|
Noel Mewton-Wood (20 November 19225 December 1953) was an Australian-born concert pianist who achieved international fame on the basis of many distinguished concerto recordings during his short life. ==Life and career== Born in Melbourne, he studied with Waldemar Seidel at the Melbourne Conservatorium until the age of fourteen. After further study at London's Royal Academy of Music, he took private lessons from Artur Schnabel in Italy. In March 1940, he returned to London for his debut performance at Queen's Hall, performing Beethoven's third piano concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham. He then went on tour in the UK as assisting artist accompanying Viennese tenor Richard Tauber, and later performed in France, Germany, South Africa, Poland, Turkey and Australia. Mewton-Wood's ''The Times'' obituary of 7 December 1953 described his debut performance: Mewton-Wood was a close friend of Benjamin Britten.〔(The Lebrecht Weekly: Big composer who acted small )〕 In 1952-53, while Britten was busy composing his opera ''Gloriana'', he deputized Mewton-Wood to accompany tenor Peter Pears, his partner.〔(Letters from a life: The selected letters of Benjamin Britten 1913-1976 )〕 When only 31, Mewton-Wood committed suicide 〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Noel Mewton-Wood )〕 by drinking prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide), apparently blaming himself for the death from a ruptured appendix of William Fedrick, whom he lived with, feeling he had overlooked the early symptoms. The notes written by a friend of Mewton-Wood, John Amis, for the reissue of the Bliss Concerto recording, confirm that Mewton-Wood was gay and was distraught at his lover's tragic death. Benjamin Britten wrote ''Canticle III: Still falls the rain'' for a concert in Mewton-Wood's memory. In 1962, his old teacher Waldemar Seidel auditioned the 7-year-old Geoffrey Tozer and declared "Noel has come back". Noel Mewton-Wood had died eleven months before Tozer was born. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Noel Mewton-Wood」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|