Ian Partridge
Encyclopedia
Ian Partridge CBE is a retired English
lyric tenor, whose repertoire ranged from Monteverdi
, Bach
and Handel
, the Elizabethan
lute songs, German, French and English songs, through to Schoenberg
, Weill
and Britten
, and on to contemporary works. He formed a renowned vocal-piano duo with his sister Jennifer Partridge, with whom he worked for over 50 years. While concentrating mainly on songs, oratorio
and lied
er, he also recorded opera
, and has an extensive discography. He is now a teacher and adjudicator, and conducts master classes in many countries.
. He was a chorister at New College, Oxford
1948-52, and a music scholar at Clifton College
. He studied at the Royal College of Music
from 1956, studying piano and voice. Leaving after a year because he engaged in paid employment, which was banned by the RCM, he transferred to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
, where his voice teachers were Norman Walker
and Roy Hickman; he also studied conducting under Aylmer Buesst
. During this period, he also appeared in the West End
production of John Osborne
's Luther
. Fron 1958 to 1962 he sang in the Westminster Cathedral Choir, where he worked on plainchant
with George Malcolm
. He also worked for some time as a piano accompanist. He took further instruction from Benjamin Britten
and Peter Pears
.
He made his debut in 1958 at Bexhill in Handel
's Messiah
, and commenced a solo singing career in 1962. He formed a renowned vocal-piano duo with his sister Jennifer Partridge, with whom he performed over 430 recitals over 52 years. On one occasion in Syria, the hall was sold out, until the audience discovered the performers were not The Partridge Family
.
Partridge appeared only once in opera, but at Covent Garden
, singing the role of Iopas in Berlioz
's Les Troyens
conducted by Sir Colin Davis
, which he later recorded.
In 1973, his recording of Schubert
's Die schöne Müllerin
, which was the first time the cycle had been recorded on a single 33rpm LP record, was voted Best Record by Record Review.
He sang the title role in the Thames Television
production of Benjamin Britten's Saint Nicolas, which won the 1977 Prix Italia
. With Pierre Boulez
, Partridge recorded Schoenberg
's Die Jakobsleiter
, Schumann
's Der Rose Pilgerfahrt and Stravinsky
's Le Rossignol
.
Ian Partridge has appeared in recital and concert in many countries. He collaborated with the actress Prunella Scales
in over 350 performances of "An Evening with Queen Victoria" all over the world, singing songs composed by Prince Albert. He has performed Walton
's Façade at the Concertgebouw
in Amsterdam
with the composer's widow Lady Walton.
He has been President of the Incorporated Society of Musicians
(ISM). He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE) in the 1992 New Year's Honours for services to music. He gave his farewell recital on 9 October 2008 at the Oxford Lieder Festival
.
He has conducted masterclasses on Lieder, English Song and Early Music, at Aldeburgh, Vancouver, Ravinia, Trondheim, Versailles and Helsinki. He has been a professor at the Royal Academy of Music
since 1996.
His voice appears on Vol. 5 of The Record of Singing
.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
lyric tenor, whose repertoire ranged from Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...
, Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
and Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
, the Elizabethan
Elizabethan era
The Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history of Queen Elizabeth I's reign . Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history...
lute songs, German, French and English songs, through to Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
, Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
and Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
, and on to contemporary works. He formed a renowned vocal-piano duo with his sister Jennifer Partridge, with whom he worked for over 50 years. While concentrating mainly on songs, oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
and lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
er, he also recorded opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, and has an extensive discography. He is now a teacher and adjudicator, and conducts master classes in many countries.
Biography
Ian Harold Partridge was born in 1938 in WimbledonWimbledon, London
Wimbledon is a district in the south west area of London, England, located south of Wandsworth, and east of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated within Greater London. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas...
. He was a chorister at New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
1948-52, and a music scholar at Clifton College
Clifton College
Clifton College is a co-educational independent school in Clifton, Bristol, England, founded in 1862. In its early years it was notable for emphasising science in the curriculum, and for being less concerned with social elitism, e.g. by admitting day-boys on equal terms and providing a dedicated...
. He studied at the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
from 1956, studying piano and voice. Leaving after a year because he engaged in paid employment, which was banned by the RCM, he transferred to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
, where his voice teachers were Norman Walker
Norman Walker (bass)
Norman Walker was an English bass singer, distinguished for his work in both opera and oratorio.- Early development :...
and Roy Hickman; he also studied conducting under Aylmer Buesst
Aylmer Buesst
Aylmer Buesst was an Australian conductor, teacher and scholar, who spent his career in the United Kingdom. He was mainly associated with opera and vocal music...
. During this period, he also appeared in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
production of John Osborne
John Osborne
John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....
's Luther
Luther (play)
Luther is a 1961 play by John Osborne that explored the forces that were involved in the life of Martin Luther, one of the instigators of the Protestant Reformation. Osborne was influenced by Erik Erikson's book, Young Man Luther, which had been published three years prior in 1958. In the play,...
. Fron 1958 to 1962 he sang in the Westminster Cathedral Choir, where he worked on plainchant
Plainsong
Plainsong is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church. Though the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Catholic Church did not split until long after the origin of plainchant, Byzantine chants are generally not classified as plainsong.Plainsong is monophonic, consisting of a...
with George Malcolm
George Malcolm (musician)
George Malcolm CBE was an English harpsichordist and conductor.Malcolm's first instrument was the piano, and his first teacher was a nun who recognised his talent and recommended him to the Royal College of Music. Malcolm went on to study at Balliol College, Oxford...
. He also worked for some time as a piano accompanist. He took further instruction from Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
and Peter Pears
Peter Pears
Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears CBE was an English tenor who was knighted in 1978. His career was closely associated with the composer Edward Benjamin Britten....
.
He made his debut in 1958 at Bexhill in Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
, and commenced a solo singing career in 1962. He formed a renowned vocal-piano duo with his sister Jennifer Partridge, with whom he performed over 430 recitals over 52 years. On one occasion in Syria, the hall was sold out, until the audience discovered the performers were not The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family is an American television sitcom about a widowed mother and her five children who embark on a music career. The series originally ran from September 25, 1970 until August 31, 1974, the last new episode airing on March 23, 1974, on the ABC network, as part of a Friday-night lineup...
.
Partridge appeared only once in opera, but at Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, singing the role of Iopas in Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
's Les Troyens
Les Troyens
Les Troyens is a French opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself, based on Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid...
conducted by Sir Colin Davis
Colin Davis
Sir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett....
, which he later recorded.
In 1973, his recording of Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Die schöne Müllerin
Die schöne Müllerin
Die schöne Müllerin , is a song cycle by Franz Schubert on poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is the earliest extended song cycle to be widely performed. The work is considered one of Schubert's most important, and it is widely performed and recorded....
, which was the first time the cycle had been recorded on a single 33rpm LP record, was voted Best Record by Record Review.
He sang the title role in the Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
production of Benjamin Britten's Saint Nicolas, which won the 1977 Prix Italia
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international Italian television, radio-broadcasting and Website award. It was established in 1948 by RAI - Radiotelevisione Italiana in Capri...
. With Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, Partridge recorded Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
's Die Jakobsleiter
Die Jakobsleiter
Die Jakobsleiter is an oratorio by Arnold Schoenberg that marks his transition from a contextual or free atonality to the twelve-tone technique anticipated in the oratorio's use of hexachords...
, Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
's Der Rose Pilgerfahrt and Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's Le Rossignol
The Nightingale (opera)
The Nightingale is a Russian conte lyrique in three acts by Igor Stravinsky. It is generally known by its French name...
.
Ian Partridge has appeared in recital and concert in many countries. He collaborated with the actress Prunella Scales
Prunella Scales
Prunella Scales CBE is an English actress, known for her role as Basil Fawlty's long-suffering wife in the British comedy Fawlty Towers and her award-nominated role as Queen Elizabeth II in the British film A Question of Attribution.-Career:Throughout her long career, Scales has usually been cast...
in over 350 performances of "An Evening with Queen Victoria" all over the world, singing songs composed by Prince Albert. He has performed Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
's Façade at the Concertgebouw
Concertgebouw
The Concertgebouw is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" literally translates into English as "concert building"...
in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
with the composer's widow Lady Walton.
He has been President of the Incorporated Society of Musicians
Incorporated Society of Musicians
Incorporated Society of Musicians is the UK's professional body for musicians. It champions the importance of music and protects the rights of those working within music through a range of services, campaigns, support and practical advice...
(ISM). He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(CBE) in the 1992 New Year's Honours for services to music. He gave his farewell recital on 9 October 2008 at the Oxford Lieder Festival
Oxford Lieder Festival
The Oxford Lieder Festival, founded in 2001 by Sholto Kynoch, is the United Kingdom's largest art song festival. Oxford Lieder is now a registered charity and in addition to the annual festival which is usually in October, there are regular Song Evenings throughout the year, and a growing programme...
.
He has conducted masterclasses on Lieder, English Song and Early Music, at Aldeburgh, Vancouver, Ravinia, Trondheim, Versailles and Helsinki. He has been a professor at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
since 1996.
His voice appears on Vol. 5 of The Record of Singing
The Record of Singing
The Record of Singing is a compilation of classical-music singing from the first half of the 20th century, the era of the 78-rpm record.It was issued on LP by EMI, successor to the British company His Master's Voice — perhaps the leading organization in the early history of audio recording.The...
.