Cyril Smith & Phyllis Sellick
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
GHCD3501 CYRIL SMITH & PHYLLIS SELLICK CYRIL SMITH HISTORICAL Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791) Sonata in D major for two pianos K.448 1 Allegro con spirito (7:32) – 2 Andante (8:08) – 3 Allegro molto (5:40) & PHYLLIS SELLICK Recorded London, date unknown, published 1954 (Columbia 33SX 1018 – mono) Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750), arr. Mary Howe 4 “Sheep may safely graze” (from Cantata BWV 208 “Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd”) (4:49) Recorded, London, 2 November 1951 (Originally issued as Columbia DX 1806 (78rpm) – mono, published 1951: reissued in 1959 on Columbia SCD 2105 (45rpm) – mono, from which this restoration has been made) Sergei RACHMANINOFF (1873-1943) Suite No.2 in C major for two pianos Op.17 5 Introduction (Alla Marcia) (3:47) - 6 Valse (Presto) (5:47) 7 Romance (Andantino) (6:36) – 8 Tarantella (Presto) (5:42) Recorded, London, 9 & 10 November 1948 (Columbia DX 1675/77 – mono) Anton ARENSKY (1861-1906) 9 Waltz (from Suite No.1 for two pianos Op.15) (4:17) Recorded, London, 2 November 1951 (Originally issued as Columbia DX 1806 (78rpm) – mono, published 1951: reissued in 1959 on Columbia SCD 2105 (45rpm) – mono, from which this restoration has been made) Arnold BAX (1883-1953) 10 “Moy Mell” (The Happy Plain) – Tone poem for two pianos (1916) (10:13) Recorded Moscow, April 1956 (Aprelevski Plant 003150 – mono) MOZART Sonata in D major for two pianos K.448 Darius MILHAUD (1892-1974) “Scaramouche” – Suite for two pianos Op.165b RACHMANINOFF 11 Vif (2:55) – 12 Modéré (4:13) – 13 Brazileira (2:21) Recorded Moscow, April 1956 (Aprelevski Plant 003151 – mono) Suite No. 2 in C major for two pianos Op.17 And works by J S Bach, Arensky, Bax & Milhaud. 4-hand recordings made between 1948 & 1956 Including the very rare recordings made in Moscow in April 1956 incendiary bomb. Shortly afterwards some works in her repertoire which, *Extract from ‘Duet for Three Hands’, the BBC invited them to perform over the course of her career, Phyllis Cyril Smith’s autobiography as told to Joyce Rachmaninoff’s Suite No.2 for two had to learn in three different ways: Egginton, first published by Angus & pianos: it was these two engagements as second pianist to Cyril’s first, Robertson in November 1958. which catalysed the thought that they then in the three-hand arrangement, should make their duo partnership and finally as first pianist – a Another member of the group of musicians the priority, although both for some phenomenally difficult task for any on the 1956 tour of Russia was the years afterwards continued to accept professional musician, far more violinist Alfredo Campoli, who took some separate invitations as soloists. arduous than learning new repertoire, colour cine-film during their visit, to which as you have first mentally and subsequently his wife, Joy, added an audio When Cyril Smith received his call- physically to ‘unravel’ what you have commentary. This may be viewed in reading up papers following the outbreak of spent years practising so as to be able rooms at the British Library through the Second World War, he was told to perform seemingly instinctively. videoserver please go to: “I should not be required for the Despite this unbelievably daunting http://videoserver.bl.uk/record/105664 Forces, but that my national service hurdle this new duo was also very Cyril Smith (1909–1974) and Phyllis would be to play the piano, not only successful, giving many concerts - Callum Ross was a student of Phyllis Sellick (1911–2007) both enjoyed in concert halls but also in munition one notable occasion being in 1981 Sellick at the Royal College of Music successful careers as soloists for many factories, hospitals and Army camps, when they performed Saint-Saëns between 1977 and 1981. years before they embarked on their wherever I might be needed.”* Cyril ‘Variations on a theme of Beethoven’ career as a duo. Although they had therefore found himself working for and Rachmaninoff’s Suite No.2 before married in 1937, the idea to perform the Entertainments National Service the staff and students of the Royal together came not from them, but Association (ENSA), an organisation College of Music, just weeks before from Sir Henry Wood – the founder which had been set up in 1939 Phyllis Sellick’s 70th birthday. of the famous Promenade Concerts in specifically to entertain the British London – who invited them to play armed forces. Phyllis Sellick was Text © Callum Ross, April 2018 Saint-Saëns “Carnival of the Animals” also performing regularly, the result on the opening night of the season being that very often the couple were Photographs of Cyril Smith & Phyllis Sellick: The Tully Potter Collection of 1941. This event marked not only apart, travelling in different directions throughout the country fulfilling their their duo debut, but also the debut Copyright subsists in all Guild Music Limited recordings and it is illegal to copy them, in whole or in part, for any purpose whatsoever without of the Proms in the Royal Albert respective engagements. However, permission from the copyright holder. Any unauthorized copying or re-recording, broadcasting, or public performance of this or any other Guild once the duo had been formed, they Music Limited recording will constitute an infringement of copyright. Applications for a public performance licence should be sent to Phonographic Hall, the Queen’s Hall having been Performance Ltd., 1 Upper James Street, London W1F 9DE. destroyed in May of that year by an were increasingly invited as a team, 2 7 chose the medical officer from the as Master of the Queen’s Music, had and within two years undertook their soprano in Bach’s Cantata BWV 208 British Embassy in Russia, Dr.Victor been the leader of the group which first foreign engagements, in Portugal. “Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Humphreys, who offered invaluable had travelled to Russia) – and Gordon Subsequently, just after the war in Jagd”, (All that I love is the merry assistance during what was a highly Jacob. One work which Phyllis and Europe had ended, they performed hunt): in the Cantata the soprano problemmatical and uncomfortable Cyril had particularly admired was in Brussels and Paris: in September represents the mythological Pales, journey from Moscow to their Vaughan Williams’ Piano Concerto, 1945, after the war with Japan had Goddess of shepherds and sheep. home in East Sheen, which finally so they decided to commission a ended, they were engaged for a This piano arrangement for four they reached five days later on 13th 3-hand arrangement of the piece: two-month concert tour which took hands was made by Mary Howe. June. Cyril never knew who was the the new score arrived in the post on them to India and Ceylon. Whilst “anonymous friend”: it was only after 1st August 1974. Cyril’s last words they would continue to be invited to Both Phyllis and Cyril had long loved his death that Emmie Tillett, who had to Phyllis were “We’ll start on that perform abroad, it was Britain which the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, initially been sworn to secrecy, was tomorrow morning”, but it was not always remained their base, with some of whose works Cyril especially allowed to reveal to Phyllis that this to be as, quite unexpectedly, he died homes in East Sheen (on the outskirts used often to perform. Indeed, was Sir Adrian Boult. during the night. Phyllis would later of London) and in Cornwall, and the Rachmaninoff’s admiration for Cyril’s Phyllis and Cyril’s ‘three-hand’ recall how much it touched her that, country in which - in due course - playing was such that he ensured that career would last until Cyril’s death until the very end, Cyril was “still they would raise their two children. Walter Legge, then music advisor to in August 1974: indeed, their final looking forward”. HMV and Columbia, was well aware recordings together were made Phyllis had suffered the dual blow This issue features some of the of this. In due course, albeit after the just the previous month. This of losing both her husband and recordings which Phyllis and Cyril composer’s death, this would result in new chapter in their lives began piano-partner, but in due course, in made between 1948 and 1956: with recordings by Cyril of Rachmaninoff’s with an engagement in July 1957 addition to undertaking occasional the exception of the Rachmaninoff Second and Third Piano Concertos, offered by the City of Birmingham engagements as a soloist, she decided Suite, none has previously been and the ‘Rhapsody on a theme of Symphony Orchestra to perform at to join with Terence Beckles to form reissued on compact disc. Mozart Paganini’: this latter recording was the Birmingham Promenade Concerts, another four-hand duo, this time wrote his Sonata for two pianos made just over a month before he where they played Mozart’s 2-piano with Phyllis as first pianist of the K.448 in 1781, when he was 25 years and Phyllis recorded Suite No.2. Concerto K.365 in an arrangement two. When many years ago I asked old: it was intended for a performance Rachmaninoff composed the Suite for three hands by John White, then her why she had chosen him as her he would give with Josephine von in 1901, following a period of a few a student at the Royal College of duo-partner, she replied that he had Aurnhammer, a pianist who also years during which he had written Music. Subsequently a number of been a long-standing friend, and partnered Mozart in his Concerto for very little, having been thoroughly composers wrote or arranged works that “he made me laugh at a time two pianos K.365.