Piano legend Gary Graffman has died.
Graffman had a powerful start as part of Columbia Records’ stable of American pianists that also included Leon Fleisher and Eugene Istomin, and he made some fantastic recordings with George Szell and Leonard Bernstein, until, like Fleisher, a hand injury drove him into semi-retirement as a performer.
Graffman was instrumental in resurrecting works in the left-handed repertoire, a number of them commissioned by pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm during the First World War. In particular, Graffman was a champion of the works composed for Wittgenstein by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and I was fortunate (and thrilled) to be able to hear him play these pieces in Philadelphia at a time when they were not widely available on recordings. It’s so easy now to take for granted how spoiled for choice we are in this day of exhaustive recordings and internet access to them. In particular, I got to know Korngold’s Suite for Two Violins, Cello and Piano Left-Hand from Graffman’s concert performances (although it was Fleisher who made the definitive recording of the piece).
I also attended the world premiere of Ned Rorem’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (his fourth piano concerto) at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, which was recorded live and released on New World Records. Rorem always was a miniaturist at heart, or that is my impression, so even when working in larger forms, as here, it was not unusual for him to construct them out of smaller individual components. The concerto consists of eight brief movements, as opposed to three epic statements in the grand German tradition. The outer movements employ kind of a twelve-tone “scat” – the way it’s handled, it’s not going to leap out and clap you on the ears as “twelve tone music” – but at its core, the concerto shares a French sensibility that might appeal to anyone who enjoys the music of Francis Poulenc. It’s an attractive piece, and I’ve played it on the radio many times.
It’s one of several works for left hand composed specifically for Graffman. In 1996, William Bolcom wrote a concerto, “Gaea,” for Graffman and Fleisher to perform together. In 2001, Graffman gave the premiere of “Seven Last Words,” by Curtis alum Daron Hagen.
Graffman’s recording of “Rhapsody in Blue” has enjoyed an especially lucrative existence, thanks to its use in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan.” It’s turned up in numerous film and television productions ever since.
Graffman found a second career as an influential teacher and administrator at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he joined the faculty in 1980 and became its director in 1986. In 1995, he also became Curtis’ president. He served in all three capacities – teacher, director, and president – for the next 21 years. I never lived more than a few blocks from Curtis, and I was a frequent concertgoer (also, my girlfriend at the time worked there), so of course I saw him all the time. What I didn’t see was his behind-the-scenes instruction of super-pianists like Lang Lang and Yuja Wang, who went on to stunning careers. Graffman’s own teachers included Isabelle Vengerova, Rudolf Serkin, and, informally, Valdimir Horowitz.
Graffman’s wife, Naomi, predeceased him in 2019. Their marriage spanned some 67 years. Although I did not know them personally, beyond the exchange of a sentence or two at a reception, they seemed like a lovely couple.
Graffman’s death unexpectedly conjures another era for me. Suddenly, I feel very far away from my 20s.
Gary Graffman died yesterday at the age of 97. R.I.P.
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Graffman performing the rarely-heard Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 4 – another Wittgenstein commission, but never played by him.
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PHOTO: André Previn, Ned Rorem, and Gary Graffman rehearse Rorem’s Piano Concerto for Left Hand and Orchestra
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