Description

ARTHUR ADOLPH LOESSER (NEW YORK CITY, AUGUST 26, 1894 – CLEVELAND, OHIO, JANUARY 5, 1969)

 

 

 

 

Born into a musical family in New York City, Loesser received early piano training from his German-born father until he began lessons with Zygmunt Stojowski at the Institute of Musical Art, now called the Juilliard School.

Loesser was the author of the books Humor in American Song and Men, Women, and Pianos: A Social History. He also wrote program notes for the Cleveland Orchestra and liner notes for recordings by Vladimir Horowitz and other musicians.

Loesser served on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music beginning in 1926. From 1953 until his death in 1969, he was head of the piano department. His pupils included Sergio Calligaris, Anton Kuerti, and Jane Corner Young.

As a pianist, Loesser gave numerous concerts and recitals, his first during 1913 in Berlin. He often coupled his recitals with lectures which were known for their wit. He was active during the 1920s and 1930s as one half of a piano duo with the Canadian pianist and conductor Wilfrid Pelletier. The two made a number of piano rolls for the American Piano Company’s “AMPICO” reproducing piano system; these were piano duet arrangements of orchestral works that were literally “conducted” by Pelletier’s Metropolitan Opera colleague Arthur Bodanzky. He also made several solo recordings, some of which have been issued on compact disc.

Arthur Loesser wrote Men, Women & Pianos: A Social History which was published by Simon & Schuster in 1954.

During World War II, from 1943, Loesser served in the US Army where he worked in the Japanese intelligence department. It was during this period that he mastered the Japanese language and after the war ended he gave recitals with lectures in Tokyo. Loesser eventually retired from the army with the rank of major.

Arthur Loesser was the half-brother of Broadway composer Frank Loesser. He jokingly described Frank as “the evil of two Loessers”.

Loesser was married to Jean Basset; the couple had one daughter, fashion historian Anne Hollander.

Loesser died from a heart attack at the wheel of his car outside the Cleveland Institute of Music on January 4, 1969, aged 74.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

Country dance (Beethoven) Mischa Elman (violin) Victor 64968 B-23436

Humoresque (Dvorak) Maud Powell (violin) Victor 74494 C-17797

Hungarian dance no. 17 in F-sharp minor (Brahms-Joachim) Mischa Elman (violin) Victor 64977 B-24770

Love’s Delight (Martini-Powell) Maud Powell (violin) Victor 64615 64615

Minuet in G, No. 2 (Beethoven-Powell) Maud Powell (violin) Victor 64620 B-17793

Petite Valse (Herbert) Maud Powell (violin) Victor 64617 B-17794

Rondo (Mozart-Kreisler) Renée Chemet (violin) Victor 6497 C-31812

Seventh concerto, op. 76 (de Bériot) Maud Powell (violin) Victor 74493 C-17792

Sonata in E major 4th movement (Bach) Maud Powell (violin) Victor 64619 B-17806

Sonata in E major Adagio and allegro (Handel) Renée Chemet (violin) Victor 6497 C-31809

Sonata in E major Allegro, 2nd movement (Bach) Maud Powell (violin) Victor 64618 B-17805

Symphony espagnole, op. 21 Andante (Fourth movement) (Lalo) Mischa Elman (violin) Victor 74771 C-24772

The last rose of summer (arr. Auer) Mischa Elman (violin) Victor 64958 B-24778

 

Sonata For Two Pianos And Percussion

Label: Cleveland Institute of Music – XTV 20039, Cleveland Institute of Music – XTV 20040

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album

Country: US

Genre: Classical

Style: Modern, Romantic

Composed By – Béla Bartók

Percussion – Cloyd Duff, Emil Scholle

Piano – Arthur Loesser, Beryl Rubinstein

A1 Assai Lento – Allegro Molto

A2 Leno, Ma Non Troppo

B1 Allegro Non Troppo

Recorded in performance by Walter Blodgett

May 17, 1950, Cleveland Museum of Art

 

Duo-pianists Arabesque on Tunes from F. Lehar’s “Merry Widow” with Beryl Rubinstein

Columbia 78rpm disc 71209-D (XCO 28994, -5), Recorded ca. 1940