Life

George Feyer [b. Hungary, 27 October 1908; d. New York 21 October 2001] was a classically trained pianist who turned to 'light' music upon graduating, and released a series of top-selling "Echoes of..." records on the VOX label.

Feyer was born György Fejér, but westernised his name some time after leaving Europe. Fejer is the equivalent of the name "Whyte" in English; feher means 'white' in Hungarian.

Feyer remembered as a young boy hating his piano practice so much that his mother, a piano teacher, had to tie his legs to the piano stool. Feyer studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest [alongside conductor Sir Georg Solti], and at the Budapest Conservatory of Music. Among Feyer's teachers were Dohnanyi, Kodaly, and Bartok. By this time he was developing an interest in light music, and was playing in the evenings in many of the boîtes around Budapest, such as the Cafe Dunacorso where he accompanied Zsuzsa Darvas, a popular diseuse. Sir Georg Solti, KBE (pronounced ) (21 October 1912 - 5 September 1997) was a world-renowned Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. ... Ernö Dohnányi, also known as Ernst von Dohnányi or Dohnányi Ernő (July 27, 1877 – February 9, 1960) was a Hungarian conductor, composer, and pianist. ... Zoltan Kodaly Zoltán Kodály (December 16, 1882 – March 6, 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, educator, linguist and philosopher. ... B la Bart k (March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945) was a composer, pianist and collector of East European folk music. ...

He graduated aged 23, in 1932, and caused a minor scandal by turning to pop music full time. One of his first jobs was accompanying silent films, but he soon moved to night clubs, and it wasn't long before he and his drummer began working around Europe. Feyer's first trip away from Budapest was in 1934, to Barcelona, Spain.

For the next five years he toured Europe. In Paris a great fan was the exiled Duke of Windsor (previously Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, who had abdicated the throne of England in December 1936, and who lived in France from 1937-1939). The Duke particularly liked the accordion, so Feyer and his drummer drew straws to decide which of them would have to learn to play it. The drummer lost, and Feyer was able to continue playing the piano. Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; later The Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972) was King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India from the death of his father, George V (1910–36), on 20... Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; later The Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972) was King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India from the death of his father, George V (1910–36), on 20...

In 1939 Feyer returned to Hungary to be with his family, but was moved to German factories in a forced labour brigade. He was imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in the last year of the war, from where he was rescued in 1945 by the Allies. A mass grave inside Bergen-Belsen, 1945. ...

Feyer returned to Budapest, and in late 1945 married Judith Hoffman, whom he had met during the war. The couple had a son (Robert, b. Budapest, November 1946), and Feyer continued his musical career, playing in the Allied Officers' Club in Budapest (there was four-power nominal occupation in all the former Axis countries, although in Eastern Europe the bulk of the troops were Soviet). After the establishment of Russian Stalinist Communist rule, Feyer fled for Switzerland in January 1948, where he had got a job playing at a resort hotel. He was able to persuade the owners to allow him to bring his family. At the time he played in a duo with a drummer, whose wife came too.

By the time the original contract was fulfilled, the Iron Curtain had truly dropped and Feyer and his drummer (also a George) decided not to return to Hungary, mainly because anyone who had had contact with the Western powers would be persecuted. They stayed in Switzerland, getting successive jobs at the big hotels, and were popular. By 1950, when Hungary revolted, the Swiss authorities told them to "move along" because they were now stateless, and Switzerland would not allow them to become permanent residents on old Hungarian passports.

Feyer’s brother Paul had left Europe before the war, and moved to New York during the war, and married there. He had brought their mother to the U.S. in 1947, and no doubt having two immediate family members in the States helped Feyer to obtain a visa. The family arrived and settled in New York in January, 1951. Feyer remained there for the rest of his life.

Within a few months of arrival he made his New York debut at the famous Gogi's La Rue, in The Plush Room. From 1951-1954 Feyer had a regular spot in Park Avenue's Delmonico Hotel [now known as Trump Park Avenue]. It was during this period that Feyer began his recording career, making his first record "Echoes of Paris" in 1953.

A handful more such records appeared in the next couple of years, and in 1955 Feyer signed a contract with New York's luxurious boutique hotel The Carlyle to appear in their Café Carlyle. He performed there for 13 years in a room specially set up for him, with decor provided by a Hungarian interior designer. In August 1968, when he took his usual vacation on Nantucket Island, Bobby Short was hired to cover for him. In Short's words, "He took off two weeks that summer, and Peter Sharp, who owns The Carlyle, asked Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün, of Atlantic Records, who to get as a replacement. They said, ‘Get Bobby Short.’ I did my best to make those two weeks as successful as anything I’d done, and when Feyer’s contract ran out they offered me half a year. Feyer found a better deal elsewhere, and I work there now eight months of the year." The management had changed, and the move turned out to be permanent. (Short was to remain at The Carlyle for a fabled uninterrupted run until 2004, the year before his death.) The Carlyle Hotel is a luxury hotel and extended stay hotel in the Upper East Side of New York City, USA. The hotel, designed in Art Deco style, opened in 1931 and was named after Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle. ... The Carlyle Hotel is a luxury hotel and extended stay hotel in the Upper East Side of New York City, USA. The hotel, designed in Art Deco style, opened in 1931 and was named after Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle. ... Bobby Short (born September 15, 1924) is an American cabaret singer known for his interpretation of songs by early 20th century composers like Rodgers and Hart and Cole Porter. ... Atlantic Records (Atlantic Recording Corporation) is an American record label, and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group. ...

Feyer joked that he had "taken the most expensive vacation of them all," and his son later said that he never set foot in The Caryle again. However he soon found work in the The Stanhope Hotel's Rembrandt Room, located in another top hotel in New York. Feyer remained there for 12 years, until 1980. He spent his remaining two years of active performing at the Hideaway Room in the Waldorf-Astoria, another famous hotel in New York. The Stanhope Hotel, located at 995 Fifth Avenue in New York City, has 180 rooms and 70 suites on 16 floors. ... This article is about the hotel. ...

Feyer retired in December 1982, after the death of his wife. He remarried, and continued to appear at private parties and occasional hotel engagements, mostly as favours to friends. For many years, until no longer physically able to do so (in 1999), he played weekly at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he had been volunteering since 1961. The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City is a cancer treatment and research institution founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. ...

Feyer died just six days before his 93rd birthday, at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan's Upper East Side. He was survived by his son (who lives in San Francisco), and three grandsons. Lenox Hill Hospital, on Manhattans Upper East Side, is a 652-bed, fully accredited, acute care hospital and a major teaching affiliate of NYU Medical Center. ... Manhattan is a borough of New York City, New York, USA, coterminous with New York County. ... The Upper East Side at Sunset The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. ...

The Department of Music at Princeton University has a "George and Judith Feyer Practice Room" which was formally dedicated to their memory on 2nd June, 2003. Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States of America. ...

Recordings

Between 1953-1956 Feyer released a series of LPs on the VOX record label. The records were all similarly entitled "Echoes of...". The first record was "Echoes of Paris" and was a huge hit, leading to 12 others. The music consisted of popular songs and melodies, played by Feyer on the piano, in his own inimitable arrangements, with light rhythm and guitar accompaniment. A Vox Box featuring the three symphonies of Rachmaninoff Vox Records is a budget classical record label founded in 1945. ...

In 1957 Feyer released his only two records with orchestral accompaniment: one each of the songs of Cole Porter and Jerome Kern. Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter from Indiana. ... Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of popular music. ...

From 1958-1959 Feyer recorded four LPs for RCA, and in 1960 he recorded his first live LP "An Evening At The Café Carlyle", for the Cadence label. RCA, formerly an initialism for the Radio Corporation of America, is now a trademark owned by RCA Trademark Management S.A. [1], owned by Thomson SA. The trademark is used by two companies for products descended from that common ancestor: Thomson SA, which manufactures consumer electronics like RCA-branded televisions... Cadence Records was an American record company founded by Archie Bleyer (formerly musical director/orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey) in 1952. ...

From the early 1960s onwards Feyer recorded a series of LPs [including a second live LP] for Decca, who also reissued three of his VOX records. It has been suggested that Decca Music Group be merged into this article or section. ...

In 1969 Feyer recorded an LP for Kapp Records. And sometime after 1970 he recorded his third live LP, "At The Stanhope", which was available only from The Stanhope itself. Kapp Records was a record company started in 1955 by David Kapp, brother of Jack Kapp (who had set up American Decca Records in 1934). ...

Finally, in 1974, 1976, and 1978, Feyer's final three recordings were for Vanguard Records, and were called "The Essential George Gershwin", "... Cole Porter", and "... Jerome Kern". These three double-LPs are the only of Feyer's recordings to have been officially issued on CD. However the Jerome Kern CD is missing the six tracks from the LP which contained a continuous cello part. In addition the CD issue lacks all sections of the other tracks which had contained a cello part. The cello player was Evangeline Benedetti, a cellist with the New York Philharmonic since 1967. She has said that she knows nothing about why her parts were edited out of the CD issue of the recording. Vanguard Records was a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ...

Timeline

1908 - born 27 October

1932 - graduated from Budapest Conservatory of Music

1934 - trip to Barcelona, Spain [first time away from Budapest]

1934-1939 - toured Europe

1939 - returned to Hungary, but was moved to German factories in forced labour brigade

1945 - rescued from Bergen-Belsen by Allies, returned to Hungary to marry

1948 - left Hungary when the Russians came, and moved to Switzerland

1951 - settled in New York, began appearing at Gogi’s Plush Room within a few months

1951-1954 - appeared regularly at Delmonico Hotel, Park Avenue

1953 - first recording ["Echoes of Paris"] released

1955-1968 - appeared regularly at The Carlyle [in "Café Carlyle"]

1968-1980 - appeared regularly at The Stanhope

1978 - final recording ["The Essential Jerome Kern"] released

1980-1982 - appeared regularly at The Waldorf-Astoria [in "Hideaway Room"]

1982 - retired after first wife’s death, but continued to make occasional appearances

2001 - died 21 October

Complete Discography

VOX - “Echoes of” series [orded in sequence of 10" catalogue number]

Paris [1953, 10” VX 500] [1953, 1956, 12” VX 25.200] 10” and 12” are different performances. 10” has two tracks not on 12”; 12” has two tracks not on 10”

Vienna [1953, 10” VX 550] [1953, 1956, 12” VX 25.250] 10” has no tracks not on 12”; 12” has two tracks not on 10”

Italy [10” VX 620] [1953, 1956, 12” VX 25.320] 10” has no tracks not on 12”; 12” has two tracks not on 10”

Broadway [1954, 10” VX 650] [1954, 1956, 12” VX 25.350] 10” has two tracks not on 12”; 12” has three tracks not on 10”

Latin America [1954, 1956, 12” VX 25.370] 10” has no tracks not on 12”; 12” has two tracks not on 10”

Childhood [10” VX 710] [12” VX 25.410] 10” has no tracks not on 12”; 12” has four tracks not on 10”

More Echoes of Paris [10” VX 730] [1955, 1956, 12” VX 25.430] 10” has no tracks not on 12”; 12” has three tracks not on 10”

Hollywood [10” VX 800] [1955, 1956, 12” VX 25.400] [NB sides 1 and 2 reversed between 10” and 12”] 10” has no tracks not on 12”; 12” has one track not on 10”

Budapest [1955, 10” VX 850] [1955, 1956, 12” VX 25.450] 10” has no tracks not on 12”; 12” has two tracks not on 10”

Christmas [10” VX 860] [1955, 12” VX 25.010] [NB 10” tracks in different order] 10” has no tracks not on 12”; 12” has four tracks not on 10”

Continent [1957, 10” VX 880] [was there a 12”?] [one new track; all others are re-recordings of tracks which appear on previous records]

Spain [10” VX 910] [1956, 12” VX 25.070] 10” has no tracks not on 12”; 12” has two tracks not on 10”

My Fair Lady [12” VX 25.340]

Jerome Kern [1957, 12” VX 25.500] [was there a 10”?]

Cole Porter [1957, 10” VX 1270] [1957, 12” VX 25.510] 10” and 12” identical

The King and I & Carousel [1956, 10” VX 21.300] [1956, 12” PL 21.300] [NB 10” tracks in different order] King & I 10” missing “Something Wonderful” (from 12”); Carousel 10” missing “Soliloquy” and “Reprise” (from 12”)

This is Feyer [12” “Voxample” LP SFP-1] introduction to eight VOX Echoes LPs: Italy, Vienna, Christmas, Paris, Spain, Latin America, Budapest, Childhood [all tracks piano solo only (no rhythm accompaniment); not the performances used on the LPs]

RCA

South Pacific & Oklahoma! [1958, mono 12” LPM-1731]

Memories of Viennese Operettas [1958, mono 12” RD-27130 (UK) / LPM-1862 (US)]

Memories of Popular Operas [1958, stereo 12” LSP-1926]

Today’s Hits Tomorrow’s Melodies [1959, mono 12” LPM-2051]

Music for a Mellow Mood [mono 12” 12-track compilation CPM 119] [RCA Victor Record Club exclusive] [no original material; all tracks taken from previous two RCA LPs]

Cadence

An Evening at the Café Carlyle [1960, 12” stereo live Cadence LP CLP 25051]

DECCA series

I Still Like To Play French Songs The Best [stereo 12” DL 74333]

But Oh! Those Italian Melodies [mono 12” DL 4411]

Latin Songs Everybody Knows [stereo 12” DL 74420]

Golden Waltzes Everybody Knows [mono 12” DL 4455]

A Nightcap with George Feyer [post-1964, mono 12” DL 4625]

Piano Magic Hollywood [post-1965, stereo 12” DL 74647]

My Fair Lady [mono 12” DL 4804] appears to be a reissue of VOX 12” LP

The New Echoes of Paris [stereo 12” DL 74808]

Echoes of Christmas [mono 12” DI 74814 ??] appears to be a reissue of VOX 12” LP

Echoes of Love [post-1966, stereo 12” DL 74858]

Echoes of Romance [stereo 12” DL 74902]

Echoes of Childhood [enhanced for stereo 12” DL 74907] appears to be a reissue of VOX 12" LP

Kapp

Dancing In the Dark… My Way [1969, 12” stereo LP] Kapp KS-3611

Rembrandt

At the Stanhope [post-1970, Rembrandt Records live 12” LP, available only from The Stanhope 34845]

Echoes of Paris-Vienna-Italy: The best of three on one [Rembrandt Records 12” 34846] [no original material; compilation of tracks from three VOX LPs]

VANGUARD - “Essential” series [note discrepancy in sequence of release dates and LP & CD cataloue numbers]

George Gershwin [1974, 12” stereo double LP VSD 61/62, CD OVC 6002] both issues identical

Cole Porter [1976, 12” stereo double LP VSD 93/94, CD OVC 6014] both issues identical

Jerome Kern [rec. 1978, 12” stereo double LP VSD 87/88, CD OVC 6015] CD issue is missing the six tracks on the LP which contain a cello part. [There are further tracks on the LP which contain a minimal cello part, but these were included on the CD issue with the cello part edited out.]

References

Information on George Feyer: http://commanderbond.net/article/2810

http://www.spaceagepop.com/feyer.htm

For a picture of George Feyer with his wife Judith, taken in October 1947, go here: http://www.new-tzfat.com/gallery/family_album/rabbi_zevs_uncle_and_aunt_george_and_judith_feyer_oct_1947

Other biographical information taken from the backs of his LP recordings, and from the New York Times obituary [published Thursday, 25th October, 2001]. The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...