Paul Jacobs (pianist)

Paul Jacobs (born June 22, 1930 in New York City; died September 25, 1983) 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.

Biography

Education

Paul Jacobs attended PS 95 and DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and studied at the Juilliard School, where his teacher was Ernest Hutchison. He became a soloist with Robert Craft's Chamber Arts Society and played with the Composer's Forum. [Teresa Sterne: arbiter 124, CD. The accompanying booklet contains a biographical essay on Jacobs by Sterne, his former producer, 17] 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.' [Harold C. Schonberg: obituary of Jacobs, "New York Times", 26 September 1983, retrieved on 2008-04-11]

Europe in the 1950s

He moved to France after his graduation in 1951. There he became closely associated with Pierre Boulez and played regularly in his Domaine Musical concerts, which introduced many of the key works of the early twentieth-century to post-war Paris. In a single concert in 1954 (which must have lasted close to five hours and also included works by Stravinsky, Debussy and Varèse) Jacobs played chamber music by Berg, Webern and Bartok and gave the première of a new work by Michel Philippot. [Antoine Goléa: "Rencontres avec Pierre Boulez" (Paris: Editions Slatkine, 1982), 188, ISBN 205 000205 X] 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". [Jésus Aguila: "Le domaine musical - Pierre Boulez et vingt ans de création contemporaine" (Paris: Fayard/Fondation SACEM, 1992), 290, ISBN 2213 02952 0] He even acted as rehearsal pianist for the incidental music which Boulez wrote for Jean-Louis Barrault's production of the "Oresteia" in 1955. [Dominique Jameux: "Boulez" (Paris: Fayard/Fondation SACEM, 1984), 108, ISBN 2213010773]

During his time in Europe he appeared as soloist with the Orchestre National de Paris and the Cologne Orchestra and made many radio broadcasts. [Sterne, 17] He played for the International Society for Contemporary Music in Italy and at the International Vacation Courses for new music at Darmstadt. [Schonberg obituary] 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' [Letter dated 12 July 1957 from Stockhausen to David Tudor, published in Imke Misch and Markus Bandur: "Karlheinz Stockhausen bei den Internationalen Ferienkursen für Neue Musik in Darmstadt 1951–1996: Dokumente und Briefe" (Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag, 2001), 172, ISBN 3-00-007290-X.] and this may have been at the composer's suggestion. [Misch and Bandur, 142; Joan Peyser: "Boulez: Composer, Conductor, Enigma" (London: Cassell, 1976), 125, ISBN 0304299014] Around this time he became a close friend of the French painter Bernard Saby, whom he described as an important influence. [Michel Carton: interview conducted at Jacobs' home, 6 May 1976, printed on the arbiter website at www.arbiterrecords.com/notes/130notes.html - retrieved on 2008-04-11]

New York 1960-83

He returned to New York in 1960. During the 1960s and 1970s he continued to give solo recitals, played frequently for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centre and 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 and was, for the last fifteen years of his life, Associate Professor of Music at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. [Sterne, 19]

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" [CBS 72281, LP] and both Boulez's [Sony Classical SMK 64 109, CD] and Mehta's [CBS DGTM-6001, LP] 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". [Adam Harvey: "The Soundtracks of Woody Allen: A Complete Guide to the Songs and Music in Every Film, 1969-2005", foreword by Dick Hyman (Jefferson, N. C.:McFarland, 2007), 81, ISBN 0786429682.]

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 Gilbert Kalish, Charles Rosen and Ursula Oppens (with whom Jacobs often performed two-piano works). [John F. Link: "Elliott Carter: A Guide to Research", Composers Resource Manual 52 (New York: Garland Publishing, 2000), 41. ISBN 0815324324.]

He also gave first performances of music by George Crumb, ["Celestial Mechanics (Makrokosmos IV)" for amplified piano, four hands, world première (with Gilbert Kalish), Alice Tully Hall, New York, 18th November 1979. Source: the Official George Crumb Home Page, http://www.georgecrumb.net/comp/makro4.html, retrieved 2008-05-12] Berio, Henze, Messiaen and Sessions [Sterne, 19.] and commissioned Frederic Rzewski's "Four North American Ballads" in 1979. [Jed Distler: accompanying note to Marc-André Hamelin's Rzewski recording on Hyperion (1999) CDA 67077, CD] 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.' [Schonberg obituary]

Death

He died of an AIDS-related illness in 1983, one of the first prominent artists to succumb to the disease. [Gilbert Kalish: accompanying note to Jacobs' recording of the Debussy Etudes, Nonesuch 9 79161-2, CD] At his funeral on 27 September 1983 Elliott Carter delivered a eulogy, recalling his friendship and collaboration with Jacobs dating back to the mid-1950s. [Link, 211] A memorial concert held at New York's Symphony Space on 24 February 1984 was attended by some of America's most eminent composers and interpreters. [Ned Rorem: "The Nantucket Diary of Ned Rorem, 1973–1985" (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1987), 453, ISBN 0865472599.] The music ranged from Josquin to two new compositions dedicated to Jacobs (by William Bolcom and David Schiff). [Teresa Sterne: accompanying note to Jacobs' recording of the Debussy Etudes] 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 [Robert Kirzinger: programme note, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, http://www.bmop.org/season/program_notes.aspx?cid=122&from=concert - retrieved on 2008-05-02] 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. [Allan Kozzin: "How the Spell Was Broken For Bolcom's Etudes", "New York Times", 31st July 1988, retrieved on 2008-05-13] Jacobs was also one of the friends and colleagues memorialised by John Corigliano in his Symphony No. 1. [Edward Rothstein: "Themes of AIDS and Remembrance in Corigliano's Symphony", "New York Times", 11th January 1992, retrieved on 2008-05-02]

Repertoire and style

Although Jacobs was associated with some of the most challenging music of the modernist tradition, his colleague Gilbert Kalish 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.' [Kalish note]

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.' [Carton interview]

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.' ["Gramophone" magazine, August 2002]

Discography

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 Leibowitz, 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. [Oceanic OCS 35, LP (1953); Disco Archivia 1007, CD] In 1956 he gave the first complete cycle in 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, which included 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. [Columbia MS 7191, LP] and played on the 1970 CRI recording of Morton Feldman's "The Viola in My Life". [New World Records, 80657-2, CD]

Nonesuch LPs

His first recordings for Nonesuch records were of Carter's music (in 1968 and 1973). Between 1976 and 1983 he made a series of recordings of twentieth-century repertoire for the label, for each of which he wrote a wide-ranging accompanying essay. Most of them have remained available over the years, thanks to CD reissues on Nonesuch and, later, on Warner. The small American label Arbiter has also done much to keep Jacobs' recorded legacy before the public, reissuing in 2008 his recordings with Oppens of the Stravinsky two piano / four-hand repertoire, as well as unearthing some previously unpublished live recordings. Jacobs had a particular interest in the music of Busoni, whom he considered 'the great underrated master of the twentieth century'. [Sterne, 19] He made several important recordings of Busoni's piano music, now also reissued on Arbiter.

The complete list of the Nonesuch LPs (and CD reissues) is as follows.

*Bartok, Busoni, Messiaen, Stravinsky: Piano Etudes, H-71334 (1976)

*Busoni: "The Six Sonatinas for Piano", H-71359 (1978)

*Busoni (transcribed): Organ Chorale Preludes of Bach and Brahms, H-71375 (1979)
[these three LPs reissued 2000 on 2 Arbiter CDs, arbiter 124]
*Bolcom, Copland, Rzewski: Blues, Ballads and Rags, D-79006 (1980)
[reissued on Nonesuch CD, E2 79006]
*Carter: "Night Fantasies", "Piano Sonata", D-79047 (1982)
["Piano Sonata" only reissued 1990 on Elektra Nonesuch CD, 9 79248-2; "Night Fantasies" not released on CD]
*Carter: "Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harpsichord" (with Sollberger, Kuskin, Sherry); "Sonata for Cello and Piano" (with Krosnick), H-71234 (1968)

*Carter: "Double Concerto" (Jacobs, hps; Kalish, pno; The Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, cond Weisberg), H-71314 (1973)
[all three works reissued 1992 on Elektra Nonesuch CD, 9 79183-2]
*Debussy: "Etudes for Piano, Books I and II", H-71322 (1976)
[reissued 1987 on Nonesuch CD, 9 79161-2, coupled with live recording of Debussy's "En blanc et noir" (with Kalish), Ojai, Califormia, 5th June 1982]
*Debussy: "Preludes for Piano, Books I and II", HB-73031 (1978)
[reissued on Nonesuch CD, 9 73031-2; Warner Ultima CD, Fact|date=May 2008]
*Debussy: "Images (1894), Images Series I and II, Estampes", H-71365 (1979)
[reissued on Nonesuch CD, 9 71365; Warner Apex CD, Fact|date=May 2008]
*Ravel: "Sites auriculaires, Frontispice" (with Kalish, Sterne), H-71355 (1978)
[reissued 1987 on Nonesuch CD, 9 71355-2]
*Schoenberg: Complete Piano Music, H-71309
[reissued on Nonesuch CD, 9 71309-2; Warner Apex CD, Fact|date=May 2008]
*Stravinsky: Music for Two Pianos and Piano Four Hands (with Oppens), H-71347

*Stravinsky: "Petrushka, Three Pieces for String Quarter" (for piano four hands, with Oppens), D-79038
[these two LPs reissued 2008 on 2 Arbiter CDs, arbiter 155, includes previously unpublished concert recordings 1972-81]
*Thomson: A Portrait Album, D-79024 (1982)
*Busoni: "Fantasia Contrappuntistica", Mozart: "Fantasy for a Musical Clock K608", Beethoven: "Grosse Fuge, op.134" (with Oppens), D-79061 (1983)

External links

*The [http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/mus/pdf/musjacobs.pdf Paul Jacobs papers] , containing his personal papers and scores, are housed in the [http://www.nypl.org/musicdiv Music Division] of [http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/lpa.html The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts] .

References