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Lympany's name often comes up as a mere footnote, usually in a list of great female pianists. I think she is really underrated these days. She has one of the most gorgeous, limpid 19th-century sounds, and she played some of the biggest pieces in the repertoire with aristocratic refinement. She's one of the few pianists that I always enjoy listening to, whatever she's playing. She was the first pianist to record all the Preludes of Rachmaninoff, which she did in a mere two days in 1951.
In Romantic miniatures, she has very few peers (this is from when she was 77):
I have those Rachmaninoff Preludes she recorded. Read about her studies in an article in the old Etude magazine. One rarely hears of her these days. She was quite well known in her day but once passed from the scene the reputation often slides into obscurity.
I'm resurrecting this thread because I was googling Moura Lympany, and this thread appeared in the search. Well, I also found this delightful documentary!
Enjoy!
I really like the sound of her piano in this video. I don't know if it was new at the time or already old, but it sounds like it has really well-prepared hammers on it.
If memory serves she played the Mendelssohn no.1 at the BBC proms at the end of the 80s or early 90s and was my first hearing of this work. It must be exhausting for the pianist to play.
I'm resurrecting this thread because I was googling Moura Lympany, and this thread appeared in the search. Well, I also found this delightful documentary!
Enjoy!
I really like the sound of her piano in this video. I don't know if it was new at the time or already old, but it sounds like it has really well-prepared hammers on it.
Thanks for resurrecting the thread. I knew her name but had never listened to a single one of her performances. The opening Chopin Waltz in the video definitely convinces me to listen to more of her playing.
I'm resurrecting this thread because I was googling Moura Lympany, and this thread appeared in the search. Well, I also found this delightful documentary!
Enjoy!
I really like the sound of her piano in this video. I don't know if it was new at the time or already old, but it sounds like it has really well-prepared hammers on it.
Thanks for resurrecting the thread. I knew her name but had never listened to a single one of her performances. The opening Chopin Waltz in the video definitely convinces me to listen to more of her playing.
I would say that she is the greatest pianist that Britain has ever produced. I think in many ways she was better than Stephen Hough although he is also an absolutely incredible pianist, as is Benjamin Grosvenor (sticking with the Brits here). Clifford Curzon, her class mate who was just a bit older than her, probably got more praise at that time.
The thing is that in those days, there was still the distinction of being a "woman pianist", and so many said that Moura was the greatest "woman pianist" around. We don't make those distinctions anymore, at least we don't in the UK, so I wonder in a top one hundred of pianists of her time where she would rank? I don't know the answers to that but if you're going on size of repertoire, beauty of tone, technique, and faithfulness to the score, I think she would come out very high. In some ways she's better than Horowitz, but if I'm being totally honest she didn't perhaps have the same level of excitement as Horowitz. That's why when we start talking about who's the best it becomes complicated, because what do we even mean by the best? I started down that route because someone on the later part of the video described her as the best woman pianist around. The presenter also said that she plays the piano better than anybody else alive.
What is funny to me is that she was a big star, really. She was actually huge, and we forget this in the UK today. What happened was that as she aged, she found that fewer agents were willing to work with her and for a while she became her own agent. The reviews were sometimes not very kind to her, sometimes describing her as (and I paraphrase) a bit quaint. Her records became the go-to releases on EMI's budget labels such as their Music For Pleasure, and you'd often see her records alongside things like the Royal Philharmonic plays ABBA in the libraries and stores. Nowadays people aren't buying physical releases so much anyway so to most people today trying to describe that is like trying to describe the rotary phone to someone who only ever calls via Siri, or trying to explain to a Gen Z that "Friends" was actually quite far ahead of its time.
I think that she gave quite a few premieres in her time. She certainly gave the UK Premiere of the Khachaturian concerto and she was the first to record the complete Rachmaninoff preludes in 1951. She studied with Mathilde Verne who was a Clara Schumann pupil, and then went to Matthay. I will add that although my first teacher went to Matthay, she was nothing like Lympany! As we all know, going to a teacher (or the pupil of a teacher) for lessons doesn't mean that you'll end up deserving of an international career, at all!