Terence Weil
Encyclopedia
Terence Weil was a British
cellist, principal cellist of the English Chamber Orchestra
, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber music
ian and an influential teacher at the Royal Northern College of Music
.
under Herbert Walenn at the Royal Academy of Music
. After the war he joined the string quartet
formed by the violinist Emanuel Hurwitz
, a friend and colleague. He played principal cello with chamber orchestras such as the Goldsbrough Orchestra (later to become the English Chamber Orchestra) and was a preferred continuo cellist.
Together with the clarinettist Gervase de Peyer
and the violist Cecil Aronowitz
, he had helped, in 1950, to found the Melos Ensemble. He was the cellist of the group for decades, as Cecil Aronowitz was the violist. Bassoonist William Waterhouse wrote in 1995: "It was the remarkable rapport between this pair of lower strings, which remained constant throughout a succession of distinguished leaders, that gave a special distinction to this outstanding ensemble."
His close association with Benjamin Britten
began in 1946, when he played in the premiere of The Rape of Lucretia, at the first post-war season of the Glyndebourne Festival
. He took part in every one of the early Aldeburgh Festival
s, playing at the premieres of the operas Albert Herring
and Noye's Fludde
. The composer conducted the Melos Ensemble in the first performance of his War Requiem
in Coventry
in 1962 and also in the first recording in 1963.
In 1951 Terence Weil premiered the Suite for viola and cello by Arthur Butterworth
with Cecil Aronowitz.
In the 1960s, he played in the Cremona Quartet with leader Hugh Maguire
, Iona Brown
, and Aronowitz. In the Pro Arte Piano Quartet he played with Kenneth Sillito (violin), Aronowitz, and Lamar Crowson
(piano).
In 1974 he became the first Professor of Chamber Music at the newly opened Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester
. Among the student groups that he coached were the Brodsky Quartet
. The institute regularly awards a Terence Weil prize for chamber music.
In 1985 he retired to Cadaqués
.
and octets
of Schubert
, the Clarinet Quintet
of Mozart and the Clarinet Quintet
of Brahms. Their recordings of chamber music
for both woodwind
s and strings
were reissued in 2011, including the works for larger ensembles which were the reason to found the ensemble, such as Beethoven's
Septet
and Octet, Schubert's
Octet
and Ravel's Introduction and Allegro
, played with Osian Ellis
(harp), Richard Adeney
(flute), Gervase de Pexer (clarinet), Emanuel Hurwitz
and Ivor McMahon
(violin
) and Cecil Aronowitz
(viola
).He also recorded trios and quartets by Schumann
and Fauré
with the Pro Arte Piano Quartet and string quartets with the Cremona Quartet. He was the cellist in a recording of Dido and Aeneas
by Henry Purcell
with the English Chamber Orchestra and Janet Baker
. A 1964 performance of Mozart's Piano Quartet K.478
was filmed in London, with Benjamin Britten (piano), Emanuel Hurwitz and Cecil Aronowitz. Many reviews of his recordings are available in the Gramophone Archive.
and later a cello built by Matteo Goffriller
that had belonged to Casals before.
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
cellist, principal cellist of the English Chamber Orchestra
English Chamber Orchestra
The English Chamber Orchestra is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and the ECO Ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall...
, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading 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...
ian and an influential teacher at the Royal Northern College of Music
Royal Northern College of Music
The Royal Northern College of Music is a music school in Manchester, England. It is located on Oxford Road in Chorlton on Medlock, at the western edge of the campus of the University of Manchester and is one of four conservatories associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music...
.
Biography
Terence Weil was trained as a cellistCello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
under Herbert Walenn 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...
. After the war he joined the string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
formed by the violinist Emanuel Hurwitz
Emanuel Hurwitz
Emanuel Hurwitz CBE was a British violinist. He was born in London with parents of Russian-Jewish ancestry....
, a friend and colleague. He played principal cello with chamber orchestras such as the Goldsbrough Orchestra (later to become the English Chamber Orchestra) and was a preferred continuo cellist.
Together with the clarinettist Gervase de Peyer
Gervase de Peyer
Gervase Alan de Peyer is an English clarinetist and conductor.-Professional career:Gervase de Peyer was born in London and attended Bedales School. He was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he studied clarinet with Frederick Thurston and piano with Arthur Alexander...
and the violist Cecil Aronowitz
Cecil Aronowitz
Cecil Aronowitz was a British viola player, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber musician and an influential teacher at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.-Biography:...
, he had helped, in 1950, to found the Melos Ensemble. He was the cellist of the group for decades, as Cecil Aronowitz was the violist. Bassoonist William Waterhouse wrote in 1995: "It was the remarkable rapport between this pair of lower strings, which remained constant throughout a succession of distinguished leaders, that gave a special distinction to this outstanding ensemble."
His close association with 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...
began in 1946, when he played in the premiere of The Rape of Lucretia, at the first post-war season of the Glyndebourne Festival
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...
. He took part in every one of the early Aldeburgh Festival
Aldeburgh Festival
The Aldeburgh Festival is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on the main concert hall at Snape Maltings...
s, playing at the premieres of the operas Albert Herring
Albert Herring
Albert Herring, Op. 39, is a chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten.Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, this comic opera was a successor to his serious opera The Rape of Lucretia...
and Noye's Fludde
Noye's Fludde
Noye's Fludde is an early 15th century mystery play from the Chester Mystery Cycle. It was set to music by Benjamin Britten in 1957 based on an edition by Alfred W. Pollard...
. The composer conducted the Melos Ensemble in the first performance of his War Requiem
War Requiem
The War Requiem, Op. 66 is a large-scale, non-liturgical setting of the Requiem Mass composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed January 1962. Interspersed with the traditional Latin texts, in telling juxtaposition, are settings of Wilfred Owen poems...
in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
in 1962 and also in the first recording in 1963.
In 1951 Terence Weil premiered the Suite for viola and cello by Arthur Butterworth
Arthur Butterworth
Arthur Butterworth MBE is an English composer, conductor and teacher.Butterworth attended the Royal Manchester College of Music , where he studied composition with Richard Hall and also learned the trumpet and conducting...
with Cecil Aronowitz.
In the 1960s, he played in the Cremona Quartet with leader Hugh Maguire
Hugh Maguire (violinist)
Hugh Maguire is an Irish violinist, leader, concertmaster and principal player of the London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra , leader of the Melos Ensemble and the Allegri Quartet, a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, and violin tutor to the National Youth Orchestra of...
, Iona Brown
Iona Brown
Iona Brown, OBE was a British violinist and conductor.Elizabeth Iona Brown was born in Salisbury. Her parents Antony and Fiona were both musicians...
, and Aronowitz. In the Pro Arte Piano Quartet he played with Kenneth Sillito (violin), Aronowitz, and Lamar Crowson
Lamar Crowson
John Lamar Crowson was an American concert pianist and a chamber musician....
(piano).
In 1974 he became the first Professor of Chamber Music at the newly opened Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. Among the student groups that he coached were the Brodsky Quartet
Brodsky Quartet
The Brodsky Quartet is a British string quartet, in existence since 1972, though only Ian Belton and Jacqueline Thomas are original members.In addition to performing classical music, and in particular the classic string quartet repertoire of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Bartók and Shostakovich,...
. The institute regularly awards a Terence Weil prize for chamber music.
In 1985 he retired to Cadaqués
Cadaqués
Cadaqués is a town in the Alt Empordà comarca, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. It is on a bay in the middle of the Cap de Creus peninsula, near Cap de Creus cape, on the Costa Brava of the Mediterranean...
.
Recordings
His long discography includes many notable recordings with the Melos Ensemble, including the Trout QuintetTrout Quintet
The Trout Quintet is the popular name for the Piano Quintet in A major by Franz Schubert. In Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of Schubert's works, it is D. 667...
and octets
Octet (music)
In music, an octet is a musical ensemble consisting of eight instruments or voices, or a musical composition written for such an ensemble.-Octets in classical music:Octets in classical music are one of the largest groupings of chamber music...
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...
, the Clarinet Quintet
Clarinet Quintet (Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581, was written in 1789 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler. A clarinet quintet is a work for one clarinet and a string quartet . Although originally written for basset clarinet, it is almost always played on a clarinet in A or B-flat...
of Mozart and the Clarinet Quintet
Clarinet Quintet (Brahms)
Johannes Brahms's Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 was written in 1891 for the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld. It is widely regarded as Brahms's supreme achievement in chamber music.The piece is known for its autumnal mood...
of Brahms. Their recordings of 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...
for both woodwind
Woodwind instrument
A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...
s and strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
were reissued in 2011, including the works for larger ensembles which were the reason to found the ensemble, such as Beethoven's
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...
Septet
Septet (Beethoven)
The Septet in E-flat major, Opus 20, by Ludwig van Beethoven, was sketched out in 1799, completed and first performed in 1800 and published in 1802. The score contains the notation: "Der Kaiserin Maria Theresia gewidmet", or translated, "Dedicated to the Empress Maria Theresa." It is scored for...
and Octet, Schubert's
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...
Octet
Octet (Schubert)
The Octet in F major, D. 803 was composed by Franz Schubert in March 1824. It was commissioned by the renowned clarinetist Ferdinand Troyer and came from the same period as two of Schubert's other major chamber works, the Rosamunde and the Death and the Maiden string quartets.-Structure:Consisting...
and Ravel's Introduction and Allegro
Introduction and Allegro (Ravel)
Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet was written by Maurice Ravel in 1905...
, played with Osian Ellis
Osian Ellis
Osian Gwynn Ellis CBE is a Welsh harpist and composer.-Career:Osian Ellis was born in Ffynnongroyw, Flintshire in 1928. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Gwendolen Mason, whom he later succeeded as Professor of Harp from 1959 to 1989. He joined the London Symphony Orchestra in 1961...
(harp), Richard Adeney
Richard Adeney
Richard Gilford Adeney was a British flautist who played principal flute with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra, was a soloist and a founding member of the Melos Ensemble.-Biography:...
(flute), Gervase de Pexer (clarinet), Emanuel Hurwitz
Emanuel Hurwitz
Emanuel Hurwitz CBE was a British violinist. He was born in London with parents of Russian-Jewish ancestry....
and Ivor McMahon
Ivor McMahon
Ivor McMahon was an English violinist. He played with notable orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra and is best known for playing second violin in the Melos Ensemble.-Professional career:...
(violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
) and Cecil Aronowitz
Cecil Aronowitz
Cecil Aronowitz was a British viola player, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber musician and an influential teacher at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.-Biography:...
(viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
).He also recorded trios and quartets by 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 Fauré
Faure
Faure or Fauré is a French family name and may refer to:People:* Edgar Faure, French politician* Élie Faure, French art historian and essayist* Émile Alphonse Faure, lead battery pioneer* Cédric Fauré, French football striker...
with the Pro Arte Piano Quartet and string quartets with the Cremona Quartet. He was the cellist in a recording of Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell to a libretto by Nahum Tate. The first known performance was at Josias Priest's girls' school in London no later than the summer of 1688. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid...
by Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
with the English Chamber Orchestra and Janet Baker
Janet Baker
Dame Janet Abbott Baker, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer.She was particularly closely associated with baroque and early Italian opera and the works of Benjamin Britten...
. A 1964 performance of Mozart's Piano Quartet K.478
Piano Quartet No. 1 (Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478, is considered the first major piece composed for piano quartet in the chamber music repertoire.-Composition and reception:...
was filmed in London, with Benjamin Britten (piano), Emanuel Hurwitz and Cecil Aronowitz. Many reviews of his recordings are available in the Gramophone Archive.
Instruments
Terence Weil played an AmatiAmati
Amati is the name of a family of Italian violin makers, who flourished at Cremona from about 1549 to 1740.-Andrea Amati:Andrea Amati was not the earliest maker of violins whose instruments still survive today...
and later a cello built by Matteo Goffriller
Matteo Goffriller
Matteo Goffriller was an Venetian luthier, particularly noted for the quality of his cellos.Although it is known that Goffriller was born in Brixen, little else is known of him prior to his days in Venice before 1685...
that had belonged to Casals before.