Performance and recording career
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 You may hear Ivan Davis playing Franz Liszt's:Étude No. 3 in D-flat major (Un sospiro) La Campanella Liebestraum No. 3 Mephisto Waltz No. 1 Funerailles Étude No. 2 in F minor (La leggierezza) Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 in D-flat major in 1961 Here on archive.org |
He debuted at New York City's Town Hall in 1959.[7] Davis made his international debut at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. In 1960, he signed with CBS Records and began a 60 concert cross-country tour.[5] He toured the world with several major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Spanish National Orchestra. He performed under such world-famous conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy and Lorin Maazel. He received the Handel Medallion from New York City for contributions to the city's cultural life.[8] He recorded for London Records in the 1970s. From 1965, Davis was a professor of music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.[8] According to Grove Music Online: "His Queen Elizabeth Hall début recital in London in 1968 caused a sensation, and has become a collector's item on record. Further recordings, largely of 19th-century showpieces, have confirmed his exceptional exuberance and technical brilliance, most notably a Gottschalk recital of true virtuoso flair."[9] The American classical pianist Richard Kastle was his student for more than three years.[10]
