John Pfeiffer
Encyclopedia
John "Jack" Pfeiffer was a classical
recording producer.
and Bethany College
in Lindsborg, Kansas. After naval service in World War II, he moved to New York, where he attended Columbia University
and worked as a jazz pianist before joining RCA Records
as a design engineer in 1949. Pfeiffer was best known as a producer of classical music. His reissues of the complete recordings of Arturo Toscanini
, Sergei Rachmaninoff
and Jascha Heifetz
were critically praised and won several awards. The Heifetz Collection was a nominee for a Grammy award
in the historical category. Pfeiffer also recorded contemporary artists, including the mezzo-sopranos Marilyn Horne
and Frederica von Stade
, and Xiang-Dong Kong
, a young Chinese pianist. Pfeiffer also produced recordings by the pianists Vladimir Horowitz
, Arthur Rubinstein
and Van Cliburn
, the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska
, and the soprano Leontyne Price
. In addition to Toscanini, Pfeiffer worked with Fritz Reiner
, Leopold Stokowski
, Eugene Ormandy
and Charles Munch
, and produced their initial "Living Stereo" recordings.
In addition to his recording work, Mr. Pfeiffer was the audio producer for several televised classical music programs, including "Heifetz on Television," for CBS
; "Horowitz Live," for NBC
; the White House concerts by Horowitz, the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
and the soprano Leontyne Price, as well as installments of "Live From Lincoln Center" and "Live From The Met."
Pfeiffer also helped RCA develop stereo and quadraphonic
recording techniques and coordinate their adoption of digital recording. In addition to this, he composed one LP of early electronic music
called "Electronomusic" in 1968, which has become a collector's item. The instruments used on his 1968 LP are his own inventions, and include an Inharmonic Side-Band, Contraformer, Programmer, Sines, Parametric Blocks, Metric Transperformer, Alphormer, Set, Duotonic Transform, Sequential Sines and an Ordered Simpliformer. It is a very avant-garde record in the tradition of Morton Subotnick
and Karlheinz Stockhausen
.
Pfeiffer died at the age of 75 in Manhattan from a heart attack.
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
recording producer.
Life and career
Born in Tucson, Arizona, Pfeiffer studied music and engineering at the University of ArizonaUniversity of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
and Bethany College
Bethany College (Kansas)
Bethany College is a small liberal arts college located in Lindsborg, Kansas and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America . The college's mission is to educate, develop and challenge individuals to reach for truth and excellence as they lead loves of faith, learning and service...
in Lindsborg, Kansas. After naval service in World War II, he moved to New York, where he attended Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and worked as a jazz pianist before joining RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
as a design engineer in 1949. Pfeiffer was best known as a producer of classical music. His reissues of the complete recordings of Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
, Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
and Jascha Heifetz
Jascha Heifetz
Jascha Heifetz was a violinist, born in Vilnius, then Russian Empire, now Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.- Early life :...
were critically praised and won several awards. The Heifetz Collection was a nominee for a Grammy award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
in the historical category. Pfeiffer also recorded contemporary artists, including the mezzo-sopranos Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring a large sound, beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages....
and Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade is an American mezzo-soprano. Born in Somerville, New Jersey, she acquired the nickname "Flicka" in her childhood. Von Stade attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City. She made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1970 and in 1971 appeared as Cherubino in The...
, and Xiang-Dong Kong
Xiang-Dong Kong
Xiang-Dong Kong is a Chinese pianist. He was one of the young musicians featured in From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China....
, a young Chinese pianist. Pfeiffer also produced recordings by the pianists Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...
, Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...
and Van Cliburn
Van Cliburn
Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at age 23, when he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War....
, the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska
Wanda Landowska
Wanda Landowska was a Polish harpsichordist whose performances, teaching, recordings and writings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century...
, and the soprano Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in the Deep South, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.One critic characterized Price's voice as "vibrant",...
. In addition to Toscanini, Pfeiffer worked with Fritz Reiner
Fritz Reiner
Frederick Martin “Fritz” Reiner was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century.-Biography:...
, Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
, Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
and Charles Munch
Charles Munch
Charles Munch may refer to:*Charles Munch , American artist*Charles Munch , orchestral conductorSee also:*Charles Munch discography, recordings of Munch, the conductor...
, and produced their initial "Living Stereo" recordings.
In addition to his recording work, Mr. Pfeiffer was the audio producer for several televised classical music programs, including "Heifetz on Television," for CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
; "Horowitz Live," for NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
; the White House concerts by Horowitz, the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
and the soprano Leontyne Price, as well as installments of "Live From Lincoln Center" and "Live From The Met."
Pfeiffer also helped RCA develop stereo and quadraphonic
Quadraphonic
Quadraphonic sound – the most widely used early term for what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of the listening space, reproducing signals that are independent of one another...
recording techniques and coordinate their adoption of digital recording. In addition to this, he composed one LP of early electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
called "Electronomusic" in 1968, which has become a collector's item. The instruments used on his 1968 LP are his own inventions, and include an Inharmonic Side-Band, Contraformer, Programmer, Sines, Parametric Blocks, Metric Transperformer, Alphormer, Set, Duotonic Transform, Sequential Sines and an Ordered Simpliformer. It is a very avant-garde record in the tradition of Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch...
and Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
.
Pfeiffer died at the age of 75 in Manhattan from a heart attack.
Production
- Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 (LP, Mono) RCA Red Seal 1958
- Violin Concerto In D Minor, Op. 47 (LP) RCA Victor 1960
- HeifetzHeifetzHeifetz is a Jewish surname from Belarus and Lithuania. It derives from Hebrew חפץ . It is also spelled Chafets, Chaffetz, Chaifetz, Chofets. It may refer to:* Jascha Heifetz, Lithuanian-born violinist...
, PrimroseWilliam PrimroseWilliam Primrose CBE was a Scottish violist and teacher.-Biography:Primrose was born in Glasgow and studied violin initially. In 1919 he moved to study at the then Guildhall School of Music in London. On the urging of the accompanist Ivor Newton, Primrose moved to Belgium to study under Eugène...
& Piatigorsky (Living StereoRCA VictrolaRCA Victrola was a budget label introduced by RCA Victor in the early 1960s to reissue classical recordings originally issued on the RCA Victor "Red Seal" label. The name "Victrola" came from the early console phonographs marketed by the Victor Talking Machine Company...
LP LSC-2563) RCA Red Seal 1961 - HeifetzHeifetzHeifetz is a Jewish surname from Belarus and Lithuania. It derives from Hebrew חפץ . It is also spelled Chafets, Chaffetz, Chaifetz, Chofets. It may refer to:* Jascha Heifetz, Lithuanian-born violinist...
& Piatigorsky (Living Stereo LP LSC-3009) RCA Red Seal 1968 - Golden Jubilee Concert 1978 - Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 (LP) RCA Red Seal 1978
- Bartok Concerto For Orchestra (LP) RCA Red Seal 1979
- The Ravel Album (LP) RCA Schallplatten GmbH 1979
- Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 (LP) RCA Red Seal 1983
- Horowitz Plays Scriabin (CD) RCA Victor Gold Seal 1989
- Preludes - Complete (CD, Album) RCA Gold Seal 1990
- Violin Concertos (CD, Comp) RCA Victor 1993
- Rediscovered - Liszt Recital (CD) RCA Red Seal 2004
Appears on
- Concerto No. 1, In D Minor, Op. 15 (LP, Mono) RCA Victor Red Seal 1959
- Snowflakes Are Dancing (LP, RE, RM) RCA Red Seal 1982
- Sonatas And Partitas (2xCD, Comp, Mono, RM) RCA Victor Gold Seal 1994
- Recital 1 For Cathy / Folk Songs (CD) BMG Classics 1995
- Gaîté Parisienne • La Boutique Fantasque (CD, RE, RM) Musical Heritage Society 1997
Tribute albums
- The Age of Living Stereo: A Tribute to John Pfeiffer - Martial Singher (Performer), Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Hector Berlioz (Composer), Johannes Brahms (Composer), Claude Debussy (Composer), Leo Delibes (Composer), Morton Gould (Composer), Franz Liszt (Composer), Felix Mendelssohn (Composer), Jacques Offenbach (Composer), Camille Saint-Saens (Composer), Richard Strauss (Composer), Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (Composer), Arthur Fiedler (Conductor), Charles Münch (Conductor), Fritz Reiner (Conductor), G. Wallace Woodworth (Conductor), Kiril Kondrashin (Conductor), Leopold Stokowski (Conductor), Pierre Monteux (Conductor)