ENGLISH PIANIST CYRIL SMITH (1909-1974) 2 CDR

 

CYRIL SMITH (COSTA STREET, MIDDLESBROUGH, ENGLAND, AUGUST 11, 1909 – LONDON, ENGLAND, AUGUST 2, 1974)

 

 

Smith was born at Costa Street, Middlesbrough, England, the son of Charles Smith, a foundry bricklayer, and Eva Harrison, and had an older brother and sister. He married Andrée Antoinette Marie Paty in 1931 but the marriage ended in divorce. In 1937 he married Phyllis Sellick. They had a son, Graham, and a daughter, Clare and remained married until his death. Smith died in 1974 at his home in East Sheen, London, as a result of a stroke. From 1926 to 1930, Cyril Smith studied with Herbert Fryer (a student of Tobias Matthay and Ferruccio Busoni) at the Royal College of Music, winning medals and prizes[2] including the Daily Express piano contest in 1928 and made his concert début in Birmingham in 1929.[4] He performed as an off-screen piano accompanist in several of the 30-line Baird system television broadcasts of 1935 and joined the BBC when they took over. It was at the BBC’s early television studios that he met his future second wife, the pianist Phyllis Sellick. In 1934, Smith left the BBC to take up an appointment as professor of pianoforte at the Royal College of Music. Smith and Sellick married in 1937, pursuing solo careers. During the Second World War Cyril Smith performed concerts for ENSA but in 1941 he and his wife began performing together as a piano duo at the Proms, and made many international concert tours for ENSA and the British Council In 1945, they toured the Far East, where the hazards to contend with included small animals lodged in pianos and out-of-tune instruments. Smith’s work was largely from the Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Schubert, Balakirev, and Albéniz repertoire. Malcolm Arnold, Sir Arthur Bliss, Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams also wrote music for the duo. Among Cyril Smith’s many performances were appearances at The Barn Theatre, Oxted, in the 1930s and at the Proms in 1930, 1937, 1941, 1944, 1946, 1953 and 1969. In 1956, while in the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine at the start of a concert tour of the Soviet Union he suffered a thrombosis and stroke that paralysed his left arm. However, with music arranged by themselves, or written or arranged by composer friends, Smith and Sellick were able to continue to perform concerts of three-handed music as a piano duo. Notable among the works composed for them was Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for Two Pianos (3 hands), Op. 104, dedicated to the performers, who premiered it at the Proms in 1969 and recorded it in 1970. Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick both taught piano at the Royal College of Music – Smith was appointed professor of pianoforte in 1934.

TRACKLIST

 

Allegro Brilliant in A, Op. 92 (Mendelssohn) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Dolly Suite, Op. 56 I. Berceuse (Fauré) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Dolly Suite, Op. 56 II. Mi-a-ou (Fauré) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Dolly Suite, Op. 56 III. Le jardin de Dolly (Fauré) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Dolly Suite, Op. 56 IV. Kitty-Valse (Fauré) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Dolly Suite, Op. 56 V. Tendresse (Fauré) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Dolly Suite, Op. 56 VI. Le pas Espagnol (Fauré) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Fantasie in F minor, D.940 (Schubert) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Moy Mell, The Pleasant Plain, an Irish Tone Poem Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Prelude, Chorale & Fugue (Franck) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Scaramouche, Op. 165b (Milhaud) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Scaramouche, Op. 165b I. Vif (Milhaud) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Scaramouche, Op. 165b III. Brazileira Milhaud) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Sonata for 2 Pianos in D Major, K. 448 I. Allegro con spirito (Mozart) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Sonata for 2 Pianos in D Major, K. 448 II. Andante (Mozart) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Sonata for 2 Pianos in D Major, K. 448 III. Allegro molto (Mozart) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Sonata in B flat, D.617 I. Allegro moderato I. Allegro moderato (Schubert) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Sonata in B flat, D.617 II. Andante con moto II. Andante con moto (Schubert) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Sonata in B flat, D.617 III. Allegretto III. Allegretto (Schubert) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Suite No. 1 for 2 Pianos in F Major, Op. 15 II. Valse Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Suite No. 2 for 2 Pianos in C Major, Op. 17 I. Introduction. Alla marcia (Rachmaninoff) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Suite No. 2 for 2 Pianos in C Major, Op. 17 II. Valse. Presto (Rachmaninoff) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Suite No. 2 for 2 Pianos in C Major, Op. 17 III. Romance. Andantino (Rachmaninoff) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Suite No. 2 for 2 Pianos in C Major, Op. 17 IV. Tarantelle. Presto (Rachmaninoff) Phyllis Sellick (piano)

Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd!, BWV 208 Hunt Cantata IX. Schafe konnen sicher weiden (Arr. M. Howe for Piano 4 Hands) (Bach) Phyllis Sellick (piano)