Pristine Classical Recorded Music

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Noel Mewton-Wood

biographical notes from Wikipedia, links to more information

 

Noel Mewton-Wood (November 20, 1922 – December 5, 1953) was an Australian-born concert pianist who achieved some fame during his short life.

Born in Melbourne, he studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium until the age of fourteen. After further studies at London's Royal Academy of Music, Mewton-Wood spent time with Artur Schnabel in Italy.

In March 1940 he returned to London for his debut performance at Queen's Hall, performing Beethoven's third piano concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham. He later performed in France, Germany, South Africa, Poland, Turkey, and Australia.

At the age of thirty-one, Mewton-Wood committed suicide by drinking prussic acid, apparently blaming himself for the death of a friend. The notes written by a friend of Mewton-Wood, John Amis, for the reissue of the Bliss Concerto recording, indicate that Mewton-Wood was gay and was depressed by the recent death of his lover.

Mewton-Wood's The Times obituary of December 7, 1953 described his playing style at his debut performance:

At once his remarkable control and his musicianship were apparent: the ascending scales in octaves, with which the pianist first enters, thundered out with whirlwind power, but he could summon beautiful cantabile tone for the slow movement and the phrasing of the rondo theme was admirably neat for all the rapidity of the tempo; a true understanding of the relationship in concerto between soloist and orchestra, and of the soloist's part in ensemble, betokened the musician, the potential chamber performer.

In addition to Beethoven, Mewton-Wood's repertoire included:

• Tchaikovsky's three piano concertos, G major sonata, and Concert Fantasy;
• Busoni's Fantasia contrappuntistica and Piano Concerto;
• Sir Arthur Bliss's Piano Concerto (as Mewton-Wood was an exponent of this piece, Bliss wrote him a piano sonata);
• Tippett's song cycle The Heart's Assurance;
• Hindemith's Ludus tonalis;
• and works by Britten, Schubert, Liszt, Mahler, Schumann, and Bartók.

He also composed chamber music, a piano concerto, ballet music, and music for the 1944 film Tawny Pippit.

Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Mewton-Wood

See also notes on Mewton-Wood at:

• Australian Dictionary of Biography
• Metafilter blog discussion
• Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive

 

 

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 2

notes from Wikipedia

 

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 2 in G major, Op. 44, was written in 1879-1880 and dedicated to Nikolai Rubinstein. Nikolai Rubinstein was never destined to play it, however, as he died in March 1881. The premiere performance took place in New York, on 12 November 1881. The soloist was Madeline Schiller, and Theodore Thomas conducted the New York Philharmonic. The first Russian performance was in Moscow in May 1882, conducted by Anton Rubinstein with Tchaikovsky's pupil, Sergei Taneyev, at the piano.

By 1879 the First Piano Concerto was becoming increasingly popular. Nikolai Rubinstein had likewise made amends by learning and performing the work, which added that much more to its popularity. Tchaikovsky felt compelled to reciprocate. He started composing a new piano concerto in October while staying with his sister in Kamenka, writing his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, "I want to dedicate it to N.G. Rubinstein in recognition of his magnificent playing of my First Concerto and of my Sonata, which left me in utter rapture after he performed it for me in Moscow."

The writing went quickly. By the following March, Tchaikovsky had completed the concerto and orchestrated it. Still, he was concerned about Rubinstein's reaction, writing von Meck, "I tremble at the thought of the criticisms I may again hear from Nikolai Grigoryevich, to whom this concerto is dedicated. Still, even if once more he does criticise yet nevertheless goes on to perform it brilliantly as with the First Concerto, I won't mind. It would be nice, though, if on this occasion the period between the criticism and the performance were shorter. In the meantime I am very pleased and self-satisfied about this concerto, but what lies ahead -- I cannot say."

The composer need not have worried. Rubinstein's reaction was this time understandably cautious. He suggested tactfully that perhaps the solo part was episodic, too much engaged in dialogue with the orchestra than standing in the foreground, but adding, "... as I say all this, having scarcely played the concerto once through, perhaps I am wrong." Tchaikovsky rejected Rubinstein's criticism, but without any rancour whatsoever. In fact, when Tchaikovsky received news of Rubinstein's death in March 1881, he was devastated and left immediately from Paris to attend the funeral. The first Russian performance was entrusted to Tchaikovsky's friend and former pupil Sergei Taneyev, but the concerto had its world premiere in November 1881 in New York.

 

Instrumentation

The work is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B-flat and A, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in D, timpani, solo piano, and strings. Notable is the absence of trombones and tuba.

 

Structure

The piano concerto consists of three movements:

• Allegro brillante e molto vivace
• Andante non troppo
• Allegro con fuoco

The second movement contains prominent solos for the violin and cello, making the work in effect a concerto for piano trio and orchestra briefly, though an edition by Alexander Siloti was once often played which removed large sections of the work, including those solos.

Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._2_(Tchaikovsky)