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106-908: In 1997 the Goldner String Quartet made its debut at the Wigmore Hall in London , and has since appeared there regularly, as well as at the Cheltenham , Newbury and Brighton Festivals , and at the Saison musicale d'été de Sceaux in France. In March 2000, the Quartet performed a major retrospective of 20th century string quartets at the Adelaide Festival . In October 2001 the Quartet made its American debut with concerts at

212-541: A BBC "Concert Hour" programme when he played "Handel in the Strand" on the piano. Back home, after further surgery he recovered sufficiently to undertake a modest winter concerts season. On his 1958 visit to England he met Benjamin Britten , the two having previously maintained a mutually complimentary correspondence. He agreed to visit Britten's Aldeburgh Festival in 1959, but was prevented by illness. Sensing that death

318-672: A "Grainger Festival", as suggested by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, because he felt that his homeland had rejected him and his music. Before leaving Melbourne, he deposited in a bank a parcel that contained an essay and photographs related to his sex life, not to be opened until 10 years after his death. By 1957 Grainger's physical health had markedly declined, as had his powers of concentration. Nevertheless, he continued to visit Britain regularly; in May of that year he made his only television appearance, in

424-473: A 12-year-old, during which he was bullied and ridiculed by his classmates, Percy was educated at home. Rose, an autodidact with a dominating presence, supervised his music and literature studies and engaged other tutors for languages, art and drama. From his earliest lessons, Percy developed a lifelong fascination with Nordic culture ; writing late in life, he said that the Icelandic Saga of Grettir

530-460: A Norwegian sunset by carrying him (with some assistance) to the top of a nearby mountain peak. He returned to White Plains in August 1923. Although now less committed to a year-round schedule of concerts, Grainger remained a very popular performer. His eccentricities, often exaggerated for publicity reasons, reportedly included running into auditoriums in gym kit and leaping over the piano to create

636-662: A Swedish-born artist with whom he developed a close friendship. On arrival in America the pair separated, but were reunited in England the following autumn after Grainger's final folk-song expedition to Denmark. In October 1927 the couple agreed to marry. Ella had a daughter, Elsie, who had been born out of wedlock in 1909. Grainger always acknowledged her as a family member, and developed a warm personal relationship with her. Although Bird asserts that before her marriage, Ella knew nothing of Grainger's sado-masochistic interests, in

742-881: A champion of Nordic music and culture, his enthusiasm for which he often expressed in private letters, sometimes in crudely racial or anti-Semitic terms. In 1914 Grainger moved to the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life, though he travelled widely in Europe and Australia. He served briefly as a bandsman in the United States Army during the First World War through 1917–18, and took American citizenship in 1918. After his mother's suicide in 1922, he became increasingly involved in educational work. He also experimented with music machines, which he hoped would supersede human interpretation. In

848-514: A form of English which, he maintained, reflected the character of the language before the Norman conquest . Words of Norman or Latin origin were replaced by supposedly Nordic word-forms, such as "blend-band" (orchestra), "forthspeaker" (lecturer) and "writ-piece" (article). He called this "blue-eyed" English. His convictions of Nordic superiority eventually led Grainger, in letters to friends, to express his views in crudely racial and anti-Semitic terms;

954-478: A good deal of artistic insight". In 1902 he was presented by the socialite Lillith Lowrey to Queen Alexandra , who thereafter frequently attended his London recitals. Lowrey, 20 years Grainger's senior, traded patronage and contacts for sexual favours – he termed the relationship a "love-serve job". She was the first woman with whom he had sex; he later wrote of this initial encounter that he had experienced "an overpowering landslide" of feeling, and that "I thought I

1060-421: A grand entrance. In 1924, Grainger became a vegetarian , although he hated vegetables; his diet comprised primarily dairy, pastry, fruit, and nuts. While he continued to revise and re-score his compositions, he increasingly worked on arrangements of music by other composers, in particular works by Bach, Brahms, Fauré and Delius. Away from music, Grainger's preoccupation with Nordic culture led him to develop

1166-548: A group of slightly older British students – Roger Quilter , Balfour Gardiner , Cyril Scott and Norman O'Neill , all of whom became his friends – Grainger helped form the Frankfurt Group . Their long-term objective was to rescue British and Scandinavian music from what they considered the negative influences of central European music. Encouraged by Klimsch, Grainger turned away from composing classical pastiches reminiscent of Handel , Haydn and Mozart , and developed

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1272-480: A letter dated 23 April 1928 (four months before the wedding) Grainger writes to her: "As far as my taste goes, blows [with the whip] are most thrilling on breasts, bottom, inner thighs, sexparts." He later adds, "I shall thoroly thoroly [ sic ] understand if you cannot in any way see yr way to follow up this hot wish of mine." The couple were married on 9 August 1928 at the Hollywood Bowl , at

1378-651: A letter to Balfour Gardiner dated 21 July 1901 indicates that he was working on his Marching Song of Democracy (a Walt Whitman setting), and had made good progress with the experimental works Train Music and Charging Irishrey . In his early London years he also composed Hill Song Number 1 (1902), an instrumental piece much admired by Busoni. In 1905, inspired by a lecture given by the pioneer folk-song historian Lucy Broadwood , Grainger began to collect original folk songs. Starting at Brigg in Lincolnshire , over

1484-591: A lineup of additional singers in further Britten works. Later in the season, Wigmore Hall commemorated both Britten's birthday and the anniversary of his death. Since its inception, the Hall has been a major hub for Lieder and art song performance. The British première of Schubert 's Die schöne Müllerin took place at Wigmore Hall in 1903 as well as the first UK performance of Janáček 's song cycle The Diary of One Who Disappeared in 1922. Peter Schreier , Janet Baker and Margaret Price performed regularly at

1590-478: A music festival in Torquay . Thomas Beecham , who was one of the festival's guest conductors, reported to Delius that "Percy was good in the forte passages, but made far too much noise in the quieter bits". Grainger was receiving increasing recognition as a composer; leading musicians and orchestras were adding his works to their repertoires. His decision to leave England for America in early September 1914, after

1696-528: A nervous collapse and could no longer work. To replace lost income, Grainger began giving piano lessons and public performances; his first solo recital was in Frankfurt on 6 December 1900. Meanwhile, he continued his studies with Kwast, and increased his repertoire until he was confident he could support himself and his mother as a concert pianist. Having chosen London as his future base, in May 1901 Grainger abandoned his studies. With Rose, he left Frankfurt for

1802-454: A new series of informal performances which showcase emerging talent. Behind the Music is a programme of study events including talks, lecture-recitals, masterclasses, study groups and Come and Sing days. 51°31′00″N 0°08′57″W  /  51.516535°N 0.149292°W  / 51.516535; -0.149292 Percy Grainger Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger ; 8 July 1882 – 20 February 1961)

1908-470: A number of contemporary public art works; he later became principal of the Edinburgh College of Art . After the completion of the design, the cupola was executed by the sculptor Frank Lynn Jenkins . It was restored in 1991 and 1992 and has often been featured in the Hall's marketing and print material. The Hall is considered to have one of the best acoustics for classical music in Europe. It

2014-451: A personal compositional style, the originality and maturity of which quickly impressed and astonished his friends. At this time Grainger discovered the poetry of Rudyard Kipling and began setting it to music; according to Scott, "No poet and composer have been so suitably wedded since Heine and Schumann." After accompanying her son on an extended European tour in the summer of 1900, Rose, whose health had been poor for some time, suffered

2120-501: A regular encore he began to play a piano setting of the tune "Country Gardens". The piece became instantly popular; sheet music sales quickly broke many publishing records. The work was to become synonymous with Grainger's name through the rest of his life, though he came in time to detest it. On 3 June 1918 he became a naturalised American citizen. After leaving the army in January 1919, Grainger refused an offer to become conductor of

2226-519: A restaurant on the lower ground floor, below the main auditorium. Wigmore Hall enjoyed a number of long associations with many great artists of the 20th century including Elisabeth Schwarzkopf , Victoria de los Ángeles , Sergey Prokofiev , Shura Cherkassky , Paul Hindemith , Andrés Segovia , Peter Pears , Benjamin Britten and Francis Poulenc . The Hall maintained a particularly fruitful relationship with Benjamin Britten, both as composer and performer. His Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings ,

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2332-550: A role Grainger was not willing to fulfil. Grainger returned to London in July 1903; almost immediately he departed with Rose on a 10-month tour of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa , as a member of a party organised by the Australian contralto Ada Crossley . Before going to London Grainger had composed numerous Kipling settings and his first mature orchestral pieces. In London, when he found time he continued to compose;

2438-490: A series of lectures under the heading "A General Study of the Manifold Nature of Music", which introduced his students to a wide range of ancient and modern works. On 25 October 1932 his lecture was illustrated by Duke Ellington and his band, who appeared in person; Grainger admired Ellington's music, seeing harmonic similarities with Delius. On the whole, however, Grainger did not enjoy his tenure at NYU; he disliked

2544-665: A weekly concert broadcast on BBC Radio 3 . The Bechstein Hall was built between 1899 and 1901 by C. Bechstein Pianofortefabrik , the German piano manufacturer, whose showroom was next door. The British architect Thomas Edward Collcutt was commissioned to design the space. Collcutt was also responsible for the Savoy Hotel on The Strand (since modified) and the Palace Theatre on Cambridge Circus (originally

2650-447: A wide circle of friends. These included David Mitchell , whose daughter Helen later gained worldwide fame as an operatic soprano under the name Nellie Melba . John's claims to have "discovered" her are unfounded, although he may have offered her encouragement. John was a heavy drinker and a womaniser who, Rose learned after the marriage, had fathered a child in England before coming to Australia. His promiscuity placed deep strains upon

2756-690: A year before his death. Grainger was born on 8 July 1882 in Brighton , south-east of Melbourne. His father, John Grainger , an English-born architect who had emigrated to Australia in 1877, won recognition for his design of the Princes Bridge across the Yarra River in Melbourne; His mother Rose Annie Aldridge was the daughter of Adelaide hotelier George Aldridge . John Grainger was an accomplished artist, with broad cultural interests and

2862-616: Is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music . They commenced in 1987. Wigmore Hall The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street , in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall ; it is considered to have particularly good acoustics . It specialises in performances of chamber music , early music, vocal music and song recitals, and hosts over five hundred concerts each year, as well as

2968-569: Is dated 1893. Pabst arranged Grainger's first public concert appearances, at Melbourne's Masonic Hall in July and September 1894. The boy played works by Bach , Beethoven , Schumann and Scarlatti , and was warmly complimented in the Melbourne press. After Pabst returned to Europe in the autumn of 1894, Grainger's new piano tutor, Adelaide Burkitt, arranged for his appearances at a series of concerts in October 1894 at Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building . The size of this enormous venue horrified

3074-748: Is his piano arrangement of the folk-dance tune " Country Gardens ". Grainger left Australia at the age of 13 to attend the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt . Between 1901 and 1914 he was based in London, where he established himself first as a society pianist and later as a concert performer, composer, and collector of original folk melodies. As his reputation grew he met many of the significant figures in European music, forming important friendships with Frederick Delius and Edvard Grieg . He became

3180-545: Is now known as the Percy Grainger Home and Studio . This was his home for the remainder of his life. From the beginning of 1922 Rose's health deteriorated sharply; she was suffering from delusions and nightmares, and became fearful that her illness would harm her son's career. Because of the closeness of the bond between the two, there had long been rumours that their relationship was incestuous; in April 1922 Rose

3286-563: Is reminiscent in style both of the 20th-century Second Viennese School and the Italian madrigalists of the 16th and 17th centuries. Malcolm Gillies , a Grainger scholar, writes of Grainger's style that "you know it is 'Grainger' when you have heard about one second of a piece". The music's most individual characteristic, Gillies argues, is its texture – "the weft of the fabric", according to Grainger. Different textures are defined by Grainger as "smooth", "grained" and "prickly". Grainger

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3392-590: The 92nd Street Y in New York City , and in Washington, D.C. It has undertaken three extensive tours of New Zealand , including in 2006, and also toured to Korea that year. The quartet performed its first complete Beethoven cycle for Musica Viva in 2004, a live recording of which has been released by ABC Classics. It is particularly interested in 20th-century music , and has recorded an album of string quartets by Carl Vine . BBC Music Magazine judged

3498-602: The Interlochen National Music Camp , and taught regularly at its summer schools until 1944. The idea of establishing a Grainger Museum in Australia had first occurred to Grainger in 1932. He began collecting and recovering from friends letters and artefacts, even those demonstrating the most private aspects of his life, such as whips, bloodstained shirts and revealing photographs. In September 1933 he and Ella went to Australia to begin supervising

3604-892: The Royal English Opera House ), with which the Hall shares pale terracotta ornamentation. Bechstein Hall opened on 31 May 1901 with a concert featuring pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni and violinist Eugène Ysaÿe . During its early period the Hall attracted great musicians like Artur Schnabel , Peter Arnold , Pablo Sarasate , Percy Grainger , Myra Hess , Arthur Rubinstein , Vladimir Rosing , Alexander Siloti , Camille Saint-Saëns , Jascha Spivakovsky , Max Reger and Marian Anderson (who performed there in 1933). The Bechstein Company built similar concert halls in Saint Petersburg and Paris, though like its London offices and performing space, these and

3710-542: The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and resumed his career as a concert pianist. He was soon performing around 120 concerts a year, generally to great critical acclaim, and in April 1921 reached a wider audience by performing in a cinema, New York's Capitol Theatre . Grainger commented that the huge audiences at these cinema concerts often showed greater appreciation for his playing than those at established concert venues such as Carnegie Hall and

3816-498: The Takács Quartet , given to mark the beginning of a year-long international celebration of the 100th anniversary of Britten's birth. Wigmore Hall's 2019–20 season featured a series focusing on Britten and his connections with the venue. Allan Clayton and James Baillieu commemorated the first performance of Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo , given by Britten and his partner, the tenor Peter Pears, on 23 September 1942, alongside

3922-717: The attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war in December 1941; the historian Robert Simon calculates that Grainger made a total of 274 charity appearances during the war years, many of them at Army and Air Force camps. In 1942 a collection of his Kipling settings, the Jungle Book cycle, was performed in eight cities by the band of the Gustavus Adolphus College from St. Peter, Minnesota . Exhausted from his wartime concerts routine, Grainger spent much of 1946 on holiday in Europe. He

4028-495: The piano concerto . Grieg was greatly impressed with Grainger's playing, and wrote: "I have written Norwegian Peasant Dances that no one in my country can play, and here comes this Australian who plays them as they ought to be played! He is a genius that we Scandinavians cannot do other than love." During 1906–07 the two maintained a mutually complimentary correspondence, which culminated in Grainger's ten-day visit in July 1907 to

4134-465: The "Cross-Grainger Kangaroo-pouch", was completed by 1952. Developments in transistor technology encouraged Grainger and Cross to begin work on a fourth, entirely electronic machine, which was incomplete when Grainger died. In September 1955 Grainger made his final visit to Australia, where he spent nine months organising and arranging exhibits for the Grainger Museum . He refused to consider

4240-497: The 'First English Folksong Revival ' ". As his stature in the music world increased, Grainger became acquainted with many of its leading figures, including Vaughan Williams , Elgar , Richard Strauss and Debussy . In 1907 he met Frederick Delius , with whom he achieved an immediate rapport – the two musicians had similar ideas about composition and harmony, and shared a dislike for the classical German masters. Both were inspired by folk music; Grainger gave Delius his setting of

4346-549: The 1930s he set up the Grainger Museum in Melbourne , his birthplace, as a monument to his life and works, and as a future research archive. As he grew older, he continued to give concerts and to revise and rearrange his own compositions, while writing little new music. After the Second World War , ill health reduced his levels of activity. He considered his career a failure. He gave his last concert in 1960, less than

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4452-555: The 2024 season would be its last. The quartet consists of Dene Olding and Dimity Hall (violins), Irina Morozova (viola; an ex-pupil of Goldner) and Julian Smiles (cello). These players are familiar to each other as they all are members of the Australia Ensemble (a group based at the University of New South Wales ). In addition, Olding and Morozova are married, as are Hall and Smiles. The ARIA Music Awards

4558-613: The 70th birthday of its founder. Afterward, Grainger denigrated his own music as "commonplace" while praising Darius Milhaud 's Suite Française , with which it had shared the programme. On 10 August 1948, Grainger appeared at the London Proms , playing the piano part in his Suite on Danish Folksongs with the London Symphony Orchestra under Basil Cameron . On 18 September he attended the Last Night of

4664-508: The Aeolian. In the summer of 1919 he led a course in piano technique at Chicago Musical College , the first of many such educational duties he would undertake in later years. Amid his concert and teaching duties, Grainger found time to re-score many of his works (a habit he continued throughout his life) and also to compose new pieces: his Children's March: Over the Hills and Far Away , and

4770-635: The Austrian pianist Helmut Deutsch . Since 1994, Wigmore Hall's Learning programme has been giving people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities opportunities to take part in creative music making, engaging a broad and diverse audience through creative projects, concerts, workshops and online resources. Every year there are around 600 Learning events, with nearly 30,000 visits to the programme. Wigmore Hall Learning collaborates with community, education, arts, health and social care organisations, working in partnership to engage people who might not otherwise have

4876-692: The Cardinal Hume Centre, which enable people to gain the skills they need to overcome poverty and homelessness, and activity with Solace Women's Aid, which supports women and children who have experienced domestic violence. Pathways is a range of schemes and events which provides a platform for emerging artists, supporting the next generation of musicians and music leaders. This includes annual Trainee Music Leaders, Royal Academy of Music / Wigmore Hall Fellowship Ensemble and RPS / Wigmore Hall Apprentice Composer schemes, as well as Bechstein Sessions,

4982-588: The Doric String Quartet, The Elias String Quartet, Ning Feng, Francesco Piemontesi, Alina Ibragimova, Mahan Esfahni, Arcangelo, Hilary Hahn, Thomas Ades, Sir George Benjamin, Julia Fisher, Nicola Benedetti, Isabele Faust, Bretton Brown, and Christian Gerharher have become associated with and connected to Wigmore Hall through concert series and artistic residencies. The Hall is noted for helping young artists launch and develop their international careers. The following chamber works had their UK premières at

5088-513: The Goldners' recording of music by Ernest Bloch "one of the year's top three releases". The Goldners have played throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well in the UK, USA, Korea, Finland, France and Italy, and with artists such as Boris Berman , Ian Munro , Piers Lane , Daniel Adni , Malcolm Bilson , Brett Dean and Slava Grigoryan . In August 2023 the Goldner String Quartet announced that

5194-710: The Hall has committed to premièring 13 new works per season. The biennial Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera International Song Competition (formerly the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition) was founded in 1997 and has run at the venue since then. After 20 years of support from The Kohn Foundation, the 2019 Competition was sponsored by Independent Opera at Sadler's Wells. Independent Opera's relationship with Wigmore Hall dates back 10 years to its first Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera Voice Fellowship awarded to bass Matthew Rose . The Preliminary Round,

5300-593: The Hall's core repertoire of classical song, chamber and early music, as well as introducing new initiatives to attract a more diverse audience. Gilhooly introduced jazz evenings, curated by the American jazz pianist Brad Mehldau . World music is also a regular feature and there is a series of late night concerts, which have attracted new younger listeners. The previous artistic director was Paul Kildea . Before him, William Lyne served as director for 37 years from 1966 to 2003, during which time he introduced themed seasons,

5406-560: The Hall, and in recent years Wigmore has produced recitals featuring Thomas Quasthoff , Ian Bostridge , Susan Graham , Mark Padmore , Sir Thomas Allen , Matthias Goerne , Dame Felicity Lott , Angelika Kirchschlager , Simon Keenlyside , Anne Sofie von Otter , Wolfgang Holzmair , Christopher Maltman , Andreas Scholl , and Soile Isokoski . More recent performers include Christian Gerhaher , Florian Boesch , Roderick Williams , Iestyn Davies , Sandrine Piau , Lucy Crowe and Henk Neven. Instrumentalists and chamber groups performing at

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5512-547: The Hall: Janáček 's Sonata for violin and piano; Bartók 's six string quartets; Schoenberg 's String Quartet No. 2; Debussy 's Violin Sonata; Copland 's Contrasts; and Richard Strauss 's Sextet from Capriccio . Wigmore Hall's director is Limerick -born John Gilhooly , OBE, a classical singer. He joined as CEO in 2000 and became artistic director in addition in 2005 at the age of 32. Gilhooly has maintained and expanded

5618-584: The Proms , standing in the promenade section for Delius's Brigg Fair . Over the next few years several friends died: Gardiner in 1950, Quilter and Karen Holten in 1953. In October 1953 Grainger was operated on for abdominal cancer; his fight against this disease would last for the rest of his life. He continued to appear at concerts, often performed in church halls and educational establishments rather than major concert venues. In 1954, after his last Carnegie Hall appearance, Grainger's long promotion of Grieg's music

5724-821: The Second String Quartet, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne and Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo were premièred at the Hall, as were extracts from the opera Peter Grimes (ahead of its world première at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in June 1945). Wigmore Hall commemorated its association with Britten with a series of performances and events entitled 'Before Life and After' in November and December 2012. Those concerts featured artists such as Alice Coote , Ann Murray , Mark Padmore , Gerald Finley , Julius Drake , Malcolm Martineau , Martyn Brabbins , Nash Ensemble and

5830-602: The Second World War, he composed "The Duke of Marlborough's Fanfare", giving it the subtitle "British War Mood Grows". The outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939 curtailed Grainger's overseas travelling. In the autumn of 1940, alarmed that the war might precipitate an invasion of the United States eastern seaboard, he and Ella moved to Springfield, Missouri , in the centre of the continent. From 1940 Grainger played regularly in charity concerts, especially after

5936-686: The Semi-Finals and Final are held at Wigmore Hall. Sinc July 2020 the Hall has also hosted the triennial Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition (formerly The London International String Quartet Competition and initially the Portsmouth International String Quartet Competition). Singers and pianists aged 33 or under from around the world are eligible. The hall is a venue for broadcasting and recording . BBC Radio 3 transmits its lunchtime concert from Wigmore Hall every Monday during

6042-466: The Strand", "Shepherd's Hey" and " Molly on the Shore " date from this period. In 1908 he obtained the tune of "Country Gardens" from the folk music specialist Cecil Sharp , though he did not fashion it into a performable piece for another ten years. In 1911 Grainger finally felt confident enough of his standing as a pianist to begin large-scale publishing of his compositions. At the same time, he adopted

6148-593: The Strong was "the strongest single artistic influence on my life". As well as showing precocious musical talents, he displayed considerable early gifts as an artist, to the extent that his tutors thought his future might lie in art rather than music. At the age of 10 he began studying piano under Louis Pabst, a German-born graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, Melbourne's leading piano teacher. Grainger's first known composition, "A Birthday Gift to Mother",

6254-611: The UK. Before leaving Frankfurt, Grainger had fallen in love with Kwast's daughter Mimi. In an autobiographical essay dated 1947, he says that he was "already sex-crazy" at this time, when he was 19. John Bird, Grainger's biographer, records that during his Frankfurt years, Grainger began to develop sexual appetites that were "distinctly abnormal"; by the age of 16 he had started to experiment in flagellation and other sado-masochistic practices, which he continued to pursue through most of his adult life. Bird surmises that Grainger's fascination with themes of punishment and pain derived from

6360-727: The White Plains hospital on 20 February 1961, at the age of 78. His remains were buried in the Aldridge family vault in the West Terrace Cemetery , alongside Rose's ashes. Ella survived him by 18 years; in 1972, aged 83, she married a young archivist, Stewart Manville. She died at White Plains on 17 July 1979. Grainger's own works fall into two categories: original compositions and folk music arrangements. Besides these, he wrote many settings of other composers' works. Despite his conservatory training, he rebelled against

6466-518: The building of the museum proceeded, the Graingers visited England for several months in 1936, during which Grainger made his first BBC broadcast. In this, he conducted "Love Verses from The Song of Solomon " in which the tenor soloist was the then unknown Peter Pears . After spending 1937 in America, Grainger returned to Melbourne in 1938 for the official opening of the Museum; among those present at

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6572-481: The building work. To finance the project, Grainger embarked on a series of concerts and broadcasts, in which he subjected his audiences to a vast range of the world's music in accordance with his "universalist" view. Controversially, he argued for the superior achievements of Nordic composers over traditionally recognised masters such as Mozart and Beethoven. Among various new ideas, Grainger introduced his so-called "free-music" theories. He believed that conformity with

6678-406: The business as a whole suffered during the First World War . Bechstein was forced to cease trading in Britain on 5 June 1916 after the passing of the Trading with the Enemy Amendment Act 1916 and all property, including the concert hall and the showrooms, was seized and summarily closed. In 1916 the Hall was sold as enemy property at auction to Debenhams for £56,500 – a figure considerably short of

6784-438: The ceremony was his old piano teacher Adelaide Burkitt. The museum did not open to the general public during Grainger's lifetime, but was available to scholars for research. In the late 1930s Grainger spent much time arranging his works in settings for wind bands. He wrote Lincolnshire Posy for the March 1937 convention of the American Band Masters' Association in Milwaukee , and in 1939, on his last visit to England before

6890-401: The composer's Norwegian home, "Troldhaugen" near Bergen . Here the two spent much time revising and rehearsing the piano concerto in preparation for that year's Leeds Festival . Plans for a long-term working relationship were ended by Grieg's sudden death in September 1907; nevertheless, this relatively brief acquaintance had a considerable impact on Grainger, and he championed Grieg's music for

6996-556: The disciplines of the central European tradition, largely rejecting conventional forms such as symphony , sonata , concerto , and opera . With few exceptions, his original compositions are miniatures, lasting between two and eight minutes. Only a few of his works originated as piano pieces, though in due course almost all of them were, in his phrase, "dished up" in piano versions. The conductor John Eliot Gardiner describes Grainger as "a true original in terms of orchestration and imaginative instrumentation", whose terseness of expression

7102-400: The end of a concert which, in honour of the bride, had included the first performance of Grainger's bridal song "To a Nordic Princess". From the late 1920s and early 1930s Grainger became involved increasingly with educational work in schools and colleges, and in late 1931 accepted a year's appointment for 1932–33 as professor of music at New York University (NYU). In this role he delivered

7208-445: The first concert devoted entirely to his own compositions, at the Aeolian Hall, London ; the concert was, he reported, "a sensational success". A similarly enthusiastic reception was given to Grainger's music at a second series of Gardiner concerts the following year. In 1905 Grainger began a close friendship with Karen Holten, a Danish music student who had been recommended to him as a piano pupil. She became an important confidante;

7314-418: The first of which was the Fauré Series in 1979–80, with subsequent programmes dedicated to Schumann , Purcell , Bach , Ligeti , Haydn , Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams . Building on its heritage, Wigmore Hall has become a major commissioner of new music. On 31 August 2007, John Gilhooly announced a scheme for modern composers. Wigmore fosters further links with the contemporary music scene through

7420-458: The folk song Brigg Fair , which the older composer developed into his well-known orchestral rhapsody, dedicated to Grainger. The two remained close friends until Delius's death in 1934. Grainger first met Edvard Grieg at the home of the London financier Sir Edgar Speyer , in May 1906. As a student, Grainger had learned to appreciate the Norwegian's harmonic originality, and by 1906 had several Grieg pieces in his concert repertoire, including

7526-492: The hall include Leslie Howard , Vladimir Ashkenazy , Charlie Siem , Stephen Kovacevich , András Schiff , Joshua Bell , Maxim Vengerov , Angela Hewitt , Steven Isserlis , Pierre-Laurent Aimard , Steven Osborne , Stephen Hough , Bruce Brubaker , the Nash Ensemble , the Beaux Arts and Florestan Trios and the Artemis, Aviv , Belcea, Emerson, Endellion, Hagen, Jerusalem, Takács and Zehetmair Quartets. In recent years, artists and ensembles including Igor Levit, Iestyn Davies,

7632-410: The harsh discipline to which Rose had subjected him as a child. In London, Grainger's charm, good looks and talent (with some assistance from the local Australian community) ensured that he was quickly taken up as a pianist by wealthy patrons. He was soon performing in concerts in private homes. The Times critic reported after one such appearance that Grainger's playing "revealed rare intelligence and

7738-571: The institutional formality, and found the university generally unreceptive to his ideas. Despite many offers he never accepted another formal academic appointment, and refused all offers of honorary degrees . His New York lectures became the basis for a series of radio talks which he gave for the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1934–35; these were later summarised and published as Music: A Commonsense View of All Types . In 1937 Grainger began an association with

7844-503: The introduction of its Composer-in-Residence scheme. Luke Bedford became the first Composer-in-Residence in 2009 and was succeeded by Julian Anderson in 2013. Alongside performances of their work, Wigmore has featured series of concerts dedicated to the music of Sir George Benjamin , Huw Watkins , Thomas Larcher , Elliott Carter , Brett Dean , Kevin Volans , James MacMillan and Jörg Widmann . The 2019–20 season Composer-in-Residence

7950-404: The last decade of his life was his work with Burnett Cross, a young physics teacher, on free music machines. The first of these was a relatively simple device controlled by an adapted pianola . Next was the "Estey-reed tone-tool", a form of giant harmonica which, Grainger expectantly informed his stepdaughter Elsie in April 1951, would be ready to play free music "in a few weeks". A third machine,

8056-499: The letter: "Your poor insane mother". After Rose's funeral, Grainger sought solace in a return to work. In autumn 1922 he left for a year-long trip to Europe, where he collected and recorded Danish folk songs before a concert tour that took him to Norway, the Netherlands, Germany and England. In Norway he stayed with Delius at the latter's summer home. Delius was by now almost blind; Grainger helped fulfill his friend's wish to see

8162-526: The music historian David Pear describes Grainger as, "at root, a racial bigot of no small order". Grainger made further trips to Europe in 1925 and 1927, collecting more Danish folk music with the aid of the octogenarian ethnologist Evald Tang Kristensen ; this work formed the basis of the Suite on Danish Folksongs of 1928–30. He also visited Australia and New Zealand, in 1924 and again in 1926. In November 1926, while returning to America, he met Ella Ström,

8268-402: The next five years he gathered and transcribed more than 300 songs from all over the country, including much material that had never been written down before. From 1906 Grainger used a phonograph, one of the first collectors to do so, and by this means he assembled more than 200 Edison cylinder recordings of native folk singers. These activities coincided with what Bird calls "the halcyon days of

8374-542: The next two years his engagements included concerts with Melba in Boston and Pittsburgh and a command performance before President Woodrow Wilson . In addition to his concert performances, Grainger secured a contract with Duo-Art for making pianola rolls, and signed a recording contract with Columbia Records . In April 1917 Grainger received news of his father's death in Perth. On 9 June 1917, after America's entry into

8480-664: The opportunity to take part. The programme includes work with schools, including concerts, teacher training, projects with hospital schools and the innovative Partner Schools Programme, in which Wigmore Hall Learning works in partnership with schools and Music Education Hubs to co-produce activity over three years, creating a creative whole school plan for music. Families are invited to the hall to take part in interactive workshops and concerts for families with babies, children in their early years and children aged 5+. Community partnerships include Music for Life (for people living with dementia and their families, friends and carers), projects with

8586-572: The orchestral version of The Power of Rome and the Christian Heart both originated in this period. He also began to develop the technique of elastic scoring , a form of flexible orchestration which enabled works to be performed by different numbers of players and instrument types, from small chamber groups up to full orchestral strength. In April 1921 Grainger moved with his mother to a large house in White Plains, New York in what

8692-422: The outbreak of the First World War , damaged his reputation among his patriotically minded British friends. Grainger wrote that the reason for this abrupt departure was "to give mother a change" – she had been unwell for years. However, according to Bird, Grainger often explained that his reason for leaving London was that "he wanted to emerge as Australia's first composer of worth, and to have laid himself open to

8798-627: The possibility of being killed would have rendered his goal unattainable". The Daily Telegraph music critic Robin Legge accused him of cowardice, and told him not to expect a welcome in England after the war, words that hurt Grainger deeply. Grainger's first American tour began on 11 February 1915 with a recital at New York's Aeolian Hall . He played works by Bach, Brahms , Handel and Chopin alongside two of his own compositions: "Colonial Song" and "Mock Morris". In July 1915 Grainger formally registered his intention to apply for US citizenship. Over

8904-476: The professional name of "Percy Aldridge Grainger" for his published compositions and concert appearances. In a series of concerts arranged by Balfour Gardiner at London's Queen's Hall in March 1912, five of Grainger's works were performed to great public acclaim; the band of thirty guitars and mandolins for the performance of "Fathers and Daughters" created a particular impression. On 21 May 1912 Grainger presented

9010-457: The relationship persisted for eight years, largely through correspondence. After her marriage in 1916, she and Grainger continued to correspond and occasionally met until her death in 1953. Grainger was briefly engaged in 1913 to another pupil, Margot Harrison, but the relationship foundered through a mixture of Rose's over-possessiveness and Grainger's indecision. In April 1914 Grainger gave his first performance of Delius's piano concerto , at

9116-648: The relationship. Rose discovered shortly after Percy's birth that she had contracted a form of syphilis from her husband. Despite this, the Graingers stayed together until 1890, when John went to England for medical treatment. After his return to Australia, they lived apart. Rose took over the work of raising Percy, while John pursued his career as chief architect to the Western Australian Department of Public Works. He had some private work, designing Nellie Melba's home, Coombe Cottage, at Coldstream . Except for three months' formal schooling as

9222-630: The rest of his life. After fulfilling a hectic schedule of concert engagements in Britain and continental Europe, in August 1908 Grainger accompanied Ada Crossley on a second Australasian tour, during which he added several cylinders of Maori and Polynesian music to his collection of recordings. He had resolved to establish himself as a top-ranking pianist before promoting himself as a composer, though he continued to compose both original works and folk-song settings. Some of his most successful and most characteristic pieces, such as " Mock Morris ", "Handel in

9328-666: The season, which runs from September to July. Recent BBC Lunchtime Concerts have featured Benjamin Grosvenor , the Škampa Quartet, Christoph Denoth, Noriko Ogawa , Gautier Capuçon , Gabriela Montero , the ATOS Trio, Clara Mouriz, Mark Padmore and Yevgeny Sudbin . A number of evening concerts are also broadcast live or recorded for later transmission on Sky Arts TV as well as being released by recording companies. Wigmore Hall also publishes recordings of concerts by prominent artists on its own record label Wigmore Hall Live, receiving

9434-482: The special award Label of the Year in the 2011 Gramophone Awards. The label entered the classical charts with a recital by the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson , which has also been nominated for a Gramophone Award. Recent additions to the catalogue include recitals by the violinist Maxim Vengerov of works by Bach and Beethoven and baritone Roderick Williams's concert of works by Mahler, Korngold and Schumann, accompanied by

9540-521: The tenure, until 1892, of Clara Schumann as head of piano studies. Grainger's piano tutor was James Kwast , who developed his young pupil's skills to the extent that, within a year, Grainger was being lauded as a prodigy. Grainger had difficult relations with his original composition teacher, Iwan Knorr ; he withdrew from Knorr's classes to study composition privately with Karl Klimsch, an amateur composer and folk-music enthusiast, whom he would later honour as "my only composition teacher". Together with

9646-448: The traditional rules of set scales, rhythms and harmonic procedures amounted to "absurd goose-stepping", from which music should be set free. He demonstrated two experimental compositions of free music, performed initially by a string quartet and later by the use of electronic theremins . He believed that ideally, free music required non-human performance, and spent much of his later life developing machines to realise this vision. While

9752-518: The war, he enlisted as a bandsman in the US Army with the military band of the 15th Coast Artillery in Fort Hamilton . He had joined as a saxophonist , though he records learning the oboe : "I long for the time when I can blow my oboe well enough to play in the band". In his 18 months' service, Grainger made frequent appearances as a pianist at Red Cross and Liberty bond concerts. As

9858-416: The young pianist; nevertheless, his performance delighted the Melbourne critics, who dubbed him "the flaxen-haired phenomenon who plays like a master". This public acclaim helped Rose to decide that her son should continue his studies at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt , Germany, an institution recommended by William Laver, head of piano studies at Melbourne's Conservatorium of music. Financial assistance

9964-524: The £100,000 cost of the building alone. It was then rechristened Wigmore Hall and opened under the new name in 1917. The Wigmore Hall follows the Renaissance style , using alabaster and marble walls, which furnish a flat, rectangular hall with a small raised stage area complete with a cupola above depicting the Soul of Music. The distinctive mural was designed by Gerald Moira , who was responsible for

10070-550: Was Vijay Iyer . In 2012, John Gilhooly publicised a renewed commissioning scheme, supported by a major gift from the Fondation Hoffmann and its president, the Swiss businessman, conservationist and philanthropist, André Hoffmann. The Fondation's donation has ensured the commission of new works by Julian Anderson, Peter Eötvös , Anna Meredith , Nico Muhly , Wolfgang Rihm , Judith Weir and Jörg Widmann and from 2013

10176-923: Was a musical democrat; he believed that in a performance each player's role should be of equal importance. His elastic scoring technique was developed to enable groups of all sizes and combinations of instruments to give effective performances of his music. Experimentation is evident in Grainger's earliest works; irregular rhythms based on rapid changes of time signature were employed in Love Verses from "The Song of Solomon" (1899), and Train Music (1901), long before Stravinsky adopted this practice. In search of specific sounds Grainger employed unconventional instruments and techniques: solovoxes, theremins , marimbas , musical glasses , harmoniums , banjos , and ukuleles . In one early concert of folk music, Quilter and Scott were conscripted as performers, to whistle various parts. In "Random Round" (1912–14), inspired by

10282-552: Was about to die. If I remember correctly, I only experienced fear of death. I don't think that any joy entered into it". In February 1902 Grainger made his first appearance as a piano soloist with an orchestra, playing Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto with the Bath Pump Room Orchestra. In October of that year he toured Britain in a concert party with Adelina Patti , the Italian-born opera singer. Patti

10388-601: Was affecting his concentration. On this occasion his morning recital went well, but his conducting in the afternoon was, in his own words, "a fiasco". Subsequently confined to his home, he continued to revise his music and arrange that of others; in August he informed Elsie that he was working on an adaptation of one of Cyril Scott's early songs. His last letters, written from hospital in December 1960 and January 1961, record attempts to work, despite failing eyesight and hallucinations: "I have been trying to write score for several days. But I have not succeeded yet." Grainger died in

10494-459: Was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who moved to the United States in 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. 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. Although much of his work was experimental and unusual, the piece with which he is most generally associated

10600-672: Was directly challenged over this issue by her friend Lotta Hough. From her last letter to Grainger, dated 29 April, it seems that this confrontation unbalanced Rose; on 30 April, while Grainger was touring on the West Coast, she jumped to her death from an office window on the 18th floor of the Aeolian Building in New York City. The letter, which began "I am out of my mind and cannot think properly", asked Grainger if he had ever spoken to Lotta of "improper love". She signed

10706-559: Was drawing near, he made a new will, bequeathing his skeleton "for preservation and possible display in the Grainger Museum". This wish was not carried out. Through the winter of 1959–60 Grainger continued to perform his own music, often covering long distances by bus or train; he would not travel by air. On 29 April 1960 he gave his last public concert, at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire , although by now his illness

10812-585: Was greatly taken by the young pianist and prophesied a glorious career for him. The following year he met the German-Italian composer and pianist Ferruccio Busoni . Initially the two men were on cordial terms (Busoni offered to give Grainger lessons free of charge) and, as a result, Grainger spent part of the 1903 summer in Berlin as Busoni's pupil. However, the visit was not a success; as Bird notes, Busoni had expected "a willing slave and adoring disciple",

10918-569: Was recognised when he was awarded the St. Olav Medal by King Haakon of Norway . But he expressed a growing bitterness in his writings and correspondence; in a letter to the Danish composer Herman Sandby, a lifelong friend, he bemoaned the continuing ascendency in music of the "German form", and asserted that "all my compositional life I have been a leader without followers". After 1950 Grainger virtually ceased to compose. His principal creative activity in

11024-503: Was refurbished in 2004 and was widely praised for being completed on time and on budget. The Hall's current capacity, spread across the stalls and a smaller balcony, is 545 seats. In 2005, the Wigmore Hall Trust purchased a long lease of 300 years for £3.1m. This both secured the future of the Hall and allowed money previously required for rent to be used for further development of its artistic programme. There are two bars and

11130-680: Was secured through a fund-raising benefit concert in Melbourne and a final recital in Adelaide, after which mother and son left Australia for Europe on 29 May 1895. Although Grainger never returned permanently to Australia, he maintained considerable patriotic feelings for his native land, and was proud of his Australian heritage. In Frankfurt, Rose established herself as a teacher of English; her earnings were supplemented by contributions from John Grainger, who had settled in Perth . The Hoch Conservatory's reputation for piano teaching had been enhanced by

11236-539: Was suffering a sense of career failure; in 1947, when refusing the Chair of Music at Adelaide University , he wrote: "If I were 40 years younger, and not so crushed by defeat in every branch of music I have essayed, I am sure I would have welcomed such a chance". In January 1948 he conducted the premiere of his wind band setting of The Power of Rome and the Christian Heart , written for the Goldman Band to celebrate

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