Raymond Lewenthal

Raymond Lewenthal, a colorful and imaginative explorer of forgotten Romantic piano repertory, died of a heart attack Monday night. He was 62 years old and lived in Hudson, N.Y. Mr. Lewenthal is especially remembered for helping to revive the difficult and arcane piano music of Charles-Valentin Alkan, but his restorative efforts were also devoted to other 19th-century composers - Busoni, Reinecke, Field, Henselt, Scharwenka, Thalberg and Anton Rubinstein. The Romantic Style The pianist was known for his strong technique and grand manner - crowd-pleasing qualities he applied often to his public performances of Liszt. Harold C. Schonberg of The New York Times, wrote of a 1976 performance of Alkan's ''Funeral March for a Parrot'' that when Mr. Lewenthal, ''cadaverous, tall and saturnine, came out wearing black and a black silk topper decorated with a mourning band, and led a procession of four singers and four desperately squealing oboists . . . that was the Romantic revival.'' A critic for The Times of London considered Mr. Lewenthal's Liszt performances ''in the big Romantic manner such as we now associate with a vanished age.'' Mr. Lewenthal was born in San Antonio of Russian-French parentage and grew up in Hollywood where he was a child actor in films until the age of 15. His piano education was both bicoastal and international, including stops in New York and Paris under teachers like Alfred Cortot, Lydia Cherkassky, Olga Samaroff and Guido Agosti. Assault Interrupts Career His career was interrupted and nearly ended in 1953 when he was assaulted in Central Park and suffered broken arms and hands. He stopped playing, traveled to Europe, studied there for three years and subsequently went to South America where he lived, often hand-to-mouth, for seven years. In 1964, he returned to the United States and resumed his career. Mr. Lewenthal's last major appearances were his concerts - five in five days - with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center in 1982. He was troubled by heart problems in later years and devoted much of his time to finishing and seeking a publisher for a large biography of his hero, Alkan. It is said to have occupied him for 25 years, and remains unpublished.