Description

FREDERIC ARCHIBALD LAMOND (GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, 28 JANUARY, 1868 – STIRLING, SCOTLAND, 21 FEBRUARY, 1948)

 

 

 

 

Frederic Lamond, who came from an impoverished family, had his first lessons in music from his brother David; nevertheless at the age of fourteen he managed to make his way to Frankfurt where he enrolled at the Raff Conservatory, receiving piano lessons from Max Schwarz. He then became a pupil of Hans von Bülow, who suggested he continue his studies with Liszt. For the last two years of the composer’s life therefore, from 1885, Lamond became a pupil of Liszt. His Berlin debut took place on 17 November 1885, and after debuts in Vienna and Glasgow he made his London debut in a series of recitals. At the fourth of these, given in St James’s Hall on 15 April 1886, Liszt was in the audience. In 1888 Lamond played in St Petersburg and was introduced to Anton Rubinstein, who attended his second recital there. He continued his career mainly in Germany but played Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 at London’s Crystal Palace in 1890 where his own Symphony in A major Op. 3 was also performed. For the Royal Philharmonic Society he played Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 Op. 23 in 1891, and in 1896 toured Russia, returning to London in 1897. From 1904, when he married actress Irene Triesch, he resided in Berlin except during the years of World War I. Lamond visited the United States once in 1902, but during the 1920s made frequent tours there, being appointed professor at the Eastman School of Music in 1923. In 1917 he was appointed professor at The Hague Conservatory, whilst during the 1930s he performed cycles of Beethoven sonatas in many European capitals including Berlin. In 1935 Lamond toured South America, and a year later celebrated his Golden Jubilee in several European capitals by giving a series of seven recitals, like Anton Rubinstein before him, covering the entire output written for the keyboard from Byrd to Liszt. As war approached, he and his wife fled the Nazi regime, leaving most of their possessions behind, but taking their grandson to Switzerland. Although Lamond had spent most of his life in Germany, he had retained his British nationality. He was now in his seventies and, with little money, had to earn a living. In 1940 he went to Glasgow where he gave piano lessons at the Glasgow Academy of Music and even on an old upright piano in a music shop. In addition to his teaching he also performed, giving concerts during World War II in Scotland, Bath and London including a few at the Wigmore Hall in 1945, where he was billed as ‘Lamond – the greatest living exponent of Beethoven’. Another source of income was the nineteen broadcasts he gave for the BBC during the war. It was nonetheless a sad end to the career and life of a remarkable pianist who had known such great figures as Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, Richard Strauss and Brahms.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

081 DUO-ART LISZT – Gnomenreigen (Gnomes’Round Dance) Concert Etude No. 2

518 DUO-ART TCHAIKOVSKY – Symphony No. 5, e, Op. 64 lst Mvt. Part l

535 DUO-ART BEETHOVEN – Symphony No. 3, Eb, Op. 55 “Eroica” 4th Mvt.

6672 DUO-ART BEETHOVEN – Piano Sonata, Op. 111, c lst Mvt.

6706 DUO-ART BEETHOVEN – Piano Sonata, Op. 111, c 2nd Mvt.

6751 DUO-ART LISZT – Un Sospiro (A Sigh) – Concert Etude No. 3, Db

7380 DUO-ART BEETHOVEN-LISZT – Adelaïde, Op. 46