Wilford, Arthur

Wilford, Arthur – Lerchenkrieg (The War of Larks)

(Te1nse, 8 maart 1851 – Sint-Joost-ten-Node, 23 december 1926)

Musical Melodramatic Scene for Women’s Cboir· (witb 3 Solo Voices), Bass Solo, Baritone Solo and Recitation, op. 29
(German and English libretto) Piano Score

Arthur Wilford – his name betrays his English extraction – studied at the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, where he eamed a First Prize for Piano in 1872 in the class ofLouis Brassin (1840-1884). Subsequently he relocated to the Leipzig conserva-toire, taking classes for two years with the music theoretician Ernst Richter (1808-1879) and Cari Reinecke (1824-1910). For Reinecke, who taught him piano and composition, Wilford cherished an ardent admiration. Indubitably the appreciation was reciprocai, for Reinecke dedicated two piano arrangements of songs by Mendelssohn and Rubinstein to his pupil. After leaving Leipzig Wùford made a name for himself as a concert pianist. From 1874 to 1876 he spent a lot of time in London, where he often performed as a soloist and in chamber music. In between, irl 1875, he founded in Brussels the ‘Société Schubert’, a concert series ofhis own with special attention to chamber music. At the inaugurai concert he programmed, among others, young lsaye (1858-1931) and the famous harpist and composer Charles Oberthtir (1819-1895). As for his own contribution, he played works by Schumann and the two Reinecke arrangements dedicated to him. In 1877 Wilford moved to Dresden, where he was active in locai musi e life until 1889, cornposing among other works his opera Mahaferid. …

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