Description

RAY LEV (ROSTOV-ON-DON, RUSSIA MAY 8, 1912 – NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA MAY 20, 1968)

 

 

 

 

Ray Lev was an American classical pianist. One year after her birth in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, her father, a synagogue cantor, and mother, a concert singer, brought her to the United States. Lev’s early piano studies were with Waiter Ruel Cowles in New Haven, Connecticut and Gaston Déthier in New York. She made her debut at age 17 in England performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 under Sir Landon Ronald. After winning the American Matthay Prize and the Philharmonic Symphony Scholarship, she studied with Tobias Matthay in England from 1930 to 1933. Thereafter, Lev returned to the United States, where she made her New York debut in 1934 with the National Orchestral Association. Her annual recitals in Carnegie Hall were generally sold out; she also toured successfully in Europe, the United States, and Canada and performed on radio network broadcasts. In one such Carnegie Hall recital, on November 10, 1944, Lev gave the first complete traversal ever presented in that venue of the Six Pieces, op. 118 of Johannes Brahms. Lev also was a champion of modern works. For instance, in November 1945, again at Carnegie Hall, she gave the premiere of Louise Talma’s Alleluia in Form of a Toccata and of 24-year-old Douglas Townsend’s Sonatina No. 1, which she repeated in a March 31, 1946 recital at New York Times Hall broadcast live over WNYC. A November 1948 Carnegie Hall recital included the Hora movement from the 1937 Chassidic Suite of Jakob Schönberg. Lev gave two command performances in London, England, performed for US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and earned seven citations for patriotic service by extensively performing for US and allied armed forces during World War II. In 1948, however, she took a step that would negate the benefits of these public-spirited activities and that effectively would put an end to the progress of her career: she joined 31 other American musicians, artists, and writers in signing an open letter of solidarity with twelve Russian writers who had called for fellow Communists to declare themselves publicly. As a result, in 1950 she had the dubious distinction of being the sole classical pianist named in the Red Channels list of alleged communist sympathizers during the American Red Scare. (In between, in 1949, she had formed part of the Paul Robeson concert that ended in the Peekskill Riots. Little information about her appears thereafter, and her name is largely forgotten today, although one reference suggests that she continued playing throughout her remaining life, including nearly annual Carnegie Hall recitals, and performed the Schumann Piano Concerto in April 1968, a month before her death. Some support for the former claim can be found in the Fall 1958 Juilliard Review, which indicates that on April 8 of that year she performed the premiere of Toccata for Piano by Juilliard alumnus Wallingford Riegger at Carnegie Hall. Presumably, however, she became primarily a teacher; her students include Aki Takahashi, Sophia Rosoff, and the currently active American pianists Joel Sachs and Miriam Brickman.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Franz Schubert, Ray Lev – Piano Sonata No. 15 In C Major Allegretto In C Minor

Label: Concert Hall – B3 1030

Series: Concert Hall Limited Recordings

Format: Vinyl, LP

Country: US

Released: 1948

Genre: Classical

Style: Classical

A1 1st Movement: Moderato

A2 1st Movement, (Concluded)

A3 2nd Movement: Andante

A4 2nd Movement, (Concluded)

B1 3rd Movement: Menuetto-Trio

B2 4th Movement: Rondo, Allegro

B3 (Unfinished)

B4 Allegretto In C Minor

Composed By – Franz Schubert

Piano – Ray Lev

 

Robert Schumann – Ray Lev, Daniel Guilet, William Schoen, David Soyer – Piano Quartet In E-Flat, Opus 47

Label: Concert Hall – F-9

Series: Concert Hall Limited Recordings

Format: Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition, Numbered, Mono, Translucent Red

Country: US

Released: 1952

Genre: Classical

Piano Quartet In E-Flat Major, Opus 47

A1 1st Mvt.: Sostenuto Assai

A2 2nd Mvt.: Scherzo: Molto Vivace

B1 3rd Mvt.: Andante Cantabile

B2 4th Mvt.: Finale: Vivace

Record Company – Concert Hall Society, Inc.

Cello – David Soyer

Composed By – Robert Schumann

Piano – Ray Lev

Sleeve Notes – Richard Strunsky

Viola – William Schoen

Violin – Daniel Guilet

“This Recording is issued in a Limited Edition of 3,000 copies of which this is number ______; Printed in U.S.A.”

(On label) Licensed by Concert Hall Society Inc., N.Y., U.S.A. Only for Non-Commercial Use for Phonographs in Homes

Label Code (A runout): E1-LKC-3833-1A // A1 B

Label Code (B runout): CHFL-9-2 // E1-LKC-3814-1A // A1 D

Matrix / Runout (A label): CHF-9 Pt. 1

Matrix / Runout (B label): CHF-9 Pt. 2