From Wikipedia
Leonard Pennario (July 9, 1924 - June 27, 2008) w… Read Full Bio ↴From Wikipedia
Leonard Pennario (July 9, 1924 - June 27, 2008) was an American classical pianist.
He was born in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in Los Angeles, remaining there for his entire career. He first came to notice when he performed Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto at age 12, with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The scheduled performer had fallen ill, Pennario's piano playing had come to the attention of the conductor Eugene Goossens, who recommended him as the soloist after being assured by Pennario that he knew the work. In fact, he had never seen the music or even heard it, but he learned it in a week.
He studied with Isabelle Vengerova and Olga Steeb and attended the University of Southern California, where he studied composition with Ernst Toch. World War II interrupted his career, and he served in the U.S. Army Air Force in China, Burma and India, where his piano skills were soon realized and served well entertaining troops. He occasionally had to play around keys missing from the keyboards of the pianos at a couple of the more remote bases. He was discharged in 1946 as a staff sergeant and was awarded three Battle Stars. He had, however, made his debut, in uniform, with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall on November 17, 1943, with Artur Rodziński, playing Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1.
Shortly after Sergei Rachmaninoff's death, the conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos invited Leonard Pennario to be the soloist at a memorial concert, playing the Second Piano Concerto with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Pennario became the first pianist after the composer himself to record all four Rachmaninoff piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. His recording of the Rachmaninoff 2nd Concerto was used for the film September Affair (1950), in which Joan Fontaine plays a concert pianist preparing the play the concerto.
Beginning in the 1960s, he played in a renowned trio with the violinist Jascha Heifetz and the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. Miklós Rózsa wrote a piano concerto for Pennario, and he was the soloist in the first performance, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta.
Pennario recorded over 60 LPs, most of them of composers dating from Chopin and later. He is perhaps best known for championing certain modern composers such as George Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, Rózsa, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, and Sergei Prokofiev. In 1958, he was tied with Walter Gieseking in terms of best-selling classical records involving the piano.
Pennario retired from active performance and recording in the 1990s. He wrote some pieces of his own, such as Midnight on the Cliffs, March of the Lunatics, and a 4-hand arrangement of Chopin's Minute Waltz.[1]
He was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame [1] in October 2007.
As well as being well represented in music encyclopedias, he was a life master in tournament bridge, and was listed in The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge. He was once part of a celebrity foursome with Don Adams, Les Brown and Jack Benny's daughter Joan Benny.
He died of complications from Parkinson's disease on June 27, 2008 at the age of 83, in La Jolla, California.[2]
An authorized biography of Leonard Pennario is currently being written by Buffalo News music critic Mary Kunz Goldman.[3]
Leonard Pennario (July 9, 1924 - June 27, 2008) w… Read Full Bio ↴From Wikipedia
Leonard Pennario (July 9, 1924 - June 27, 2008) was an American classical pianist.
He was born in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in Los Angeles, remaining there for his entire career. He first came to notice when he performed Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto at age 12, with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The scheduled performer had fallen ill, Pennario's piano playing had come to the attention of the conductor Eugene Goossens, who recommended him as the soloist after being assured by Pennario that he knew the work. In fact, he had never seen the music or even heard it, but he learned it in a week.
He studied with Isabelle Vengerova and Olga Steeb and attended the University of Southern California, where he studied composition with Ernst Toch. World War II interrupted his career, and he served in the U.S. Army Air Force in China, Burma and India, where his piano skills were soon realized and served well entertaining troops. He occasionally had to play around keys missing from the keyboards of the pianos at a couple of the more remote bases. He was discharged in 1946 as a staff sergeant and was awarded three Battle Stars. He had, however, made his debut, in uniform, with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall on November 17, 1943, with Artur Rodziński, playing Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1.
Shortly after Sergei Rachmaninoff's death, the conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos invited Leonard Pennario to be the soloist at a memorial concert, playing the Second Piano Concerto with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Pennario became the first pianist after the composer himself to record all four Rachmaninoff piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. His recording of the Rachmaninoff 2nd Concerto was used for the film September Affair (1950), in which Joan Fontaine plays a concert pianist preparing the play the concerto.
Beginning in the 1960s, he played in a renowned trio with the violinist Jascha Heifetz and the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. Miklós Rózsa wrote a piano concerto for Pennario, and he was the soloist in the first performance, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta.
Pennario recorded over 60 LPs, most of them of composers dating from Chopin and later. He is perhaps best known for championing certain modern composers such as George Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, Rózsa, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, and Sergei Prokofiev. In 1958, he was tied with Walter Gieseking in terms of best-selling classical records involving the piano.
Pennario retired from active performance and recording in the 1990s. He wrote some pieces of his own, such as Midnight on the Cliffs, March of the Lunatics, and a 4-hand arrangement of Chopin's Minute Waltz.[1]
He was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame [1] in October 2007.
As well as being well represented in music encyclopedias, he was a life master in tournament bridge, and was listed in The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge. He was once part of a celebrity foursome with Don Adams, Les Brown and Jack Benny's daughter Joan Benny.
He died of complications from Parkinson's disease on June 27, 2008 at the age of 83, in La Jolla, California.[2]
An authorized biography of Leonard Pennario is currently being written by Buffalo News music critic Mary Kunz Goldman.[3]
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Midnight on the Cliffs
Leonard Pennario Lyrics
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The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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Lou Coatney
An orchestral pianist's piano composition. :-)
Leonard was a family friend. Mary Kunz Goldman is completing a biography of him.
Dad was a U.S. Army Air Force master sergeant in Dacca India in 1944 in ground administration. He heard about this kid who was an awful typist but a great piano player and soon had Leonard off visiting airbases and minor airstrips to give concerts for morale. (Eastern India was the airbase for flying supplies over the Himalayas - The Hump - to our Chinese allies.)
In the late 40s, Leonard stayed with us for some weeks - a piano was brought into our little Cape Cod living room, and we got free concerts - because Rock Island Illinois was so central to his concert touring. He and Dad would play cards - bridge for Leonard and poker (I guess ... I was 2) for Dad.
In 1990, Leonard and the Hungarian National Symphony had a concert in the Western Illinois University gymnasium, and afterwards Mom, Dad, Aunt Janet, Leonard, and I had dinner at the best restaurant in Macomb. I apologized to Leonard for the gym's acoustics, and he laughed and said Dad sent him to airbases which had pianos missing keys which he had to play around, and after that he never complained about pianos or conditions if those were all people had. :-)
He loved to make people happy with his gift. Tragically, he never married, although he apparently nearly married a very famous actress, and Mary has been able to identify her. And tragically, Parkinson's destroyed his ability to play and then his life itself.
I wish I had learned piano and composition. My talented children, including my young son here in Norway who is taking it very seriously, have.
Here is Leonard recounting his GI experience in an interview. :-) http://thompsonian.info/pennario-june-1947.html
Lou Coatney
An orchestral pianist's piano composition. :-)
Leonard was a family friend. Mary Kunz Goldman is completing a biography of him.
Dad was a U.S. Army Air Force master sergeant in Dacca India in 1944 in ground administration. He heard about this kid who was an awful typist but a great piano player and soon had Leonard off visiting airbases and minor airstrips to give concerts for morale. (Eastern India was the airbase for flying supplies over the Himalayas - The Hump - to our Chinese allies.)
In the late 40s, Leonard stayed with us for some weeks - a piano was brought into our little Cape Cod living room, and we got free concerts - because Rock Island Illinois was so central to his concert touring. He and Dad would play cards - bridge for Leonard and poker (I guess ... I was 2) for Dad.
In 1990, Leonard and the Hungarian National Symphony had a concert in the Western Illinois University gymnasium, and afterwards Mom, Dad, Aunt Janet, Leonard, and I had dinner at the best restaurant in Macomb. I apologized to Leonard for the gym's acoustics, and he laughed and said Dad sent him to airbases which had pianos missing keys which he had to play around, and after that he never complained about pianos or conditions if those were all people had. :-)
He loved to make people happy with his gift. Tragically, he never married, although he apparently nearly married a very famous actress, and Mary has been able to identify her. And tragically, Parkinson's destroyed his ability to play and then his life itself.
I wish I had learned piano and composition. My talented children, including my young son here in Norway who is taking it very seriously, have.
Here is Leonard recounting his GI experience in an interview. :-) http://thompsonian.info/pennario-june-1947.html
Federico
why are there so many unknown and underrated composers that i still haven't known.
Leiki Ueda
Damn dat tremolo at bar #10...
Luke Faulkner
How many notes do you want?
Pennario: YES
flesh-eating bug
lol
Kasa Jizo
You're everywhere!!!
Charles Hudson
Gorgeous. So lush and romantic and film-like you can almost guess the exact year it was written. Period pieces like this are not to be criticized but enjoyed.
Aydar Akhmady
fantastic! I hear Ravel's and Rachmaninoff's influences
Ethan L.
Nigel Williams ?
Nic B
Nigel Williams Please, let’s hear it
Blue’s Clues
Aydar Akhmady shame on you.