Leslie Howard (musician)
Encyclopedia
Leslie Howard AM (born 29 April 1948) is an Australian pianist and composer. He is best known for being the only pianist to have recorded the complete solo piano works of Franz Liszt
, a project which included more than 300 premiere recordings. He has been described by The Guardian
as "a master of a tradition of pianism in serious danger of dying out".
Howard's ability to recall anything by ear, and perfect pitch
, was first cited in The Herald
, Melbourne, when he was 5 years old. At the age of 5, he performed for Fox Movietone News
, and at the age of 9 on Australian national television. His mature debut as a pianist came at the age of 13, with Rachmaninoff
's Piano Concerto No. 2
. He learned the oboe at an early age, and has even performed Mozart
’s Oboe Concerto
.
He attended Monash University
in Melbourne to study English, but by the end of his first year had been invited to lecture the post-graduate students on advanced counterpoint and theory. His post-graduate music studies were completed in Italy, where he studied with Guido Agosti
.
He has lived in London since 1972, preferring its climate to that of his native country; he has both Australian and British nationality.
In 1987 Howard became an instructor at the Guildhall School of Music
. He often gives masterclasses at the Royal College of Music
and Royal Academy of Music
.
He frequently appears with promising student pianists to help further their careers. Examples are performances of Liszt
's arrangement for two pianos of Beethoven
's Ninth Symphony
, with Coady Green; piano duets of Percy Grainger
with Michael Brownlee-Walker; and conducting a performance of Shostakovich
's First Piano Concerto
in London's Wigmore Hall
, and then again at the Royal Festival Hall
for the Pearl Awards, with a 9-year old Chinese pianist as soloist.
Howard is also frequently invited to sit on the juries of music competitions, such as the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition
and the Royal Over-Seas League
's annual music competition.
He has a large repertoire of solo and chamber music, and more than 80 works with orchestra. He was a founding member of the now disbanded London Beethoven Trio, which gave regular performances for a number of years.
In March 2008, Howard was convicted in a road rage incident in England and sentenced to six months in prison (suspended for 18 months) and ordered to pay costs.
's death, Leslie Howard gave a series of ten Liszt recitals in London’s Wigmore Hall
. By excluding Liszt's arrangements (fantasies and transcriptions) of other composers' works, and by selecting only the final versions of Liszt's original works for solo piano, Howard was able to represent Liszt's entire solo piano oeuvre in ten mammoth recital programmes.
The founder and Managing Director of Hyperion Records
was present at these recitals, and invited Howard to record for the label. This resulted in the largest recording project ever successfully undertaken by a recording artist (including pop artists) – that of the complete music for solo piano of Liszt. All Liszt's versions of his piano music were included, including more than 300 premiere performances and recordings, and pieces unheard since Liszt's lifetime, and also all Liszt's arrangements of other composers' works. Four discs were given to Liszt's seventeen works for piano and orchestra, about half of which were premiere recordings made from unpublished manuscripts.
The series ran at first to 94 full-length CDs, and earned Howard a place in the Guinness Book Of Records
for completion of the largest recording project ever undertaken by a solo recording artist. (The second volume of works for piano and orchestra included a bonus disc, not counted in the series numbering, which contained Ungarische Zigeunerweisen
, a work for piano and orchestra by Liszt's favourite female student Sophie Menter
: Liszt's exact involvement in the work is unknown, but he probably helped Menter in the composition of the solo part in the year before his death; the work was orchestrated seven years later by Menter's friend Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
, who conducted Menter in the premiere the following year).
The last disc of the Liszt series was recorded in December 1998, and released on 22 October 1999, Liszt's birthday. Since completion of the project, three supplementary volumes have been released (the third of which is a double CD) as further Liszt manuscripts have come to light. The total number of CDs in the series is now therefore 99.
A boxed set containing all 99 discs has been issued by Hyperion Records in 2011 in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Liszt.
Claims by other pianists to have recorded the complete piano works of Liszt are demonstrably incorrect. Such claims include those by France Clidat
, whose Liszt recordings total just 28 CDs; and Gunnar Johansen
, whose private home recordings number 53 LPs.
A critic in the BBC Music Magazine
declared: "Howard is, by general consensus, the finest living exponent of Liszt. (He has) a formidable intellectual grasp of the music, (and) his vastly superior performances continue to carry the day". As further indication of the status he enjoys among Liszt scholars, Howard was invited to perform at the inauguration of the Istituto Liszt in Bologna
, Italy, of which he is an honorary member.
He has been invited by the music publishers Edition Peters
to edit the republication of some of their Liszt scores, correcting previous inaccuracies by a return to manuscript sources.
He has also edited several volumes of Liszt Society Publications for Hardie Press and Editio Musica Budapest.
With Michael Short he has published Ferenc Liszt - A List of his Musical Works (Rugginenti, 2004) and Ferenc Liszt - A Thematic Catalogue (Pendragon, 2005). He has a book in progress, The Music of Liszt (Yale University Press).
in 1987, and has also been awarded the American Liszt Society's Medal of Honor.
In 2000 he was awarded the Pro Cultura Hungarica Medal and Citation by the Hungarian Government, a rare honour for a non-Hungarian. He had previously received from the Hungarian government the Ferenc Liszt Medal of Honour, and he has also been awarded France's Grand Prix du Disque
six times for his Liszt recordings - all presented to him by the President of Hungary.
In 2004 he was decorated by the President of Hungary with the Medal of St. Stephen.
, a marimba
concerto
, chamber music
, and many piano pieces. Howard's best known work is his "24 Classical Preludes for Piano, Op. 25", cycling through the major and minor keys, each written in the style of a different composer. Howard has recorded this work for Cavendish Music (Boosey & Hawkes
).
In 1997 Howard was commissioned by Gramophone magazine to compose and record a short piano piece ("Yuletide Pastorale") for its Christmas Competition: a CD was given away with the magazine, and readers were asked to state in which composer's style the piece was written, and to identify the seven well-known Christmas melodies concealed within it.
Among Howard's arrangements and transcriptions are the final chorale movements of Bach
's cantatas nos. 60
and 209, Glazunov
's Second Concert Waltz, and the aria "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana" from the opera La Wally
by Alfredo Catalani
.
's scores, Howard has prepared for publication operas by Vincenzo Bellini
, and the violin concertos of Paganini
, including the first edition of Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1
ever to be published in the correct key of E-flat (it usually played from an erroneous edition in D major, the orchestration of which is not by Paganini).
Howard's facility in completing unfinished works has resulted in commissions as diverse as a new realisation of Bach
's The Musical Offering
, which he orchestrated and conducted in Finland in 1990, and completions of works by composers such as Mozart
(String Quartet movement, K. 464a), Scriabin
(Sonata in E-flat minor: end of the slow movement, and a 3-bar hole in the finale), Shostakovich
(Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, Op. 8
: providing an alternative solution to that by Borys Lyatoshynsky), and Tchaikovsky
(Piano Sonata in F minor).
In 2003, Boosey & Hawkes
published Howard's "New Corrected Edition" of the 2-piano score of Rachmaninoff
's 4th Piano Concerto
(in collaboration with Robert Threlfall).
, Bax
, Borodin
, Bridge
, Bruckner
, Busoni
, Chopin
, Rebecca Helferich Clarke
, Franck
, Ignaz Friedman
, Gade, Gershwin
, Glazunov
, Grainger
, Granados
, Grieg
, Moszkowski
, Mozart
, Palmgren
, Poulenc
, Rachmaninoff
, Raff
, Reger
, Rimsky-Korsakov
, Rossini, Anton Rubinstein
, Sibelius
, Smetana
, Stravinsky
, Tausig
, Tchaikovsky
, Vaughan Williams
and Wagner
.
(AM) in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1999, "for service to the arts as a musicologist, composer, piano soloist and mentor to young musicians."
In 2001 he was awarded a doctorate "honoris causa" by the University of Melbourne
.
In November 2009 he was invited by the Alkan
Society in London to become their new president, a position which he now holds concurrently with his role as president of the Liszt Society.
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...
, a project which included more than 300 premiere recordings. He has been described by The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
as "a master of a tradition of pianism in serious danger of dying out".
Biography
Howard was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1948, the eldest of 4 children. His brother William is a cellist.Howard's ability to recall anything by ear, and perfect pitch
Absolute pitch
Absolute pitch , widely referred to as perfect pitch, is the ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of an external reference.-Definition:...
, was first cited in The Herald
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
, Melbourne, when he was 5 years old. At the age of 5, he performed for Fox Movietone News
Movietone News
Movietone News is a newsreel that ran from 1928 to 1963 in the United States, and from 1929 to 1979 in the United Kingdom.-History:It is known in the U.S. as Fox Movietone News, produced cinema, sound newsreels from 1928 to 1963 in the U.S., from 1929 to 1979 in the UK , and from 1929 to 1975 in...
, and at the age of 9 on Australian national television. His mature debut as a pianist came at the age of 13, with Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
's Piano Concerto No. 2
Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, is a concerto for piano and orchestra composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff between the autumn of 1900 and April 1901. The second and third movements were first performed with the composer as soloist on 2 December 1900...
. He learned the oboe at an early age, and has even performed 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...
’s Oboe Concerto
Oboe Concerto (Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314 was originally composed in Spring or Summer 1777 for oboist Giuseppe Ferlendis from Bergamo, then reworked by the composer as a concerto for flute in D major in 1778...
.
He attended Monash University
Monash University
Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....
in Melbourne to study English, but by the end of his first year had been invited to lecture the post-graduate students on advanced counterpoint and theory. His post-graduate music studies were completed in Italy, where he studied with Guido Agosti
Guido Agosti
Guido Agosti was an Italian pianist and piano teacher.Agosti was born in Forlì in 1901. He studied piano with Ferruccio Busoni, Bruno Mugellini and Filippo Ivaldi, earning his diploma at age 13. He studied counterpoint under Benvenuti and literature at Bologna University. He commenced his...
.
He has lived in London since 1972, preferring its climate to that of his native country; he has both Australian and British nationality.
In 1987 Howard became an instructor at the Guildhall School of Music
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:...
. He often gives masterclasses 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...
and 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...
.
He frequently appears with promising student pianists to help further their careers. Examples are performances of 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...
's arrangement for two pianos of 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 Ninth Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...
, with Coady Green; piano duets of Percy Grainger
Percy Grainger
George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...
with Michael Brownlee-Walker; and conducting a performance of Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
's First Piano Concerto
Piano Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich)
The Concerto in C minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra, Op. 35, was completed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1933 and premiered the same year by the composer at the piano and the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite the title, it is a true piano concerto rather than a double concerto in...
in London's 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...
, and then again at the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
for the Pearl Awards, with a 9-year old Chinese pianist as soloist.
Howard is also frequently invited to sit on the juries of music competitions, such as the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition
International Franz Liszt Piano Competition
The International Franz Liszt Piano Competition , a member of WFIMC, is an international piano competition.The Competition is held in Utrecht in the Netherlands. It first took place in 1986, one hundred years after the death of Franz Liszt...
and the Royal Over-Seas League
Royal Over-Seas League
The Royal Over-Seas League is a non-profit members’ organisation with international headquarters based in its clubhouse in central London, England...
's annual music competition.
He has a large repertoire of solo and chamber music, and more than 80 works with orchestra. He was a founding member of the now disbanded London Beethoven Trio, which gave regular performances for a number of years.
In March 2008, Howard was convicted in a road rage incident in England and sentenced to six months in prison (suspended for 18 months) and ordered to pay costs.
Liszt project
In 1986, to mark the centenary of Franz LisztFranz 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...
's death, Leslie Howard gave a series of ten Liszt recitals in London’s 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...
. By excluding Liszt's arrangements (fantasies and transcriptions) of other composers' works, and by selecting only the final versions of Liszt's original works for solo piano, Howard was able to represent Liszt's entire solo piano oeuvre in ten mammoth recital programmes.
The founder and Managing Director of Hyperion Records
Hyperion Records
Hyperion Records is an independent British classical record label.-History:The company was named after Hyperion, one of the Titans of Greek mythology. It was founded by George Edward Perry, widely known as "Ted", in 1980. Early LP releases included rarely recorded 20th century British music by...
was present at these recitals, and invited Howard to record for the label. This resulted in the largest recording project ever successfully undertaken by a recording artist (including pop artists) – that of the complete music for solo piano of Liszt. All Liszt's versions of his piano music were included, including more than 300 premiere performances and recordings, and pieces unheard since Liszt's lifetime, and also all Liszt's arrangements of other composers' works. Four discs were given to Liszt's seventeen works for piano and orchestra, about half of which were premiere recordings made from unpublished manuscripts.
The series ran at first to 94 full-length CDs, and earned Howard a place in the Guinness Book Of Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
for completion of the largest recording project ever undertaken by a solo recording artist. (The second volume of works for piano and orchestra included a bonus disc, not counted in the series numbering, which contained Ungarische Zigeunerweisen
Ungarische Zigeunerweisen
Ungarische Zigeunerweisen [Hungarian Gypsy Melodies ] is a single-movement work for piano and orchestra of about 17 minutes' duration by Sophie Menter...
, a work for piano and orchestra by Liszt's favourite female student Sophie Menter
Sophie Menter
Sophie Menter was a German pianist and composer who became the favorite female student of Franz Liszt. She was called l'incarnation de Liszt in Paris because of her robust, electrifying playing style and was considered one of the greatest piano virtuosos of her time.Sophie Menter was born in...
: Liszt's exact involvement in the work is unknown, but he probably helped Menter in the composition of the solo part in the year before his death; the work was orchestrated seven years later by Menter's friend Pyotr Ilyich 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"...
, who conducted Menter in the premiere the following year).
The last disc of the Liszt series was recorded in December 1998, and released on 22 October 1999, Liszt's birthday. Since completion of the project, three supplementary volumes have been released (the third of which is a double CD) as further Liszt manuscripts have come to light. The total number of CDs in the series is now therefore 99.
A boxed set containing all 99 discs has been issued by Hyperion Records in 2011 in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Liszt.
Claims by other pianists to have recorded the complete piano works of Liszt are demonstrably incorrect. Such claims include those by France Clidat
France Clidat
France Clidat is a French pianist renowned for her interpretations of the works of Franz Liszt, a great many of which she has recorded, and Erik Satie, whose complete piano works she recorded....
, whose Liszt recordings total just 28 CDs; and Gunnar Johansen
Gunnar Johansen
Gunnar Johansen was a Danish-born pianist and composer. He studied in his native Denmark with the pianist and conductor Victor Schiøler, then in Berlin with Egon Petri, the disciple of Ferruccio Busoni. He also worked with Edwin Fischer and the Liszt pupil Frederic Lamond...
, whose private home recordings number 53 LPs.
A critic in the BBC Music Magazine
BBC music magazine
BBC Music Magazine is a magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom by BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC. Reflecting the broadcast output of BBC Radio 3, the magazine is devoted primarily to classical music, though with sections on jazz and world music. Each edition comes...
declared: "Howard is, by general consensus, the finest living exponent of Liszt. (He has) a formidable intellectual grasp of the music, (and) his vastly superior performances continue to carry the day". As further indication of the status he enjoys among Liszt scholars, Howard was invited to perform at the inauguration of the Istituto Liszt in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, Italy, of which he is an honorary member.
He has been invited by the music publishers Edition Peters
Edition Peters
Edition Peters, also known as C.F.Peters Musikverlag, is a German music publishing house, founded in Leipzig in 1800.From the 1860s it was largely run by members the Hinrichsen family, who were Jewish. The company was confiscated by the Nazis and administered by the "Trustee of Jewish Property"....
to edit the republication of some of their Liszt scores, correcting previous inaccuracies by a return to manuscript sources.
He has also edited several volumes of Liszt Society Publications for Hardie Press and Editio Musica Budapest.
With Michael Short he has published Ferenc Liszt - A List of his Musical Works (Rugginenti, 2004) and Ferenc Liszt - A Thematic Catalogue (Pendragon, 2005). He has a book in progress, The Music of Liszt (Yale University Press).
Honours related to his Liszt work
Leslie Howard has been the President of the British Liszt Society since the death of the previous president Louis KentnerLouis Kentner
Louis Kentner was a Hungarian, later British, pianist who excelled in the works of Chopin and Liszt, as well as the Hungarian repertoire....
in 1987, and has also been awarded the American Liszt Society's Medal of Honor.
In 2000 he was awarded the Pro Cultura Hungarica Medal and Citation by the Hungarian Government, a rare honour for a non-Hungarian. He had previously received from the Hungarian government the Ferenc Liszt Medal of Honour, and he has also been awarded France's Grand Prix du Disque
Grand Prix du Disque
The Grand Prix du Disque is the premier French award for musical recordings. The award was inaugurated by l'Académie Charles Cros in 1948 and offers prizes in various categories. The categories vary from year to year, and multiple awards are often made in any one category in the same year...
six times for his Liszt recordings - all presented to him by the President of Hungary.
In 2004 he was decorated by the President of Hungary with the Medal of St. Stephen.
Composer
Howard is also active as a composer, and has written an operaOpera
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...
, a marimba
Marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
, chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
, and many piano pieces. Howard's best known work is his "24 Classical Preludes for Piano, Op. 25", cycling through the major and minor keys, each written in the style of a different composer. Howard has recorded this work for Cavendish Music (Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and wind musical instruments....
).
In 1997 Howard was commissioned by Gramophone magazine to compose and record a short piano piece ("Yuletide Pastorale") for its Christmas Competition: a CD was given away with the magazine, and readers were asked to state in which composer's style the piece was written, and to identify the seven well-known Christmas melodies concealed within it.
Among Howard's arrangements and transcriptions are the final chorale movements of 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...
's cantatas nos. 60
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort , BWV 60, is a church cantata written by Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig for the 24th Sunday after Trinity, first performed on 7 November 1723.-History and words:...
and 209, Glazunov
Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...
's Second Concert Waltz, and the aria "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana" from the opera La Wally
La Wally
La Wally is a four-act opera by Alfredo Catalani, composed on a libretto by Luigi Illica, and first performed at La Scala, Milan on 20 January 1892....
by Alfredo Catalani
Alfredo Catalani
Alfredo Catalani was an Italian operatic composer. He is best remembered for his operas Loreley and La Wally...
.
Editor
In addition to his work editing and completing many of LisztFranz 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...
's scores, Howard has prepared for publication operas by Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
, and the violin concertos of Paganini
Niccolò Paganini
Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...
, including the first edition of Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1
Violin Concerto No. 1 (Paganini)
The Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 6, was composed by Niccolò Paganini in Italy, probably between 1817 and 1818. The concerto reveals that Paganini's technical wizardry was fully developed...
ever to be published in the correct key of E-flat (it usually played from an erroneous edition in D major, the orchestration of which is not by Paganini).
Howard's facility in completing unfinished works has resulted in commissions as diverse as a new realisation of 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...
's The Musical Offering
The Musical Offering
The Musical Offering , BWV 1079, is a collection of canons and fugues and other pieces of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, all based on a single musical theme given to him by Frederick II of Prussia , to whom they are dedicated...
, which he orchestrated and conducted in Finland in 1990, and completions of works by composers such as 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...
(String Quartet movement, K. 464a), Scriabin
Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed an increasingly atonal musical system,...
(Sonata in E-flat minor: end of the slow movement, and a 3-bar hole in the finale), Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
(Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, Op. 8
Piano Trio No. 1 (Shostakovich)
Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor for violin, violoncello and piano is a chamber composition by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.It was created as a student work in 1923 and its last 16 bars were completed later by Shostakovich's pupil, Boris Tishchenko. Alternative solutions have been provided by...
: providing an alternative solution to that by Borys Lyatoshynsky), and 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"...
(Piano Sonata in F minor).
In 2003, Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and wind musical instruments....
published Howard's "New Corrected Edition" of the 2-piano score of Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
's 4th Piano Concerto
Piano Concerto No. 4 (Rachmaninoff)
Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40 is a music piece by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, completed in 1926. The work currently exists in three versions. Following its unsuccessful premiere he made cuts and other amendments before publishing it in 1928. With continued lack of success, he...
(in collaboration with Robert Threlfall).
Recordings
In addition to his Liszt project, Leslie Howard's recordings include works by BalakirevMily Balakirev
Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev ,Russia was still using old style dates in the 19th century, and information sources used in the article sometimes report dates as old style rather than new style. Dates in the article are taken verbatim from the source and therefore are in the same style as the source...
, Bax
Arnold Bax
Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO was an English composer and poet. His musical style blended elements of romanticism and impressionism, often with influences from Irish literature and landscape. His orchestral scores are noted for their complexity and colourful instrumentation...
, Borodin
Alexander Borodin
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music...
, Bridge
Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge was an English composer and violist.-Life:Bridge was born in Brighton and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others...
, Bruckner
Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
, Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
, 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"....
, Rebecca Helferich Clarke
Rebecca Helferich Clarke
Rebecca Clarke was an English classical composer and violist best known for her chamber music featuring the viola. She was born in Harrow and studied at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music in London, later becoming one of the first female professional orchestral players...
, Franck
César Franck
César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....
, Ignaz Friedman
Ignaz Friedman
Ignaz Friedman Ignaz Friedman Ignaz Friedman (also spelled by languages Ignace or Ignacy; exactly Solomon (Salomon) Isaac Freudman(n), (February 13, 1882January 26, 1948) was a Polish pianist and composer. Critics (e.g. Harold C. Schonberg) and colleagues (e.g...
, Gade, Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
, Glazunov
Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...
, Grainger
Percy Grainger
George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...
, Granados
Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados y Campiña was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and, as such, representative of musical nationalism...
, Grieg
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
, Moszkowski
Moritz Moszkowski
Moritz Moszkowski was a German Jewish composer, pianist, and teacher of Polish descent. Ignacy Paderewski said, "After Chopin, Moszkowski best understands how to write for the piano"...
, 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...
, Palmgren
Selim Palmgren
Selim Gustaf Adolf Palmgren , dubbed "The Finnish Chopin", was a Finnish composer, pianist, and conductor. Palmgren was born in Pori, Finland, February 16, 1878. He studied at the Conservatory in Helsinki from 1895 to 1899, then continued his piano studies in Berlin with Ansorge, Berger and Busoni...
, Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
, Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
, Raff
Joachim Raff
Joseph Joachim Raff was a German-Swiss composer, teacher and pianist.-Biography:Raff was born in Lachen in Switzerland. His father, a teacher, had fled there from Württemberg in 1810 to escape forced recruitment into the military of that southwestern German state that had to fight for Napoleon in...
, Reger
Max Reger
Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger was a German composer, conductor, pianist, organist, and academic teacher.-Life:...
, Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...
, Rossini, Anton Rubinstein
Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos...
, Sibelius
Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...
, Smetana
Bedrich Smetana
Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music...
, Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, Tausig
Carl Tausig
Carl Tausig was a Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger and composer.-Life:Tausig was born in Warsaw to Jewish parents and received his first piano lessons from his father, pianist and composer Aloys Tausig, a student of Sigismond Thalberg. His father introduced him to Franz Liszt in Weimar at the...
, 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"...
, Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
and Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
.
Other honours
In addition to the Liszt-related honours mentioned above, Howard was appointed a Member of the Order of AustraliaOrder of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(AM) in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1999, "for service to the arts as a musicologist, composer, piano soloist and mentor to young musicians."
In 2001 he was awarded a doctorate "honoris causa" by the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
.
In November 2009 he was invited by the Alkan
Charles-Valentin Alkan
Charles-Valentin Alkan was a French composer and one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day. His attachment to his Jewish origins is displayed both in his life and his work. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six, earning many awards, and as an adult became a famous virtuoso...
Society in London to become their new president, a position which he now holds concurrently with his role as president of the Liszt Society.