Pristine Classical Recorded Music

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

 

 

Schumann: Piano Concerto

notes from Wikipedia

 

The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54, is a famous Romantic concerto by Robert Schumann, completed in 1845.

Schumann had begun several piano concerti before this one: In 1828, he had begun one in E-flat major; from 1829-31 he worked on one in F major, and in 1839, he wrote one movement of a concerto in D minor. None of these works was completed.

In 1841, Schumann wrote a fantasy for piano and orchestra, his Phantasie. His pianist wife Clara urged him to expand this piece into a full piano concerto. In 1845 he added the intermezzo and finale to make the completed work. It turned out to be the only piano concerto Schumann wrote.

The work premiered in Leipzig on 1 January 1846 with Clara playing the solo part. Ferdinand Hiller, the work's dedicatee, conducted.

The work might have been used as a model by Edvard Grieg in composing his own Piano Concerto, also in A minor. Grieg's concerto, like Schumann's, even employs a single powerful orchestral chord at its introduction before the piano's entrance.

Following this concerto, Schumann wrote two other pieces for piano and orchestra: the Introduction and Allegro Appassionato in G major (Op. 92), and the Introduction and Allegro Concertante in D minor (Op. 134).

 

Instrumentation

The concerto is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.

 

Structure

The piece, as marked in the score, is in three movements:

1. Allegro affettuoso (A minor)
2. Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso (F major)
3. Allegro vivace (A major)

There is no break between these last two movements (attacca).

Schumann preferred that the movements be listed in concert programs as only two movements:

1. Allegro affettuoso
2. Andantino and Rondo

The three movement listing is the more common form used.

 

Allegro affettuoso

The piece starts with a energetic strike by strings and timpani, followed by a fierce, descending attack by the piano. The introduction of the first theme is performed by the oboe along with wind instruments. The theme is then given to the soloist. Schumann provides great variety with this theme. He first offers it in the A minor key of the piece, then we hear it again in major, and we can also hear small snatches of the tune in a very slow, A flat section. The clarinet is often used against the piano in this movement. Toward the end of the movement, the piano launches into a long cadenza before the orchestra joins in with one more melody and builds for the exciting finish.

 

Intermezzo

This movement is keyed in F major. The piano and strings open up the piece with a small, delicate tune, which is heard throughout the movement before the cellos and later the other strings finally take the main theme, with the piano mainly used as accompaniment. The movement closes with small glimpses of the first movement's theme before moving straight into the third movement.

 

Allegro vivace

The movement opens with a huge run up the strings while the piano takes the main, A major theme. Schumann shows great color and variety in this movement. The tune is regal, and the strings are noble. Though it is in 3/4 timing, Schumann manipulates it so that the time signature is often ambiguous. The piece finishes with a restating of the previous material before finally launching into an exciting finale, and ending with a long timpani roll and a huge chord from the orchestra.

 

 

Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_(Schumann)

 

 

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