William Kapell (September 20, 1922 – October 29, 1953) was an American pianist. September 20 is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years). ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Pianist Claudio Arrau, Carnegie Hall, 1954. ...

The critic Harold Schonberg once considered Kapell the most promising American pianist of the post-World War II generation. Unfortunately, Kapell's brilliant career was cut short when he died at the age of thirty-one in an airplane crash. His style was direct, clear, and energetic; his technique impeccable; and his repertoire eclectic and adventurous. Harold Charles Schonberg (November 29, 1915 - July 26, 2003) was a American music critic and journalist, most notably for the New York Times between 1960 and 1980. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... An aviation accident (as per the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board definition) is an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person... Eclecticism is an approach to thought that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions or conclusions, but instead draws upon multiple theories to gain complementary insights into phenomena, or applies only certain theories in particular cases. ...

Kapell was born in New York City of Russian Jewish descent. There he studied with Dorothea Anderson La Follette, then with Olga Samaroff in Philadelphia, and at the Juilliard School. Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area... Olga Samaroff (August 8, 1880 – May 17, 1948) was a pianist, music critic, and teacher. ... Nickname: City of Brotherly Love, Philly, the Quaker City Motto: Philadelphia maneto (Let brotherly love continue) Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701 Mayor John F. Street (D) Area    - City 369. ... The Juilliard School is one of the worlds premiere performing arts conservatory located in New York City, it is informally identified as simply Juilliard, and trains in the fields of Dance, Drama, and Music. ...

He won his first competition when he was 10; the prize was a turkey dinner with the pianist Jose Iturbi. In 1941 he won the Philadelphia Orchestra's youth competition and the Naumberg Award. The Naumberg Foundation then sponsored his New York début which brought him the Town Hall Award for the year's outstanding concert by a musician under 30. Jose Iturbi photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1933 José Iturbi (born 28 November 1895 in Valencia, Spain; died 28 June 1980 in Los Angeles) was a Spanish conductor and pianist. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ... The Philadelphia Orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is one of the Big Five symphony orchestras in the United States and usually considered among the finest in the world. ...

He was a serious artist from the beginning -- practicing up to eight hours a day. He achieved fame in the next few years, most especially by his performances of Khachaturian's Piano Concerto. Kapell played it so convincingly that his recording became an enormous hit. Aram Ilich Khachaturian (Armenian: Արամ Խաչատրյան, Russian: Аpaм Ильич Xaчaтypян) (June 6, 1903 – May 1, 1978) was a composer of classical music. ... A piano concerto is a concerto for solo piano and orchestra. ...

By the late 1940s, Kapell had toured the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia to immense acclaim and was widely considered the most brilliant and audacious of young American pianists. In 1947, he made a happy marriage to the former Rebecca Anna Lou Melson, with whom he had two children. With maturity, a new sense of spaciousness made itself manifest in Kapell's pianism and he began to set aside time for work with the artists he most admired, studying with Artur Schnabel and playing with Pablo Casals and Rudolf Serkin. Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... Artur Schnabel (April 17, 1882 – August 15, 1951) was a classical pianist, who also composed and taught. ... Casals redirects here. ... Rudolf Serkin (March 28, 1903 – May 8, 1991) was an Austrian pianist. ...

He spent his last summer in Australia, where he played 37 concerts in 14 weeks, appearing not only in Sydney and Melbourne but all over the continent -- in places with names like Bendigo, Shepparton, Albury, Horsham and Geelong. It was in Geelong that Kapell played his last performance on October 22 shortly before setting off on his doomed return flight to the United States. The plane hit Kings Mountain, south of San Francisco, on the morning of October 29, 1953; all of the crew and passengers were killed instantly. This is about the city of Sydney in Australia. ... The City of Melbournes coat of arms The central business district of Melbourne, viewed from the north Alternate meanings: Melbourne (disambiguation) Melbourne is the capital and largest city of the state of Victoria, and the second largest city in Australia, with a population of 52,117 in the Central... - - Nickname: City by the Bay Geography Area: 1,240 km² Coordinates: Time Zone UTC +10:00 Population (2003) 200,067 Among Australian cities: Density: persons/km² Political Mayor: Shane Dowling Governing body: City of Greater Geelong Geelong is a port city of 200,067 people (2003 census) located on Corio... October 22 is the 295th day of the year (296th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 70 days remaining. ... A San Mateo County, California community, Kings Mountain is located along State Route 35 (Skyline Boulevard) between Skeggs Point and Pise Mountain. ... Nickname: The City by the Bay; Fog City; The City Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California Coordinates: Country United States of America State California City-County San Francisco  - Mayor Gavin Newsom Area    - City  47 sq mi (122 km²)  - Land  46. ... October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ...

There was some tendency to typecast Kapell as a performer of flashy repertory; his technique was exceptional, but he was a versatile pianist, and could also give memorably graceful performances of Mozart. The word typecasting (past participle typecast) can mean more than one thing: typecasting (programming) typecasting (acting) in acting This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was one of the most significant and influential of all composers of Western classical music. ...

And the fascination with this powerful musician continues. Pianists such as Eugene Istomin, Gary Graffman, Leon Fleisher and Van Cliburn, and classical-fusion jazz pianist Suezenne Fordham, among others, have acknowledged Kapell's influence, and tapes of "live" performances still circulate among collectors. Kapell's widow -- now Anna Lou Dehavenon, a social anthropologist in New York -- deserves much of the credit for helping to keep her husband's name alive. Eugene George Istomin (November 26, 1925 – October 10, 2003) was an American pianist born in New York City of Russian-Jewish parents. ... Gary Graffman (born 14 October 1928) is an American pianist specializing in classical and symphonic works. ... Leon Fleisher Leon Fleisher (born July 23, 1928) is an American pianist and conductor. ... Cliburn playing in the final round of the First International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr. ... Cultural anthropology, also called social anthropology or socio-cultural anthropology, is one of four commonly recognized fields of anthropology, the holistic study of humanity. ...

A nine-disc survey on RCA contains Kapell's Chopin mazurkas and sonatas, and Sergei Rachmaninoff and Aram Khatchaturian concertos. It also has many lesser-known items, some of them first releases, including Shostakovich preludes, Scarlatti sonatas, and the Copland Piano Sonata. The Chopin Sonata no. 2 is profound, moody, and complex; the mazurkas are brought to life with subtle accents. The set sold remarkably well throughout the world and brought Kapell's work to a new audience. RCAs logo as seen today on many products. ... Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin (French: Frédéric François Chopin; English: IPA: or ; French: ) (March 1, 1810[1] â€“ October 17, 1849) was a Polish pianist and composer of the Romantic era. ... The mazurka (Polish: mazurek, probably named after Polands Masuria district) is a Polish folk dance in triple metre with a lively tempo, containing a heavy accent on the third or second beat. ... A piano sonata is a sonata written for unaccompanied piano. ... Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (Russian: , Sergej Vasil’evič Rachmaninov, 1 April 1873 (N.S.) or 20 March 1873 (O.S.) – 28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. ... Aram Ilich Khachaturian (Armenian: Արամ Խաչատրյան, Russian: Аpaм Ильич Xaчaтypян) (June 6, 1903 – May 1, 1978) was a composer of classical music. ... A piano concerto is a concerto for solo piano and orchestra. ... Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich   (Russian: , Dmitrij Dmitrievič Å ostakovič) (September 25 [O.S. September 12] 1906–August 9, 1975) was a Russian composer of the Soviet period. ... A prelude is a short piece of music, usually in no particular internal form, which may serve as an introduction to succeeding movements of a work that are usually longer and more complex. ... Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (October 26, 1685 – July 23, 1757) was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in Spain and Portugal. ... Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an American composer of concert and film music. ... Frédéric Chopin composed his Piano Sonata No. ...

VAI 1027 contains broadcast recordings of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 and the Khatchaturian Piano Concerto. Arbiter 108 features part of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 and the Shostakovich Concerto no. 1, and it includes Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, which also appears in the RCA set, as well as on VAI 1048, the last from an Australian recital of 21 July 1953. Of these three, the version on Arbiter (from 1951) is the most colorful and varied, whereas the RCA (1953) is steadier and sustains a dreamlike mood, and the VAI is wild, daring, and free. All three are live recordings, but RCA’s has by far the clearest sound. It is fascinating to hear three such different interpretations of this piece, all recognizably by the same person. The beginning of the opening theme of the The Piano Concerto No. ... Ludwig van Beethovens Piano Concerto no. ... Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (Моде́ст Петро́вич Му́соргский) (March 21, 1839 – March 28, 1881; sometimes spelt Modeste Moussorgsky), was an innovative Russian composer famed for his colourful... Mussorgsky in 1874 Pictures at an Exhibition (Russian: , Kartínki s výstavki – Vospominániye o Víktore Gártmane, Pictures from an Exhibition – a Remembrance of Viktor Hartmann) is a famous suite of ten piano pieces composed by Modest Mussorgsky in 1874. ... July 21 is the 202nd day (203rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 163 days remaining. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ...

See also

British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines Flight 304 - The passenger flight that crashed, with Kapell as one of the victims. British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines (BCPA) Flight 304 was a Douglas DC-6, named Resolution and registered VH-BPE, on a flight from Sydney to San Francisco, with scheduled stops at Nadi (Fiji), Canton Island, and Honolulu. ...

External links

• Site dedicated to Kapell
• Article about Kapell by Michael Kimmelman
• Notable California Aviation Disasters Website listing significant aviation accidents in California