- George Malcolm (musician)
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George Malcolm
George Malcolm CBE (28 February 1917 – 10 October 1997) was an English harpsichordist and conductor.
Malcolm's first instrument was the piano, and his first teacher was a nun who recognised his talent and recommended him to the Royal College of Music. Malcolm went on to study at Balliol College, Oxford. During the Second World War he was a bandleader.
After the war, he developed a career as a harpsichordist. Like Wanda Landowska, he favoured rather large 'revival' harpsichords with pedals, built in a modern style, that now are seen as unauthentic for Baroque music. While aspects of his interpretations may seem outdated by the standards of today's historically informed performance practice, his recordings and live performances introduced many people to the harpsichord and influenced a number of today's musicians. As well as Baroque works, he played modern harpsichord repertoire including his own composition "Bach before the Mast", a humorous set of variations on The Sailor's Hornpipe in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach. Malcolm also composed for voices, a well-known piece being his Palm Sunday introit Ingrediente Domino.
Although Malcolm made occasional appearances as a pianist in chamber music, notably with the Dennis Brain Wind Ensemble, he left very few recordings in this capacity (one interesting example is the first performance of the Gordon Jacob Sextet, written for the group). But he also pursued a notable career as an organist and choir-trainer: for 12 years (1947–1959), he was organist of Westminster Cathedral, where he developed the choir's "continental" sound, which contrasts with that of Anglican choirs. Benjamin Britten's Missa Brevis was commissioned for his retirement. Malcolm was founding patron of Spode Music Week, an annual residential music school that places particular emphasis on the music of the Roman Catholic liturgy.
In the 1950s he participated in annual concerts featuring four harpsichordists, the three others being Thurston Dart, Denis Vaughan and Eileen Joyce. In 1957 this group also recorded two of Vivaldi's Concertos for Four Harpsichords, one in a Bach arrangement, with the Pro Arte Orchestra under Boris Ord. Malcolm, Dart and Joyce also recorded Bach's Concerto in C for Three Harpsichords, and all four recorded Malcolm's own Variations on a Theme of Mozart. In 1967, he appeared with Eileen Joyce, Geoffrey Parsons and Simon Preston in a 4-harpsichord concert with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Neville Marriner in the Royal Festival Hall.[1]
In later life Malcolm developed a career as a conductor, forging long-standing relationships with ensembles such as the English Chamber Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia orchestra. The pianist András Schiff, who left Hungary in order to study with Malcolm, was a frequent concerto soloist under his baton, and the two recorded Mozart's complete works for piano duet together on the composer's own piano.
Malcolm is buried in the graveyard at Saintbury Church, Gloucestershire.
See also: Millicent Silver and Thurston DartNotes
External links
Categories:- 1917 births
- 1997 deaths
- British harpsichordists
- Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
- Alumni of the Royal College of Music
- Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
- English classical organists
- Cathedral organists
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