale Preludes, Op. 122, are a collection of chorale preludes for organ by Johannes Brahms, composed in 1896, and published posthumously in 1902....
, transcribed Busoni:- Herlich thut mich erfreuen
- Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele
- Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen
- Herzlich thut mich verlangen
- Herzlich thut mich verlangen (second version)
- O Welt, ich muss dich lassen
- Recorded June 1979, New York
- Nonesuch LP H-71375; published 1980
- Included on Arbiter 2-CD set, arbiter 124
- Bach
- Blues, Ballads and Rags
- William BolcomWilliam BolcomWilliam Elden Bolcom is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, two Grammy Awards, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Bolcom taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973–2008...
: Three Ghost Rags - CoplandAaron CoplandAaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
: Four Piano Blues - RzewskiFrederic RzewskiFrederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
: Four North American Ballads. - Recorded June 23–24, 1980, at Columbia 30th St. Recording Studios, New York City
- Nonesuch LP D-79006; published 1980
- Gramophone review
- Reissued on Nonesuch CD, E2 79006
- William Bolcom
- Virgil ThomsonVirgil ThomsonVirgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
: A Portrait Album- Bugles and birds: a portrait of Pablo PicassoPablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
- With fife and drums: a portrait of Mina Curtis
- An old song: a portrait of Carrie Stettheimer
- Tango lullaby: a portrait of Mlle. Alvarez de Toledo
- Solitude: a portrait of Lou HarrisonLou HarrisonLou Silver Harrison was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and K. P. H. Notoprojo Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and K. P. H. Notoprojo Lou Silver Harrison...
- Barcarolle: portrait of Georges HugnetGeorges HugnetGeorges Hugnet , was a French poet, writer, artist, art historian, graphic artist, and film director. He was a figure in the Dada movement and Surrealism.-References:...
- Alternations : a portrait of Maurice Grosser
- In a bird cage: a portrait of Lise DeharmeLise DeharmeLise Deharme , was a French writer associated with the Surrealist movement.She was born in Paris in 1898, daughter of a famous doctor...
- Catalan waltz : a portrait of Ramon Senabre
- Chromatic double harmonies: portrait of Sylvia MarloweSylvia MarloweSylvia Marlowe was an American harpsichordist. She performed both the Baroque repertoire as well as contemporary compositions by composers such as Alan Hovhaness....
- Aaron CoplandAaron CoplandAaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
: Persistently pastoral - Sonata no. 4: Guggenheim jeune (for harpsichord)
- Coupled with works for violin and brass quintet
- Recorded May and June 1981 at Columbia 30th St. Studio and RCA Studio A, New York
- Nonesuch LP D-79024; published 1982
- Gramophone review
- Bugles and birds: a portrait of Pablo Picasso
- StravinskyIgor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
: Music for Piano, Four Hands- (with Ursula Oppens)
- Petrushka
- Three Pieces for String Quartet
- Recorded December 7–8, 1981 at RCA Studio A in New York City
- Nonesuch LP D-79038; published 1982
- Gramophone review
- Included on arbiter 155
- CarterElliott CarterElliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
: Solo Piano Music- Night Fantasies
- Piano Sonata
- Recorded August 1982, RCA Studio A, New York
- Nonesuch LP D-79047; published 1983
- Piano Sonata only, reissued 1990 on Elektra Nonesuch CD, 9 79248-2
- Both works reissued 2009 on Elliott Carter: A Nonesuch Retrospective, 4-CD set, Nonesuch 7559-79922-1
- Three polyphonic masterpieces for two pianos
- (with Ursula Oppens)
- BusoniFerruccio BusoniFerruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
: Fantasia contrappuntisticaFantasia ContrappuntisticaFantasia contrappuntistica is a solo piano piece composed by Ferruccio Busoni in 1910. Busoni created several versions of the work including several for solo piano, and one for two pianos. It has been arranged for organ and for orchestra since the composer's death.The work is in large part a... - MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
arr Busoni: Fantasy for a Musical Clock K608 - BeethovenLudwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
: Große Fuge, Op.134Große FugeThe Große Fuge , Op. 133, is a single-movement composition for string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven. A massive double fugue, it originally served as the final movement of his Quartet No. 13 in B major but he replaced it with a new finale and published it separately in 1827 as Op... - Recorded June 20–24, 1983 at American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
- Nonesuch LP D-79061; published 1984
- Gramophone review
Live recordings
- Paul Jacobs in Recital
- Beethoven: Waldstein Sonata, op. 53Piano Sonata No. 21 (Beethoven)The Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53, also known as the Waldstein, is considered to be one of Beethoven's greatest piano sonatas, as well as one of the three particularly notable sonatas of his middle period . The sonata was completed in the summer of 1804...
- Recorded November 22, 1972 at Brooklyn CollegeBrooklyn CollegeBrooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
- Recorded November 22, 1972 at Brooklyn College
- Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, op. 10, no. 3Piano Sonata No. 7 (Beethoven)Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10, No. 3, was dedicated to the Countess Anne Margarete von Browne, and written in 1798. This makes it contemporary with his three string trios opus 9, the violin sonatas of opus 12 and the violin romance that became his opus 50 when later...
- Recorded May 1, 1974 at Brooklyn College
- Busoni: Preludio, Fuga e Fuga figurataAn die JugendAn die Jugend is a sequence of pieces of classical music for solo piano by Ferruccio Busoni.- Plan of the work :The collection was written June–August 1909 and consists of four volumes, the last with an epilogue. It was published later in the same year by Zimmermann of Leipzig under four separate...
- Recorded November 22, 1972 at Brooklyn College
- FallaFallaFalla is a locality situated in Finspång Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with 463 inhabitants in 2005....
: Fantasia Baetica- Recording information not given
- Ravel: Menuet sur Haydn
- Recorded November 22, 1972 at Brooklyn College
- Ravel: Valse nobles et sentimentalesValses nobles et sentimentales (Ravel)The Valses nobles et sentimentales is a suite of waltzes composed by Maurice Ravel. The piano version was published in 1911, and an orchestral version was published in 1912. The suite contains an eclectic blend of Impressionist and Modernist music, which is especially evident in the orchestrated...
- Recorded June 28, 1973 at Brooklyn College
- Chambonnières: Chaconne in F major (on the Dowd harpsichord)
- Recorded in 1978 at Jacobs' home in New York
- Arbiter, 2-CDs, arbiter 130; published 2001
- Beethoven: Waldstein Sonata, op. 53
External links
- The Paul Jacobs papers, containing his personal papers and scores, are housed in the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
- New York Times review of the recital in November 1981, at which Jacobs gave the New York premiere of Carter's Night Fantasies.