Cyril Smith (pianist)
Encyclopedia
Cyril James Smith OBE (11 August 19092 August 1974) was a virtuoso concert pianist of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, and a piano teacher.
, England
, the son of Charles Smith, a foundry bricklayer, and Eva Harrison, and had an older brother and sister. Cyril married Andrée Antoinette Marie Paty in 1931 but the marriage ended in divorce. In 1937 he married Phyllis Sellick
. Cyril and Phyllis's recreational activities included long walks and sailing. They had a son and a daughter and remained married until his death. He died in 1974 at his home in East Sheen
, London
, the result of a stroke.
, winning medals and prizes including the Daily Express
piano contest in 1928 and made his concert début in Birmingham
in 1929. Cyril Smith 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 second-wife-to-be pianist Phyllis Sellick
. In 1934 Cyril left the BBC to take up an appointment as professor of pianoforte at the Royal College of Music. Cyril and Phyllis married in 1937 pursuing solo careers. During the second world war Cyril performed concerts for ENSA
but in 1941 he and his wife began performing together as a piano duo at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts making many international concert tours for ENSA and the British Council
touring the Far East in 1945 where the hazards to contend with included small animals lodged in pianos and out-of-tune instruments.
Cyril'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 at Kharkov at the start of a concert tour of Russia
(then the Soviet Union
) he suffered a thrombosis
and stroke
which paralysed his left arm; however, with music arranged by themselves, or written or arranged by composer friends Cyril and Phyllis were able to continue to perform three-handed music concerts as a piano duo. Notable among the works composed for them was Malcolm Arnold's Concerto for Two Pianos (3 hands), opus 104 dedicated to Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick who premiered it at the Proms in 1969 and recorded it in 1970.
, Joan Havill, David Helfgott
, Peter Hill
, Niel Immelman
, Rae de Lisle, Barry Morgan, Thalia Myers, Siva Oke, Aydin Önaç, Jennifer Pearce, June Pepin, Joan Ryall, Stephen Savage
, Kimberly Schmidt, Jo Spanjer, Kathron Sturrock
, Sharon Joy Vogan, David Ward, Fanny Waterman
, Gillian Weir
, Kenneth Weir, Frank Wibaut, and Simon Young. In 1973 Cyril was once again appointed Professor of Pianoforte until his death the next year.
is entitled Duet for Three Hands (Angus & Robertson
, 1958). One of the chapters was written by his wife Phyllis Sellick.
in 1971.
Personal life
Cyril James Smith was born at Costa Street, MiddlesbroughMiddlesbrough
Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the son of Charles Smith, a foundry bricklayer, and Eva Harrison, and had an older brother and sister. Cyril married Andrée Antoinette Marie Paty in 1931 but the marriage ended in divorce. In 1937 he married Phyllis Sellick
Phyllis Sellick
Phyllis Sellick, OBE was a British pianist and teacher, best known for her partnership with her pianist husband Cyril Smith.-Biography:...
. Cyril and Phyllis's recreational activities included long walks and sailing. They had a son and a daughter and remained married until his death. He died in 1974 at his home in East Sheen
East Sheen
East Sheen, also known as 'Sheen', is an affluent suburb of London, England in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It forms part of the London post town in the SW postcode area....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the result of a stroke.
Performing
Cyril Smith studied with Herbert Fryer from 1926 to 1930 at the Royal College of MusicRoyal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
, winning medals and prizes including the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
piano contest in 1928 and made his concert début in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
in 1929. Cyril Smith performed as an off-screen piano accompanist in several of the 30-line Baird
John Logie Baird
John Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...
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 second-wife-to-be pianist Phyllis Sellick
Phyllis Sellick
Phyllis Sellick, OBE was a British pianist and teacher, best known for her partnership with her pianist husband Cyril Smith.-Biography:...
. In 1934 Cyril left the BBC to take up an appointment as professor of pianoforte at the Royal College of Music. Cyril and Phyllis married in 1937 pursuing solo careers. During the second world war Cyril performed concerts for ENSA
Entertainments National Service Association
The Entertainments National Service Association or ENSA was an organisation set up in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II. ENSA operated as part of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes...
but in 1941 he and his wife began performing together as a piano duo at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts making many international concert tours for ENSA and the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
touring the Far East in 1945 where the hazards to contend with included small animals lodged in pianos and out-of-tune instruments.
Cyril's work was largely from the Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
, Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, Balakirev
Mily Balakirev
Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev ,Russia was still using old style dates in the 19th century, and information sources used in the article sometimes report dates as old style rather than new style. Dates in the article are taken verbatim from the source and therefore are in the same style as the source...
, and Albéniz
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...
repertoire. Malcolm Arnold
Malcolm Arnold
Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold, CBE was an English composer and symphonist.Malcolm Arnold began his career playing trumpet professionally, but by age thirty his life was devoted to composition. He was ranked with Benjamin Britten as one of the most sought-after composers in Britain...
, Sir Arthur Bliss
Arthur Bliss
Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO was an English composer and conductor.Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army...
, Gordon Jacob
Gordon Jacob
Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob was an English composer. He is known for his wind instrument composition and his instructional writings.-Life:...
and Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
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 at Kharkov at the start of a concert tour of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
(then the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
) he suffered a thrombosis
Thrombosis
Thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel is injured, the body uses platelets and fibrin to form a blood clot to prevent blood loss...
and stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
which paralysed his left arm; however, with music arranged by themselves, or written or arranged by composer friends Cyril and Phyllis were able to continue to perform three-handed music concerts as a piano duo. Notable among the works composed for them was Malcolm Arnold's Concerto for Two Pianos (3 hands), opus 104 dedicated to Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick who premiered it at the Proms in 1969 and recorded it in 1970.
Teaching
Cyril and Phyllis both taught piano at the Royal College of Music - Cyril was appointed professor of pianoforte in 1934. Among those who studied piano with Cyril Smith are: Ray Alston, John Barstow, Clifford Benson, Philip R Buttall, Maureen Challinor, June Clark, Patrick FlynnPatrick Flynn (composer)
Patrick Flynn was a composer and conductor who was active in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia....
, Joan Havill, David Helfgott
David Helfgott
David Helfgott is an Australian concert pianist. He is as well known for having schizoaffective disorder as he is for his piano playing. Helfgott's life inspired the Oscar-winning film Shine, in which he was played by Geoffrey Rush....
, Peter Hill
Peter Hill (pianist)
The British pianist and musicologist Peter Hill is a world-renowned authority on the works of French composer Olivier Messiaen, with whom he was acquainted...
, Niel Immelman
Niel Immelman
Niel Immelman is a South African classical pianist.He studied with Cyril Smith, Ilona Kabos and Maria Curcio. He was still a student at the Royal College of Music when Bernard Haitink invited him to play Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the London Philharmonic Orchestra...
, Rae de Lisle, Barry Morgan, Thalia Myers, Siva Oke, Aydin Önaç, Jennifer Pearce, June Pepin, Joan Ryall, Stephen Savage
Stephen Savage
Stephen Savage was born in England and after early training with Dorothy Hesse, studied with Bruno Seidlhofer at the Wiener Akademie and Cyril Smith at the RCM London where he became his teaching assistant immediately after graduating....
, Kimberly Schmidt, Jo Spanjer, Kathron Sturrock
Kathron Sturrock
Kathron Sturrock is a British pianist who studied with Cyril Smith, Joan Trimble, Alfred Brendel and Rostropovich, and worked with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf....
, Sharon Joy Vogan, David Ward, Fanny Waterman
Fanny Waterman
Dame Fanny Waterman, DBE is a piano teacher, and the founder, Chairman and Artistic Director of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition. She is also president of the Harrogate International Music Fesitval.-Life:...
, Gillian Weir
Gillian Weir
Dame Gillian Constance Weir DBE is a New Zealand organist.-Biography:Gillian Weir was a co-winner of the Auckland Star Piano Competition at 19, playing Mozart. A year later she won a scholarship of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in London...
, Kenneth Weir, Frank Wibaut, and Simon Young. In 1973 Cyril was once again appointed Professor of Pianoforte until his death the next year.
Autobiography
Cyril Smith's autobiographyAutobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
is entitled Duet for Three Hands (Angus & Robertson
Angus & Robertson
Angus & Robertson is a bookstore chain in Australia. Its first bookstore was opened in 110½ Market Street, Sydney by Scotsman David Angus in 1884; it sold second-hand books. In 1886, he went into partnership with fellow Scot, George Robertson with whom he had worked earlier.- Bookselling history...
, 1958). One of the chapters was written by his wife Phyllis Sellick.
Honours
Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick were both made Officers of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1971.
Discography
- Cyril Smith, Phyllis Sellick and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra (conductor Malcolm Sargent), Dutton, (P)1947/48
- Phyllis Sellick, Cyril Smith, Orchestras of the Bournemouth Symphony, Philharmonia, City of Birmingham and the Royal Philharmonic, Arnold: English Dances, HMV Classics
- Cyril Smith, Phyllis Sellick and Solna Brass, including Rhapsody for Piano (3 hands) by Gordon Jacob, Granada
- Cyril Smith & Phyllis Sellick, Piano Duos: Faure Mendessohn Franck Schubert, Nimbus Records, (P)1974 (Cyril's last recording)
Further reading
- Biography: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Photographs: Swalwell, York Symphony Orchestra website, National Portrait Gallery and of Phyllis Sellick at R Gross Music and at the York Symphony Orchestra website.
