Description

MARJORIE OLIVE HAYWARD (LONDON, ENGLAND, 14 AUGUST, 1885 – LONDON, ENGLAND, 10 JANUARY, 1953)

Marjorie Hayward was born in Greenwich in 1885. Her violin studies were with Émile Sauret at the Royal Academy of Music in London (1897–1903), and Otakar Ševčík in Prague (1903–06). She had early successes in the concerto repertoire, performing in Prague, Berlin (where she played Ethel Smyth’s Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra with Aubrey Brain), Paris, Amsterdam and the Hague, but later focussed mainly on chamber music. She was the dedicatee of John Ireland’s short 1911 piece for violin and piano titled Bagatelle. She and the composer premiered his Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor on 7 March 1913 at a Thomas Dunhill Chamber Concert at Steinway Hall. She led the English String Quartet (which included Frank Bridge on viola), and later the Virtuoso Quartet, the first chamber music group formed specifically for making recordings, with Edwin Virgo (2nd violin), Raymond Jeremy (viola) and its founder Cedric Sharpe (cello). The Quartet did not confine itself to recordings but also broadcast and toured frequently, its repertoire extending to quintets with artists such as Harriet Cohen, William Murdoch, Arnold Bax and Léon Goossens. Marjorie Hayward also created her own ensemble, the Marjorie Hayward String Quartet, with Irene Richards (2nd violin), Anatol Mines (viola) and May Mukle (cello). And there was the English Ensemble, with May Mukle, Rebecca Clarke (viola), and Kathleen Long (piano). Other groups in which she played a prominent role were the English Ensemble Piano Quartet and the Kamaran Trio. The latter was formed in 1937, with the cellist Antonia Butler and the pianist Kathleen Markwell. Marjorie Hayward was a frequent face at The Proms, playing there 26 times between 1909 and 1944. At a Proms concert on 28 September 1920 she premiered the Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 33 by York Bowen. Other works she played at the Proms included: Bach (Double Concerto; Concerto in E), Brahms (Double Concerto), Haydn (Concerto No. 4 in G), Paul Juon (Episodes concertantes, Op. 45), Mozart (Concertos Nos. 5, 6), Saint-Saëns (Concerto No. 3; Introduction and Rondo capriccioso), and the concertos by Beethoven and Mendelssohn. She was a Fellow of the RAM, and became a Professor there in 1924. The RAM’s Marjorie Hayward Award is named in her honour. She married R. G. K. (Rudolf Gustav Karl) Lempfert CBE (b. 1875), Director of the Meteorological Office and in 1930-31 President of the Royal Meteorological Society. Their daughter, Marjorie Lempfert, studied at the RAM, becoming a distinguished viola player and, like her mother, a professor at the Academy. Marjorie Hayward died in London on 10 January 1953, aged 67.

TRACKLIST

1. Violin Sonata in Emin Op. 82 1st Mvt Allegro (Elgar) HMV HO 4113 af
2. Violin Sonata in Emin Op. 82 2nd Mvt Romance (Elgar) HMV HO 4114 af
3. Violin Sonata in Emin Op. 82 3rd Mvt Allegro non troppo pt 1 (Elgar)
4. Violin Sonata in Emin Op. 82 3rd Mvt pt 2 (Elgar) HMV 08092 Ho 4117af
5. Sonata in A maj. 1st mvt Allegreto ben moderato (Franck) HMV HO 3559 af
6. Sonata in A maj. 2nd mvt Allegro (Franck) HMV Ho 3560af
7. Sonata in A maj. 3rd mvt Recitative Fantasia (Franck) HMV HO 3562 af
8. Sonata in A maj. 4th mvt Allegretto poco mosso (Franck) HMV HO 3564 af
9. Violin Sonata Bb maj. No.10 K378 1st mvt Allegro pt1 (Mozart) HMV 08234 Cc 7233
10. Violin Sonata Bb maj. No.10 K378 1st mvt Allegro pt2 (Mozart) HMV 08235 Cc 7234
11. Violin Sonata Bb maj. No.10 K378 2nd mvt Andantino sostenuto (Mozart) HMV 08236 Cc 7492
12. Violin Sonata Bb maj. No.10 K378 3rd mvt Rondo allegro (Mozart) HMV 08237 Cc7493
13. Sonata in G minor, Z. 780 (Purcell) Adagio Moderato Adagio con espressivo Vivace
14. Violin Sonata No. 9 in A, Op. 47 (Kreutzer) (Beethoven) Adagio sostenuto; Presto Andante con variazioni Presto