Oscar Levant

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Oscar Levant's grave in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery

Oscar Levant (born December 27, 1906 in Pittsburgh , † August 14, 1972 in Beverly Hills ) was an American composer , concert pianist , arranger and actor .

life and career

Levant was particularly known for his sarcastic and humorous appearances in film, television and radio. Around 1925 he appeared in one of the first musical short films, Ben Bernie and All the Lads . Perhaps his best-known film role, he played in 1951 as the best friend of Gene Kelly's main character in An American in Paris .

First and foremost, Levant was a pianist: At the height of his popularity, Oscar Levant was the highest-paid concert pianist in America. He surpassed Vladimir Horowitz and Arthur Rubinstein , with whom he shares a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . He performed under conductors such as Toscanini , Beecham , Mitropoulos , Reiner and Ormandy and was the authoritative interpreter of the works of his friend George Gershwin . Levant's 1945 recording of Rhapsody in Blue has been one of Columbia Records' top-selling albums for decades . In 2018, music producer Robert Russ published an anthology of all of his Columbia recordings. "An outstanding collection" (Will Friedwald, The Wall Street Journal ), which was nominated for a Grammy in December 2018 .

After his first divorce from Barbara Woodell in 1932, he married Doris Gilmartin in 1939, with whom he had three children. They stayed together from a heart attack until his death in 1972 at the age of 65.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1928: My Man (music)
  • 1928: Side Street (music)
  • 1929: The Delightful Rogue (music)
  • 1929: Street Girl (music)
  • 1929: Artists ( The Dance of Life ) (Actor)
  • 1929: Jazz Heaven (music)
  • 1929: Tanned Legs (music)
  • 1930: Love Comes Along (music)
  • 1930: Leathernecking (music)
  • 1933: Orient Express (co-script)
  • 1935: In the clutches of gamblers (Black Sheep music)
  • 1935: Music is Magic (music)
  • 1935: Learn to love without crying (In Person Music)
  • 1936: The Smartest Girl in Town (music)
  • 1937: Nothing Sacred ( Nothing Sacred ) (music)
  • 1940: Rhythm on the River (Actor)
  • 1941: Kiss the Boy (Actor)
  • 1945: Rhapsody in Blue ( Rhapsody in Blue ) (Actor)
  • 1946: Humoresque ( Humoresque ) (Actor)
  • 1947: You Were Meant for Me (actor)
  • 1948: Magical Nights in Rio ( Romance on the High Seas ) (Actor)
  • 1949: The dancers from Broadway ( The Barkley's of Broadway ) (Actor)
  • 1951: An American in Paris ( An American in Paris ) (Actor)
  • 1952: Four Pearls ( O'Henry's Full House ) (Actor)
  • 1952: The I Don't Care Girl (Actor)
  • 1953: curtain up! ( The Band Wagon ) (Actor)
  • 1954: The Cobweb (Actor)

Discography (LP releases)

All publications (year of publication, catalog number, original title) have been released on the Columbia Masterworks label, a sub-label of Columbia Records :

  • 1948: ML 4025 Gershwin: Concerto in F
  • 1948: ML 4026 Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
  • 1948: ML 4028 Grieg: Concerto in A Minor
  • 1948: ML 2018 Oscar Levant plays Popular Moderns
  • 1948: ML 4096 Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1 In B-Flat Minor
  • 1949: ML 4147 Levant plays Chopin
  • 1949: ML 2073 Gershwin: Second Rhapsody for Piano
  • 1950: ML 4288 Khachaturian: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
  • 1950: ML 4277 Levant plays Debussy
  • 1950: ML 2103 Violin Selections from Humoresque
  • 1950: ML 2156 Debussy: Prelude A L'Apres Midi D'Un Faune
  • 1950: ML 4599 Rubinstein: Concerto No. 4 in D minor
  • 1950: ML 4879 Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
  • 1950: ML 4883 Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor
  • 1956: ML 5094 Oscar Levant Plays Liszt
  • 1958: ML 5324 Some Pleasant Moments in the 20th Century
  • 1961: ML 5676 Oscar Levant at the Piano: Music of Chopin, Debussy and Ravel
  • 1961: MS 6276 Oscar Levant at the Piano: Music of Chopin, Debussy and Ravel

memoirs

  • A smattering of ignorance. Doubleday, New York, 1940.
  • The Memoirs of an Amnesiac. Putnam's, New York, 1965.
  • The Unimportance of Being Oscar. Putnam's, New York, 1968.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pittsburgh Music Story: Oscar Levant (in English). Pittsburgh Music History, accessed January 23, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Bill Friedwald: 'A Rhapsody in Blue: The Extraordinary Life of Oscar Levant' Review (in English). The Wall Street Journal, August 21, 2018, accessed January 23, 2019 .
  3. ^ Artist Robert Russ (in English). National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences , December 6, 2018, accessed December 7, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Levant, Oscar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , USA
DATE OF DEATH August 14, 1972
Place of death Beverly Hills , California , USA