DORSEY WHITTINGTON (1899-1969)
American pianist

Dorsey Whittington, an American pianist known as the "Poet of the Piano" studied with Carl Friedberg (1872-1955) and Ernest Hutcheson (1871-1951) at the Institute of Musical Arts in New York, a school that was to become the world renowned Juilliard School of Music.

The Prague newspaper Ceskolovenska Republika had this to say about him: "Whittington lived up to the reputation that had preceded him. The heroic style, beautiful shading and infectious rhythms of his playing in addition to his unsurpassable tone quality made us forget his tremendous technic which he uses only as a means to an end." The Berlin Tageblatt described his as having "Mature pianistic equipment and an innately rich musical instinct."

Exactly why a pianist of the magnitude of Dorsey Whittington is so little known, and why there are so few examples of his art, is a mystery to me.  His daughter, who posted the three samples you will hear below, has said that the majority of his recorded output is on reel-to-reel tape, currently rotting in Costa Rica.  In my opinion, every effort must be made to rescue these recordings and have them made available.  What a gift to the musical world that would be.

Chopin Nocturne in D♭ major, Op 27 n2 (Lento sostenuto)