R-199-143: Recital and Encores with compositions by Reger, Weber, Portnoff and Rossini
 

On the Concert Stage
as in the Finest Homes
It's BALDWIN.

Not only Jorge Bolet performed on a Baldwin piano. Other Remington pianists liked the Baldwin grand pianos too: Pierre Luboshutz and Genia Nemenoff. In this Baldwin ad they find themselves in the good company of Benno Moisewitsch.

Anthony and Joseph Paratore - who are considered one of today's foremost keyboard duos - said: "One of our favorite duo-piano teams of the past is Luboshutz and Nemenoff. Their style of playing was unique in the way they handled ritardandi and rubati together."

 

The liner notes on the jacket of Remington R-199-143 (written by John W. Freeman) also contain the following information about the famous duo pianists:

"Pierre Luboshutz, of Russian birth, and Genia Nemenoff, a Parisian of Russian extraction (in private life Mrs. Luboshutz), first met at the Paris Conservatory where Pierre Luboshutz was conducting a master class for a small group of professionals, among them Genia Nemenoff. Each was a solo artist - but together they found in their combined playing a new art - a new world of sound - and today their concert appearance is anticipated in three continents as an outstanding event of the season. They have been tireless in perfecting their standard of virtuosity and musicianship. Their search for two-piano literature has uncovered many a long-forgotten work; outstanding composers have dedicated compositions to them and they themselves through their own arrangements have enlarged the musical field for the art of the duo-piano. They have played for kings and queens, for the people of every nation, and with all the great orchestras of the world - and their guest appearances with Toscanini establishes them as the only duo-piano team to play under the great master. Remington is proud to present these two virtuosos of the keyboard." - John W. Freeman

Pierre Luboshutz, whose actual name was Petr Saulovic Lubosic, was born on June 17th 1891 in Odessa. He studied violin with his father but eventually turned to the piano. He was a pupil of Konstantin Igumnov (1873-1946) at the Moscow Conservatory where other famous pupils were educated like Maria Grinberg, Lev Oborin, and Ryszard Bakst. Igumnov himself had studied with Nikolai Zverev, teacher of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin.

Luboshutz, who graduated in 1912, was the pianist in the Luboshutz Trio (Lubosic Trio) with violinist Liá Saulovna Luboshutz (February 22, 1885 - March 18, 1965) and cellist Anna Saulovna Luboshutz (July 25, 1887 - February 22, 1975). When he lived in Paris he studied for some time with Edouard Risler (1873-1929).
In 1926 Pierre came to the US as accompanist to violinist Efrem (Efraim) Zimbalist (who was director of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia from 1941 to 1961).

Pierre Luboshutz concertized with cellist Gregor Piatigorsky many times. He also accompanied Sergei Koussevitzky when the maestro was giving recitals playing the double bass. Some of their performances were recorded and released by the Victor Company in 1928: Andante from Concerto in f (Koussevitzky), Valse miniature (Koussevitzky), Minuet in G (Beethoven), Chanson triste and Largo from Sonata (Koussevitzky).
Pierre and Genia performed Mozart's K 365 in 1944 in Boston's Symphony Hall and Bach's Concerto for Two Pianos at Tanglewood in 1947 under the direction of the great conductor.

Pierre Luboshutz and Genia Nemenoff at the time of their Victor recordings and some ten years prior to their Remington recordings. Picture of the couple taken from magazine The Etude of January 1941 (edited by R.A.B. - SoundFountain-Remington Site Archive).

Pierre Luboshutz and Genia Nemenoff made several recordings in the shellac era for Victor:

Brahms: Variations on a Theme of Haydn and Liebeslieder Waltzer.
Chopin: Rondo in C Op. 73.
Cui: Kaleidoscope.
Falla: Ritual Fire Dance.
Glinka: The Lark.
Kreisler: Tambourin chinois
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Allegro brilliant, Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Mussorgsky: Coronation Scene from Boris Godunov.
Mozart: Overture from Le Nozze di Figaro and Sonata in D.
Riegger: New Dance.
Rossini: Largo al Factotum from "The Barber of Seville".
Saint-Saëns: Dance Macabre.
Schumann: Andante and Variations.
Shostakovich: Polka; Waltz from the suite "The Golden Mountains".
Strawinsky: The Shrove-Tide (from "Petrushka").

Pierre Luboshutz arranged many compositions for 2 pianos. He was the composer-arranger of "The Bat, A Fantasy on themes from Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss".

When they were already for 18 years a successful duo they made recordings for the Remington label around 1952. These recordings were most likely made in the Mastertone Recording Studios Inc. in New York City where also Sari Biro's performance of Mussorgski's Pictures was taped. It is not sure if it was Laszlo Halasz who arranged or produced the recordings of the duo-pianists a few months before he officially became Remington's recording director. Halasz knew many instrumentalists, singers and conductors and proposed to make recordings with them.

 

On R-199-143 Pierre and Genia play Reger's 'Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue', Pierre's arrangement of 'Rondo in D Major' (Carl Maria von Weber), 'Rondo in C Major' Op. 73 (Frederic Chopin), 'Perpetual Motion' on a theme by Brahms (Portnoff) and Kovacs's arrangement of 'Largo al factotum' from 'The Barber of Seville' (Rossini). The cover was designed by Alex Steinweiss. According to Schwann Long Playing Redord Catalog this record was released in July 1953.

R-199-147: Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Debussy and Falla. Cover by Alex Steinweiss.

Click here for a Sound Clip of Manuel de Falla's Ritual Fire Dance in an Arrangement for Two Pianos by Pierre Luboshutz, performed by the Duo-Pianists. They play on Baldwin Grands.

On R-199-147 they perform the arrangement by Pierre Luboshutz of De Falla's "Ritual Fire Dance" which the duo-pianists play with assurance and verve. A very sensitive performance of 'Variations on a Theme by Beethoven' composed by Camille Saint-Saëns, and 'Lindaraja' by Debussy can be found on that same disc which has on Side One Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Sonata in D., K 448. This disc was a rather late release from December 1956.

Their playing is lean, technically practically perfect and has a lot of strength and drive, which they particularly show in the execution of "Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue" by Max Reger on R-199-143. But also their Mozart is of high quality. However the way the piano sound is captured by the microphone and is being processed for the production of matrices remains a subject of discussion.

Genia Nemenoff and Pierre Luboshutz in the nineteen sixties when Vanguard released a stereo disc with works by Milhaud, Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Glinka and Mendelssohn. Picture taken from the cover of Vanguard VSD 2128

The couple had met for the first time in Paris in 1931, they married in that same year and formed a piano duo in 1937.
Pierre Luboshutz who was born on June 17th 1891 in Odessa (Ukraine) died on April 17th, 1971, and was buried in the Seaview Cemetery in Rockport, Maine, USA.
Genia Nemenoff - born in Paris, Oct. 23, 1905 - died in 1989. She is buried next to her husband Pierre Luboshutz.

Rudolf A. Bruil - February 2002