Ray Lev

Ray Lev (May 8, 1912 – May 20, 1968) was an American classical pianist. One year after her birth in Rostov na Donau, Russia, her father, a synagogue cantor, and mother, a concert singer, brought her to the United States.

Life

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. Although 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 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. Little information about her appears thereafter, and her name is largely forgotten today.

Recordings

After World War II, Lev began making phonograph records for the Concert Hall Society label, first on 78 RPM disks and then on LPs. She set down some adventurous literature for the day, including Schubert’s Piano Sonata in C Major, D. 840 ("Reliquie") with the completion by Ernst Krenek, probably otherwise represented on records in this form only by the slightly later performance of Friedrich Wührer on Vox. Her recording has not appeared on compact disc, although Wührer's has received a private CD release copied from LP. Lev’s records that have achieved CD reissue include her 1946 account of Bach’s Concerto No. 5 in D minor after Vivaldi’s op. 3, no. 11, BWV 596, in her own transcription, and a waltz by Sergei Prokofiev, no. 2 from his "Music for Children", op. 65.

References

Album notes to "Johannes Brahms, Sonata No. 1 in C Major; Two Choral Preludes -- Ray Lev, Pianist", Concert Hall Society Release A7 (78 RPM, ca. 1946).

Album notes to "Franz Schubert, Piano Sonata No. 15 in C Major (Unfinished); Allegretto in C Minor -- Ray Lev, Pianist", Concert Hall Society Release B3 (78 RPM, 1947).

Bach Cantatas Website [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Lev-Ray.htm] (Accessed August 11, 2008)

Naxos Website [http://www.naxos.com/artistinfo/Ray_Lev_12582/12582.htm] (Accessed August 11, 2008)