Leonard Borwick
Encyclopedia
Leonard Borwick was an English concert pianist
especially associated with the music of Robert Schumann
and Johannes Brahms
.
, Essex
, of a Staffordshire family, Leonard Borwick studied piano under Henry R. Bird, and violin and viola under Alfred Gibson until the age of 16. He then went to study piano under Clara Schumann
at the Hoch Conservatory
, Frankfurt, and also composition under Bernhard Scholz
and Iwan Knorr
, and violin and viola under Fritz Basserman. During the later 1880s, while on leave from Clara Schumann's school, Borwick had met the baritone Harry Plunket Greene
while playing one evening at Arthur Chappell's house in London. Greene had been at Clifton College
with Borwick's brother, and a friendship grew up between them. He made his debut at the Museum concerts in Frankfurt in Beethoven
's "Emperor" concerto
in November 1889, and in the same month at Strasbourg
under the direction of Franz Stockhausen
(a pupil of Alkan
) in that concerto and with pieces by Chopin
(a Nocturne) and Liszt
(the Paganini Études).
concert, in Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor
. He performed it again in London on June 12, and on 17 June in a concert for Hans Richter
he played a Brahms Rhapsody, sharing the platform with Marie Fillunger
(1850–1930), lieder singer and intimate of the Schumann-Joachim circle. He also played the Brahms D minor concerto
, which George Bernard Shaw
called 'a hash of bits and scraps with plenty of thickening in the pianoforte part, which Mr Leonard Borwick played with the enthusiasm of youth in a style technically admirable'. Shaw recommended that he should embark on recitals.
On 20 September he performed a piano quartet of Brahms, and in November 1890 he performed both the quartet, and the Die Junge Nonne and Nacht und Traume with Fillunger, at Windsor
for a royal concert. He has been described as 'Queen Victoria's favourite pianist'. By December, Shaw described him as 'a finished pupil ... his quick musical feeling and diligently-earned technical accomplishment entitle him to take his place with credit among our foremost concert-players'. In March 1891 he played a Bach concerto for two pianos with Ilona Eibenschütz
(a Clara Schumann pupil) at a Bach Choir concert. That autumn he played at Windsor again, with the violinist Emily Shinner-Liddell (a Joachim pupil). Clara Schumann's other famous British pupil Fanny Davies
was at that time also beginning her career in London.
in Vienna
in 1891. Brahms himself was at this concert, and wrote to Clara Schumann
that her pupil's playing had contained all the fire and passion and technical ability the composer had hoped for in his most sanguine moments. From this time on Borwick became closely associated with the music of Brahms, and with the English work of Brahms's friend and chief interpreter, the violinist Joseph Joachim
. Clara Schumann wrote to Professor Bernuth in Hamburg to recommend Borwick as 'probably her finest pupil: I never heard the A minor concerto of Schumann nor the D minor of Brahms played better.'
, and in chamber concerts with the Joachim Quartet. Shaw thought his playing of Chopin's Funeral March Sonata in October was excellent, but disliked Borwick's attempts to 'sentimentalize and prettify' Beethoven. In February 1894 at the popular concerts, in the late B flat sonata, D. 960
of Schubert
, and in Schumann pieces, he seemed to be 'dreaming about the pieces rather than thinking about them'. When Borwick came to the platform, he sat meditatively before the keyboard for some moments before acknowledging the audience, and when playing he became so absorbed that he forgot the audience. (Once, playing a false last note, he angrily banged the correct note until the audience's laughter reminded him that he was actually in concert.)
In March 1894 the Philharmonic Society opened its season, moving to the Queen's Hall. Borwick played the Beethoven Emperor Concerto. Shaw found him blameless but unmemorable: perhaps it was overshadowed by the English premiere of Tchaikovsky
's Pathetique Symphony
, which Sir Alexander Mackenzie
conducted on the same occasion. However, Borwick's warmth and colour were appreciated by the Philharmonic, who asked him back repeatedly, and Herman Klein
felt that at last the dry days of Arabella Goddard
and her feux d'artifice were at an end. A Chopin B flat minor Sonata given in June was received with large enthusiasm at St James's Hall, together with works of Saint-Saëns, Schumann, Liszt and Mendelssohn. In July 1894 he gave two London solo evenings with Emily Shinner and Marie Fillunger at the Queen's Hall in recital of works by Brahms and Schumann.
Specializing in lieder of Franz Schubert
, Schumann and Brahms, but performing songs of all kinds, they were pioneering the themed recital (usually about 90 minutes). On 11 January 1895 Borwick and Plunket Greene gave the first complete performance of Schumann's Dichterliebe
ever heard in England, at St James' Hall. Borwick always accompanied without sheet music. Plunket Greene was the original performer of many of Arthur Somervell
's songs (and those of Hubert Parry
and Charles Villiers Stanford
), and Borwick and the composer gave the first performance of Somervell's Variations on an original theme in E minor, for two pianos. The friendship always remained, but the routine of the recitals and tours, which had to be fitted around separate English, continental and transatlantic engagements, was dissolved around 1904 rather than continue less than wholeheartedly.
, of whose work he possessed at least two examples. Between 1897 and 1906 the artist made three visits to London to paint: Borwick persuaded him to visit Whistler, but this was not a success. Two of the artist's paintings in the national collections (one in National Gallery and one in Tate Britain
) are associated with Borwick: 'Interior 1899' was given to the National Gallery by friends of Borwick in memory of him.
. In January 1903 he performed piano duets with Edward Elgar
: in March 1904 he was playing in Berlin. In a recital at the Bechstein Hall in May 1906, he and Joachim performed sonatas of Beethoven (Op. 23 in A minor; Op. 30, No. 1 in A major), Bach (B minor), Mozart
(E flat, Peters No. 16) and Brahms (Op. 78 in G major). Joachim declared that he preferred Borwick to any other partner in such work. He did not neglect the provinces: in November 1908, for instance, he scored a triumph when reappearing after 11 years to give the Saint-Saëns
G minor concerto
its first performance in York
with the York Symphony Orchestra, and followed by a Bach Organ Fugue, Domenico Scarlatti
sonatas and a Chopin waltz.
In 1911-12 he undertook an extended concert tour in the United States
and Australia
, and returned invigorated with a new confidence and freshness in his playing. This seemed to promise a new phase in his career. In March 1914 the Philharmonic Society heard him play the Schumann concerto under Willem Mengelberg
: and in an Appassionata Sonata
delivered in Edinburgh
in 1913, and in his November 1914 Carnegie Hall
recital (which included Bruyères, the first English performance of any of the Debussy
Preludes from Book II), seemed to promise much: 'a freedom and vigour which gave his art a new force'. Plunkett Greene much admired his Gaspard de la nuit
(Ondine), of Ravel
. In 1913 he listed his interests as poetry, painting, Italy, tennis, cycling, gymnastics and conjuring. He was good at chess and billiards, and was a regular visitor to Lord's cricket ground. He was also a vegetarian, and an idealist in various other matters who always stuck to his principles.
World War I brought an end to many hopes. At the Polish Victims Relief Fund concert, July 1915, he performed Paderewski
's Polish Fantasy (piano and orchestra) under Thomas Beecham
, and played Chopin. After the war, in May 1919 he and the violinist Jelly d'Arányi
gave a memorial sonata concert at the Wigmore Hall
for the Irish-Australian musician Frederick Septimus Kelly
, an Oxford graduate killed in 1916. In 1921 he gave two recitals in the Aeolian Hall in March and April, which included his transcription of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (originally premiered for him by Mark Hambourg
). In almost the same week George Copeland
played his own transcription of the same piece. A critic found Borwick's version 'complicated and cold', though it is still much admired.
Leonard Borwick died at Le Mans
in 1925. He is remembered as a poet of the keyboard, a great painter of pianistic colours, who possessed a very broad range of expression from the most delicate touch to a fire and resource of tonal depth greater than that usually associated with the Clara Schumann school. Plunket Greene remembered how he communed with beauty and saw visions, his reverence, quiet simplicity, and his avoidance of personal publicity. He made no gramophone records. The Royal College of Music
awards a Leonard Borwick Pianoforte Prize to outstanding students.
His own students included Anthony Bernard
.
Discovery of letters in Bonn http://www.wdr.de/themen/kultur/musik/clara_schumann/index.jhtml
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
especially associated with the music of Robert 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....
and Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
.
Early training and debuts
Born in WalthamstowWalthamstow
Walthamstow is a district of northeast London, England, located in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is situated north-east of Charing Cross...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, of a Staffordshire family, Leonard Borwick studied piano under Henry R. Bird, and violin and viola under Alfred Gibson until the age of 16. He then went to study piano under Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
at the Hoch Conservatory
Hoch Conservatory
Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium - Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on September 22, 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for music and the arts was established for all age groups. ...
, Frankfurt, and also composition under Bernhard Scholz
Bernhard Scholz
Bernhard E. Scholz, was a German conductor, composer and teacher of music.- Life :Bernhard Scholz was born in Mainz in 1835. He was intended by his father to take over his father's business and studied to be a printer at Imp. Lemercier in Paris. But music became his career...
and Iwan Knorr
Iwan Knorr
Iwan Knorr was a German composer and teacher of music. A native of Mewe, he attended the Leipzig Conservatory where he studied with Ignaz Moscheles, Ernst Friedrich Richter and Carl Reinecke. In 1874 he became a teacher and in 1878 director of music theory instruction at the Imperial...
, and violin and viola under Fritz Basserman. During the later 1880s, while on leave from Clara Schumann's school, Borwick had met the baritone Harry Plunket Greene
Harry Plunket Greene
Harry Plunket Greene was an Irish baritone singer who was most famous in the formal concert and oratorio repertoire. He made a great contribution to British musical life also by writing and lecturing upon his art, and in the field of competitions and examinations...
while playing one evening at Arthur Chappell's house in London. Greene had been 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...
with Borwick's brother, and a friendship grew up between them. He made his debut at the Museum concerts in Frankfurt in Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's "Emperor" concerto
Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven)
The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the Emperor Concerto, was his last piano concerto. It was written between 1809 and 1811 in Vienna, and was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven's patron and pupil...
in November 1889, and in the same month at Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
under the direction of Franz Stockhausen
Franz Stockhausen
Franz Stockhausen was a German choral conductor, and a member of a celebrated German musical family....
(a pupil of Alkan
Siegfried Alkan
Siegfried Alkan was a German composer.Alkan was born in Dillingen, Saarland , the son of Johannes Alkan and Johanna Bonn in a family of merchants and musicians. Through his mother he was a distant cousin of the composers Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Fanny Hensel and Giacomo Meyerbeer...
) in that concerto and with pieces by Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
(a Nocturne) and Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
(the Paganini Études).
London debut and recitals 1890-1891
His London debut was on 8 May 1890, at a Royal Philharmonic SocietyRoyal Philharmonic Society
The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there. Many distinguished composers and performers have taken part in its concerts...
concert, in Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor
Piano Concerto (Schumann)
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...
. He performed it again in London on June 12, and on 17 June in a concert for Hans Richter
Hans Richter (conductor)
Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
he played a Brahms Rhapsody, sharing the platform with Marie Fillunger
Marie Fillunger
Marie Fillunger was an Austrian singer.Fillunger was born in Vienna. She studied at the Vienna Conservatory from 1869-73. Then, on the recommendation of Johannes Brahms she studied at the Hochschule in Berlin in 1874. There she met Eugenie Schumann the same year...
(1850–1930), lieder singer and intimate of the Schumann-Joachim circle. He also played the Brahms D minor concerto
Piano Concerto No. 1 (Brahms)
The Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15, is a work for piano and orchestra composed by Johannes Brahms in 1858. The composer gave the work's public debut in Hanover, Germany, the following year.-Form:...
, which George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
called 'a hash of bits and scraps with plenty of thickening in the pianoforte part, which Mr Leonard Borwick played with the enthusiasm of youth in a style technically admirable'. Shaw recommended that he should embark on recitals.
On 20 September he performed a piano quartet of Brahms, and in November 1890 he performed both the quartet, and the Die Junge Nonne and Nacht und Traume with Fillunger, at Windsor
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
for a royal concert. He has been described as 'Queen Victoria's favourite pianist'. By December, Shaw described him as 'a finished pupil ... his quick musical feeling and diligently-earned technical accomplishment entitle him to take his place with credit among our foremost concert-players'. In March 1891 he played a Bach concerto for two pianos with Ilona Eibenschütz
Ilona Eibenschütz
Ilona Eibenschütz was a Hungarian pianist.She received her first instruction in music from her cousin Albert Eibenschütz. At the age of five, Franz Liszt is said to have played at a concert with her...
(a Clara Schumann pupil) at a Bach Choir concert. That autumn he played at Windsor again, with the violinist Emily Shinner-Liddell (a Joachim pupil). Clara Schumann's other famous British pupil Fanny Davies
Fanny Davies
Fanny Davies was an English pianist who was particularly admired in Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, and the early schools, but was also a very early London performer of the works of Debussy and Scriabin...
was at that time also beginning her career in London.
Vienna debut - Brahms
Borwick played Brahms's D minor concerto under Hans RichterHans Richter (conductor)
Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in 1891. Brahms himself was at this concert, and wrote to Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
that her pupil's playing had contained all the fire and passion and technical ability the composer had hoped for in his most sanguine moments. From this time on Borwick became closely associated with the music of Brahms, and with the English work of Brahms's friend and chief interpreter, the violinist Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...
. Clara Schumann wrote to Professor Bernuth in Hamburg to recommend Borwick as 'probably her finest pupil: I never heard the A minor concerto of Schumann nor the D minor of Brahms played better.'
London recitals
By 1893 Borwick had begun touring in Europe, and was playing in popular classical concerts at St James's HallSt James's Hall
St. James's Hall was a concert hall in London that opened on 25 March 1858, designed by architect and artist Owen Jones, who had decorated the interior of the Crystal Palace. It was situated between the Quadrant in Regent Street and Piccadilly, and Vine Street and George Court. There was a...
, and in chamber concerts with the Joachim Quartet. Shaw thought his playing of Chopin's Funeral March Sonata in October was excellent, but disliked Borwick's attempts to 'sentimentalize and prettify' Beethoven. In February 1894 at the popular concerts, in the late B flat sonata, D. 960
Schubert's last sonatas
Franz Schubert's last three piano sonatas, numbered 958, 959 and 960 in Deutsch's catalogue of Schubert's complete works, are the composer's last major compositions for the piano. They were written during the last months of Schubert's life, between the spring and autumn of 1828, but were not...
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...
, and in Schumann pieces, he seemed to be 'dreaming about the pieces rather than thinking about them'. When Borwick came to the platform, he sat meditatively before the keyboard for some moments before acknowledging the audience, and when playing he became so absorbed that he forgot the audience. (Once, playing a false last note, he angrily banged the correct note until the audience's laughter reminded him that he was actually in concert.)
In March 1894 the Philharmonic Society opened its season, moving to the Queen's Hall. Borwick played the Beethoven Emperor Concerto. Shaw found him blameless but unmemorable: perhaps it was overshadowed by the English premiere of Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's Pathetique Symphony
Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky)
The Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, Pathétique is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's final completed symphony, written between February and the end of August 1893. The composer led the first performance in Saint Petersburg on 16/28 October of that year, nine days before his death...
, which Sir Alexander Mackenzie
Alexander Mackenzie
Alexander Mackenzie, PC , a building contractor and newspaper editor, was the second Prime Minister of Canada from November 7, 1873 to October 8, 1878.-Biography:...
conducted on the same occasion. However, Borwick's warmth and colour were appreciated by the Philharmonic, who asked him back repeatedly, and Herman Klein
Herman Klein
Herman Klein was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles and Manuel Klein...
felt that at last the dry days of Arabella Goddard
Arabella Goddard
Arabella Goddard was an English pianist of great renown in the middle to late 19th century.She was born and died in France. Her parents, Thomas Goddard, an heir to a Salisbury cutlery firm, and Arabella née Ingles, were part of an English community of expatriates living in Saint-Servan near...
and her feux d'artifice were at an end. A Chopin B flat minor Sonata given in June was received with large enthusiasm at St James's Hall, together with works of Saint-Saëns, Schumann, Liszt and Mendelssohn. In July 1894 he gave two London solo evenings with Emily Shinner and Marie Fillunger at the Queen's Hall in recital of works by Brahms and Schumann.
Recitals with Plunket Greene
However a new partnership was beginning. Plunket Greene (who had also trained in Germany) proposed in 1893 that they should deliver solo recitals each year in London, followed by tours in the provinces. Borwick fell in with the idea, and their first London recital was in December 1893 at St James's Hall, followed by a national tour. For the first two years Borwick was accompanist, as well as playing his solo pieces, but later Samuel Liddle was brought in to accompany, and the team was complete. Their watchword was that no care should be taken of hands or voice, there should be no interest in publicity, and musical values should prevail. Their repertoire ranged from Bach to the moderns, and they never repeated a song in ten years of London recitals.Specializing in lieder of Franz 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...
, Schumann and Brahms, but performing songs of all kinds, they were pioneering the themed recital (usually about 90 minutes). On 11 January 1895 Borwick and Plunket Greene gave the first complete performance of Schumann's Dichterliebe
Dichterliebe
Dichterliebe, 'The Poet's Love' , is the best-known song cycle of Robert Schumann . The texts for the 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo of Heinrich Heine, composed 1822–1823, published as part of the poet's Das Buch der Lieder. Following the song-cycles of Franz Schubert , those of...
ever heard in England, at St James' Hall. Borwick always accompanied without sheet music. Plunket Greene was the original performer of many of Arthur Somervell
Arthur Somervell
Sir Arthur Somervell was an English composer, and after Hubert Parry one of the most successful and influential writers of art song in the English music renaissance of the 1890s-1900s....
's songs (and those of Hubert Parry
Hubert Parry
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet was an English composer, teacher and historian of music.Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", the coronation anthem "I was glad" and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words...
and Charles Villiers Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
), and Borwick and the composer gave the first performance of Somervell's Variations on an original theme in E minor, for two pianos. The friendship always remained, but the routine of the recitals and tours, which had to be fitted around separate English, continental and transatlantic engagements, was dissolved around 1904 rather than continue less than wholeheartedly.
Artistic interests
Borwick had many interests, including contemporary art. Among the artists he admired was Vilhelm HammershøiVilhelm Hammershøi
Vilhelm Hammershøi , often written in English Vilhelm Hammershoi , was a Danish painter. He is known for his poetic, low-key portraits and interiors. In 1997, Denmark issued a postage stamp in his honor.-Life:...
, of whose work he possessed at least two examples. Between 1897 and 1906 the artist made three visits to London to paint: Borwick persuaded him to visit Whistler, but this was not a success. Two of the artist's paintings in the national collections (one in National Gallery and one in Tate Britain
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
) are associated with Borwick: 'Interior 1899' was given to the National Gallery by friends of Borwick in memory of him.
Continuing pianism
Borwick was increasingly identified with instrumental recital work with Joachim and others, and was making tours, notably in Germany, Paris and ScandinaviaScandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
. In January 1903 he performed piano duets with Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
: in March 1904 he was playing in Berlin. In a recital at the Bechstein Hall in May 1906, he and Joachim performed sonatas of Beethoven (Op. 23 in A minor; Op. 30, No. 1 in A major), Bach (B minor), Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
(E flat, Peters No. 16) and Brahms (Op. 78 in G major). Joachim declared that he preferred Borwick to any other partner in such work. He did not neglect the provinces: in November 1908, for instance, he scored a triumph when reappearing after 11 years to give the Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
G minor concerto
Piano Concerto No. 2 (Saint-Saëns)
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 by Camille Saint-Saëns, was composed in 1868 and is probably Saint-Saëns' most popular piano concerto. It was dedicated to Madame A. de Villers née de Haber. At the première, the composer was the soloist and Anton Rubinstein conducted the orchestra...
its first performance in York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
with the York Symphony Orchestra, and followed by a Bach Organ Fugue, Domenico Scarlatti
Domenico Scarlatti
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style...
sonatas and a Chopin waltz.
In 1911-12 he undertook an extended concert tour in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and returned invigorated with a new confidence and freshness in his playing. This seemed to promise a new phase in his career. In March 1914 the Philharmonic Society heard him play the Schumann concerto under Willem Mengelberg
Willem Mengelberg
Joseph Willem Mengelberg was a Dutch conductor, famous for his performances of Mahler and Strauss with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.- Biography :...
: and in an Appassionata Sonata
Piano Sonata No. 23 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 is a piano sonata. It is considered one of the three great piano sonatas of his middle period . It was composed during 1804 and 1805, and perhaps 1806, and was dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick...
delivered in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
in 1913, and in his November 1914 Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
recital (which included Bruyères, the first English performance of any of the Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
Preludes from Book II), seemed to promise much: 'a freedom and vigour which gave his art a new force'. Plunkett Greene much admired his Gaspard de la nuit
Gaspard de la nuit
Gaspard de la nuit: Trois poèmes pour piano d'après Aloysius Bertrand is a piece for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, written in 1908. It has three movements, each based on a poem by Aloysius Bertrand...
(Ondine), of Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
. In 1913 he listed his interests as poetry, painting, Italy, tennis, cycling, gymnastics and conjuring. He was good at chess and billiards, and was a regular visitor to Lord's cricket ground. He was also a vegetarian, and an idealist in various other matters who always stuck to his principles.
World War I brought an end to many hopes. At the Polish Victims Relief Fund concert, July 1915, he performed Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski GBE was a Polish pianist, composer, diplomat, politician, and the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland.-Biography:...
's Polish Fantasy (piano and orchestra) under Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
, and played Chopin. After the war, in May 1919 he and the violinist Jelly d'Arányi
Jelly d'Arányi
Jelly d'Aranyi, fully Jelly Aranyi de Hunyadvár was a Hungarian violinist who made her home in London.She born in Budapest, the grand-niece of Joseph Joachim, and sister of the violinist Adila Fachiri. She began her studies as a pianist, but switched to violin at the Music Academy in Budapest...
gave a memorial sonata concert at the Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
for the Irish-Australian musician Frederick Septimus Kelly
Frederick Septimus Kelly
Frederick Septimus Kelly was an Australian and British musician and composer and a rower who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics...
, an Oxford graduate killed in 1916. In 1921 he gave two recitals in the Aeolian Hall in March and April, which included his transcription of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (originally premiered for him by Mark Hambourg
Mark Hambourg
Mark Hambourg was a distinguished Russian-British concert pianist, among the most famous of his age.- Life :Mark Hambourg was the eldest son of the pianist Michael Hambourg , and was brother of the cellist Boris Hambourg and the violinist Jan Hambourg , and of the musical organiser Clement...
). In almost the same week George Copeland
George Copeland
George Copeland was an American classical pianist known primarily for his championship of the French composer Claude Debussy in the early 20th century and his interpretations of modern Spanish piano works.-Career:...
played his own transcription of the same piece. A critic found Borwick's version 'complicated and cold', though it is still much admired.
Leonard Borwick died at Le Mans
Le Mans
Le Mans is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans. Le Mans is a part of the Pays de la Loire region.Its inhabitants are called Manceaux...
in 1925. He is remembered as a poet of the keyboard, a great painter of pianistic colours, who possessed a very broad range of expression from the most delicate touch to a fire and resource of tonal depth greater than that usually associated with the Clara Schumann school. Plunket Greene remembered how he communed with beauty and saw visions, his reverence, quiet simplicity, and his avoidance of personal publicity. He made no gramophone records. 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...
awards a Leonard Borwick Pianoforte Prize to outstanding students.
His own students included Anthony Bernard
Anthony Bernard
Anthony Bernard was an English conductor, organist, pianist and composer.-Early life:He was born Alan Charles Butler, the son of a Thames lighterman and changed his name by deed poll in 1919 according to the National Archives....
.
Compositions
Piano arrangements:- BachBạchBạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
: Chorale, Jesu bleibet meine Freude, Movt 10, Cantata BWV 147. (Augener) - Bach: Chorale Prelude, O Lamm Gottes Unschuldig, BWV 618 or 656.? (Augener)
- Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. (Fromont)
- Debussy: Fetes. (Fromont)
- Coleridge-Taylor: Two Moorish Tone-Pictures, Op. 17. (Augener)
Sources
- L. Borwick, (Article by), in Music and Letters Jan 1925.
- L. Carley, Edvard Grieg in England (Boydell, Woodbridge 2007).
- -. Dixon, On the difference of Time and Rhythm in Music, Mind IV (1895), 236-239.
- A. Eaglefield-Hull, A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London 1924).
- R. Elkin, Royal Philharmonic (Rider, London 1946).
- H. Plunket Greene, From Blue Danube to Shannon, (Philip Allan, London 1934) (Reproduces article 'Some personal recollections' from Music and Letters, 7, no 1 (Jan 1926), 17-24.)
- H.R., Review of a Leonard Borwick Concert, The New Age, 7 April 1921, Vol 28 no 23, p270.
- W. Saunders, Leonard Borwick: A Memory and Appreciation, Musical Times 67 (1 September 1926), 798-9.
- G.B. Shaw, Music in London 1890-1894 (Constable, London 1932).
- H. Wood, My Life of Music (Gollancz, London 1938).
- M.K. Woods, The Art of Leonard Borwick, Girl's Own Paper 23 (1903), 372.
- Obituary of Leonard Borwick, Illustrated London News, 26 September 1925.
Discovery of letters in Bonn http://www.wdr.de/themen/kultur/musik/clara_schumann/index.jhtml