Nancy Weir
Encyclopedia
Nancy Mary Weir was an Australian pianist and teacher.
, Melbourne
on 13 July 1915. Her father was a publican who ran a small hotel in Lockhart
, near Wagga Wagga
, and Nancy grew up "behind the bar" as she said. She studied piano with Ada Corder (Freeman) in Melbourne. As a child prodigy at age 13, she performed Beethoven
's Piano Concerto No. 3
, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
, under English-born conductor Fritz Hart. Following this concert, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne set up a public subscription scheme for the young Nancy to study with a great teacher in Europe. On arrival in Berlin, Germany, in 1930, she studied first with Edwin Fischer
, but wangled her own way to studying with the legendary Artur Schnabel
who she said was more fashionable. However, the "official" story is that Schnabel heard her and agreed to take her on as a student immediately. After the Nazis came to power, Schnabel left Germany in 1933, and so did Weir.
She moved to London
, where she studied at the Royal Academy of Music
with Harold Craxton
. She herself became the subject of several legends. One of these involved her being set to learn, by Craxton, the Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D minor. She arrived for her lesson the next week and played the work from memory. Craxton and others were astonished. She later explained that, as a student in Berlin, she had a fellow pianist neighbour who played a certain work that she did not know, for several hours every day. She learned this work by musical osmosis through the walls, and it turned out to be the Chaconne, which, until Craxton gave the music to her, she had never before seen. The work became a great financial asset for her, as she could guarantee certain competition prize monies by playing it, frequently having spent the money before she luckily, and predictably, won.
Another legend centres on her phenomenal musical ear. She could hear as many as five independent musical lines simultaneously. Most professional musicians have difficulty with three. She was described in London in the 1930s as having "the best musical ear since Mozart
".
In London she made her Proms Debut with the Bach
Concerto in A minor for 4 pianos, conducted by Sir Henry Wood. After graduation from the Royal Academy in 1936, she joined the Bangor Trio at the University College of North Wales
.
World War II
interrupted what promised to be a very successful career. She signed up in the WAAF "without hesitation", in her own words, and did not tell the interviewing officer that she was a professional pianist. But she did tell him that she spoke fluent German
. She had arrived in Germany as a teenager and she had even learned the German for English words that she admitted she did not know. Her knowledge of German caused her to be transferred from the WAAF to RAF Intelligence.
She eventually became what she later described as, after the 50 years exclusion period for sensitive WWII information had expired in 1995, "a musical spy". Her wartime duties as an intelligence officer included "sitting on a hilltop in Kent listening to the chatter of young German pilots - they were as young and foolish as we were. I think I prevented a few bomb attacks." She eventually attained the rank of Flight Officer.
However, word of her musical status leaked out. She was sent to Egypt
and the then Palestine
to entertain the troops, accompanying such artists as Paul Robeson
and Beniamino Gigli
. But her ever-vigilant ear was at all times listening. At the end of the war she was in Morocco
and was told that she was to be flown to Rome
, to attend the German language interrogations of POWs. In her description of the event her unique sense of humour shines forth: "I was to fly into Rome, but the Allies had destroyed the airfield, so I had to parachute in. I think I am the only classical pianist in history who ever parachuted into Rome."
After the War she returned to performing in England, and she continued touring, making many appearances with famous conductors, including Van Otterloo, Galliera, Goosens, Fiedler and Malko. But, again in her own words "things had gone cold by then, and it was difficult to re-start the career". When her father suffered a bout of ill-health in 1954 she returned to Melbourne to care for him, her mother having died earlier. For the opening ceremonies of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics
she performed the Schumann Piano Concerto, and subsequently threw herself into a busy teaching and performing career, making several recordings for the Spotlight label. In 1966, she moved from Melbourne to take a position at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane
. Here, her students included Piers Lane
, Kevin Power, Norma Marshke, Robert Keane, Geoffrey Cox, Regis Danillon, Keith Crellin, Christopher Wrench, Arthur Do Rozario and comedian Gerry Connelly, amongst many others.
During her Queensland years she notably led the Students' Symphonic Safaris bus tours throughout the state and, after retiring from the Conservatorium in 1980, purchased the Rialto Theatre in West End in 1983, which she ran successfully for a few years. Subsequent moves were to Townsville
and Pinnacle, west of Mackay
, where she bought, restored and lived in a deconsecrated church she renamed "Einsiedeln". "Einsiedeln" was the name of the area of Switzerland where her life was saved by operation which left her partially deaf. Piers Lane and Nancy perform together in this small wooden building. She was attracted to the area through the work of Dorothy Blines, a local piano teacher and co-founder of the Pinnacle Playhouse. Her final home was at Slade Point, Mackay, where for a time she ran a small grocery shop until she sold it after it had several times been invaded by burglars, whom she confronted with her faithful blue cattle dog, Digger. Digger acted as her hearing dog. Her previous dog, Cully, had also been a most faithful companion, and sometime stage "artiste". Both these dogs were strays who attached themselves to Nancy with a tenacity only equalled by her love of them.
In 1989, there was an archival exhibition at QPAC (Queensland Performing Arts Centre) of Nancy's original concert programmes, war-time photographs and personal memorabilia. Thereafter, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Griffith University, Queensland Conservatorium. In 2002 she transferred to a retirement home in Brisbane and she died peacefully at Amity, New Farm
, on 14 October 2008. Her funeral service began with a recording of her playing of Liszt
's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses
.
, and the equally young Shura Cherkassky
who at that time toured country Victoria as well as the larger metropolitan centres. Several commented on the young Miss Weir's precocious talents, until, eventually, she was sent, aged 10 years, to study with Ada Corder (née Freeman).
Teacher and pupil got on famously from the start, and Weir remained faithful to her teacher always, looking after the elderly woman to the very end. It was Ada, as Nancy referred to her, who suggested that the Beethoven Piano Concerto No 3 would be a suitable vehicle for a début concert. Corder was a perfectionist, and Nancy remembered a tricky passage which she could not quite get right till Corder warned "if you don't get it exactly correct, I will not let you play in the concert." The ruse worked, and 13-year old Nancy's performance on 6 July 1929, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Hart, caused astonishment amongst concert-goers and music-critics alike. The maturity of her performance caused hundreds of people to follow her car after the concert was over. As she remembered, "they ran behind us, all the way up Collins Street."
It is reported than Nancy continued to add registration stickers to her car windscreen year-by-year without removing the old ones. After they had formed a significant collection up the left-hand side of the windscreen, she was pulled over by a Policeman (presumably not the same one as in the U-turn anecdote) who informed her that they had to be removed. Nancy's solution to the problem was unpredictable, as always: She bought a new car and started over again!
Her much-loved dog Cully arrived at her Hamilton flat unnanounced, and despite Nancy's best efforts to locate the owner, Cully refused to leave. Many happy years ensued, during which said Cully appeared on stage in Bach's Coffee Cantata, Bizet's Carmen
(at Innisfail, on a Safari) and at many a concert thereafter. Cully was a part-time music critic, who regularly let students know if their performance was not up to standard by producing "the most outrageous howling", in her mistress's words. At the end of her life, Cully, crippled and very weak, was warned by her adoring and saddened owner that she "might have to make that special trip to the Vet." That same evening, Cully, who never ventured far from Nancy's side, ran out onto the street and was knocked down by a car.
Her wonderful 1887 Steinway piano has now been fully restored. See it atNancy's restored Steinway
Biography
Nancy was born in KewKew, Victoria
Kew is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Boroondara. At the 2006 Census, Kew had a population of 22,516....
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
on 13 July 1915. Her father was a publican who ran a small hotel in Lockhart
Lockhart, New South Wales
Lockhart is a town and a Local Government Area in the Riverina Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the location of the Lockhart Shire Council offices. At the 2006 census, Lockhart had a population of 837 people.-History:...
, near Wagga Wagga
Wagga Wagga, New South Wales
Wagga Wagga is a city in New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, and with an urban population of 46,735 people, Wagga Wagga is the state's largest inland city, as well as an important agricultural, military, and transport hub of Australia...
, and Nancy grew up "behind the bar" as she said. She studied piano with Ada Corder (Freeman) in Melbourne. As a child prodigy at age 13, she performed Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Piano Concerto No. 3
Piano Concerto No. 3 (Beethoven)
The Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1800 and was first performed on 5 April 1803, with the composer as soloist. During that same performance, the Second Symphony and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives were also debuted. The composition...
, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia. It has 100 permanent musicians. Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia...
, under English-born conductor Fritz Hart. Following this concert, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne set up a public subscription scheme for the young Nancy to study with a great teacher in Europe. On arrival in Berlin, Germany, in 1930, she studied first with Edwin Fischer
Edwin Fischer
Edwin Fischer was a Swiss classical pianist and conductor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, particularly in the traditional Germanic repertoire of such composers as J. S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert...
, but wangled her own way to studying with the legendary Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel was an Austrian classical pianist, who also composed and taught. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura...
who she said was more fashionable. However, the "official" story is that Schnabel heard her and agreed to take her on as a student immediately. After the Nazis came to power, Schnabel left Germany in 1933, and so did Weir.
She moved to 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...
, where she studied at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
with Harold Craxton
Harold Craxton
Thomas Harold Hunt Craxton, OBE was an English pianist and composer.Craxton studied piano at the Tobias Matthay Pianoforte School and made a name for himself early in his career as an accompanist with performers such as Dame Nellie Melba, Dame Clara Butt, Lionel Tertis and John McCormack.In 1919...
. She herself became the subject of several legends. One of these involved her being set to learn, by Craxton, the Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D minor. She arrived for her lesson the next week and played the work from memory. Craxton and others were astonished. She later explained that, as a student in Berlin, she had a fellow pianist neighbour who played a certain work that she did not know, for several hours every day. She learned this work by musical osmosis through the walls, and it turned out to be the Chaconne, which, until Craxton gave the music to her, she had never before seen. The work became a great financial asset for her, as she could guarantee certain competition prize monies by playing it, frequently having spent the money before she luckily, and predictably, won.
Another legend centres on her phenomenal musical ear. She could hear as many as five independent musical lines simultaneously. Most professional musicians have difficulty with three. She was described in London in the 1930s as having "the best musical ear since Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
".
In London she made her Proms Debut with the Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
Concerto in A minor for 4 pianos, conducted by Sir Henry Wood. After graduation from the Royal Academy in 1936, she joined the Bangor Trio at the University College of North Wales
Bangor University
Bangor University is a university based in the city of Bangor in the county of Gwynedd in North Wales-United Kingdom.It was officially known for most of its history as the University College of North Wales...
.
World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
interrupted what promised to be a very successful career. She signed up in the WAAF "without hesitation", in her own words, and did not tell the interviewing officer that she was a professional pianist. But she did tell him that she spoke fluent German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. She had arrived in Germany as a teenager and she had even learned the German for English words that she admitted she did not know. Her knowledge of German caused her to be transferred from the WAAF to RAF Intelligence.
She eventually became what she later described as, after the 50 years exclusion period for sensitive WWII information had expired in 1995, "a musical spy". Her wartime duties as an intelligence officer included "sitting on a hilltop in Kent listening to the chatter of young German pilots - they were as young and foolish as we were. I think I prevented a few bomb attacks." She eventually attained the rank of Flight Officer.
However, word of her musical status leaked out. She was sent to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and the then Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
to entertain the troops, accompanying such artists as Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
and Beniamino Gigli
Beniamino Gigli
Beniamino Gigli was an Italian opera singer. The most famous tenor of his generation, he was renowned internationally for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique. Music critics sometimes took him to task, however, for what was perceived to be the over-emotionalism...
. But her ever-vigilant ear was at all times listening. At the end of the war she was in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
and was told that she was to be flown to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, to attend the German language interrogations of POWs. In her description of the event her unique sense of humour shines forth: "I was to fly into Rome, but the Allies had destroyed the airfield, so I had to parachute in. I think I am the only classical pianist in history who ever parachuted into Rome."
After the War she returned to performing in England, and she continued touring, making many appearances with famous conductors, including Van Otterloo, Galliera, Goosens, Fiedler and Malko. But, again in her own words "things had gone cold by then, and it was difficult to re-start the career". When her father suffered a bout of ill-health in 1954 she returned to Melbourne to care for him, her mother having died earlier. For the opening ceremonies of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics
1956 Summer Olympics
The 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations...
she performed the Schumann Piano Concerto, and subsequently threw herself into a busy teaching and performing career, making several recordings for the Spotlight label. In 1966, she moved from Melbourne to take a position at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
. Here, her students included Piers Lane
Piers Lane
Piers Lane is an Australian classical pianist. His performance career has taken him to more than 40 countries. His concerto repertoire exceeds 75 works.- Early life :...
, Kevin Power, Norma Marshke, Robert Keane, Geoffrey Cox, Regis Danillon, Keith Crellin, Christopher Wrench, Arthur Do Rozario and comedian Gerry Connelly, amongst many others.
During her Queensland years she notably led the Students' Symphonic Safaris bus tours throughout the state and, after retiring from the Conservatorium in 1980, purchased the Rialto Theatre in West End in 1983, which she ran successfully for a few years. Subsequent moves were to Townsville
Townsville, Queensland
Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Australia, in the state of Queensland. Adjacent to the central section of the Great Barrier Reef, it is in the dry tropics region of Queensland. Townsville is Australia's largest urban centre north of the Sunshine Coast, with a 2006 census...
and Pinnacle, west of Mackay
Mackay, Queensland
Mackay is a city on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia because its region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar....
, where she bought, restored and lived in a deconsecrated church she renamed "Einsiedeln". "Einsiedeln" was the name of the area of Switzerland where her life was saved by operation which left her partially deaf. Piers Lane and Nancy perform together in this small wooden building. She was attracted to the area through the work of Dorothy Blines, a local piano teacher and co-founder of the Pinnacle Playhouse. Her final home was at Slade Point, Mackay, where for a time she ran a small grocery shop until she sold it after it had several times been invaded by burglars, whom she confronted with her faithful blue cattle dog, Digger. Digger acted as her hearing dog. Her previous dog, Cully, had also been a most faithful companion, and sometime stage "artiste". Both these dogs were strays who attached themselves to Nancy with a tenacity only equalled by her love of them.
In 1989, there was an archival exhibition at QPAC (Queensland Performing Arts Centre) of Nancy's original concert programmes, war-time photographs and personal memorabilia. Thereafter, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Griffith University, Queensland Conservatorium. In 2002 she transferred to a retirement home in Brisbane and she died peacefully at Amity, New Farm
New Farm, Queensland
New Farm is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia, located 2 km east of the Brisbane CBD on a large bend of the Brisbane River. New Farm is partly surrounded by the Brisbane River, with land access from the north west through Fortitude Valley and from the north through...
, on 14 October 2008. Her funeral service began with a recording of her playing of Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses
Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses
Harmonies poétiques et religieuses is a cycle of piano pieces written by Liszt at Woronińce in 1847...
.
Early Childhood Years
Nancy remembered one of the first pieces she played, a song called "Horsey, keep your tail up, keep the sun out of my eyes!". With this ditty, and others, such as "Barney Google, with the goo-goo-googley eyes!", she entertained the many visitors who passed through her father's country hotel. Amongst the commercial travellers there was also a group of internationally famous concert artists, such as the legendary pianist Ignaz FriedmanIgnaz Friedman
Ignaz Friedman Ignaz Friedman Ignaz Friedman (also spelled by languages Ignace or Ignacy; exactly Solomon (Salomon) Isaac Freudman(n), (February 13, 1882January 26, 1948) was a Polish pianist and composer. Critics (e.g. Harold C. Schonberg) and colleagues (e.g...
, and the equally young Shura Cherkassky
Shura Cherkassky
Shura Cherkassky was an American classical pianist known for his performances of the romantic repertoire. His playing was characterized by a virtuoso technique and singing piano tone...
who at that time toured country Victoria as well as the larger metropolitan centres. Several commented on the young Miss Weir's precocious talents, until, eventually, she was sent, aged 10 years, to study with Ada Corder (née Freeman).
Teacher and pupil got on famously from the start, and Weir remained faithful to her teacher always, looking after the elderly woman to the very end. It was Ada, as Nancy referred to her, who suggested that the Beethoven Piano Concerto No 3 would be a suitable vehicle for a début concert. Corder was a perfectionist, and Nancy remembered a tricky passage which she could not quite get right till Corder warned "if you don't get it exactly correct, I will not let you play in the concert." The ruse worked, and 13-year old Nancy's performance on 6 July 1929, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Hart, caused astonishment amongst concert-goers and music-critics alike. The maturity of her performance caused hundreds of people to follow her car after the concert was over. As she remembered, "they ran behind us, all the way up Collins Street."
List of performances
- Melbourne Town Hall, 6 July 1929, Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 3, Melbourne Symphony OrchestraMelbourne Symphony OrchestraThe Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia. It has 100 permanent musicians. Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia...
, Fritz Hart - Brisbane City Hall, 1979, Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos 3 and 4, Queensland Symphony OrchestraQueensland Symphony OrchestraThe Queensland Symphony Orchestra is an Australian orchestra, based principally in Brisbane in the state of Queensland.The QSO played its first concert on 26 March 1947, with the orchestra consisting of 45 musicians, conducted by Percy Code. John Farnsworth Hall was recruited from the Sydney...
, Vanco Cavdarski
Anecdotes
One of the best known anecdotes of the many involvinging Nancy's activities is the case of her dashing in her Volkswagen over the Story Bridge, late for a lesson, and discovering that she had left her studio keys at home. Executing a neat U-turn, mid-Bridge, she was pulled over by a Policeman. She explained her strategy to him, apologised and went on saying that she had a concert at the Conservatorium soon, and inviting the policeman to come along. Not only did he not give her a ticket, she sold him one. He did come to the concert and they became good friends, and he subsequently attended many of her concerts.It is reported than Nancy continued to add registration stickers to her car windscreen year-by-year without removing the old ones. After they had formed a significant collection up the left-hand side of the windscreen, she was pulled over by a Policeman (presumably not the same one as in the U-turn anecdote) who informed her that they had to be removed. Nancy's solution to the problem was unpredictable, as always: She bought a new car and started over again!
Her much-loved dog Cully arrived at her Hamilton flat unnanounced, and despite Nancy's best efforts to locate the owner, Cully refused to leave. Many happy years ensued, during which said Cully appeared on stage in Bach's Coffee Cantata, Bizet's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
(at Innisfail, on a Safari) and at many a concert thereafter. Cully was a part-time music critic, who regularly let students know if their performance was not up to standard by producing "the most outrageous howling", in her mistress's words. At the end of her life, Cully, crippled and very weak, was warned by her adoring and saddened owner that she "might have to make that special trip to the Vet." That same evening, Cully, who never ventured far from Nancy's side, ran out onto the street and was knocked down by a car.
Her wonderful 1887 Steinway piano has now been fully restored. See it atNancy's restored Steinway