Wilford, Arthur

Wilford, Arthur – Deux Morceaux pour le Violon avec Accompagnement de Piano, op. 93 (piano performance score & solo part/first print)

(Temse, 8 March 1851 – Sint-Joost-ten-Node, 23 December 1926)

(c. 1916?)

Cavatina
Serenade

Arthur Wilford — his name betrays his English extraction — studied at the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, where he earned a First Prize for Piano in 1872 in the class of Louis Brassin (1840-1884). Subsequently he relocated to the Leipzig conservatoire, taking classes for two years with the music theoretician Ernst Richter (1808-1879) and Carl Reinecke (1824-1910). For Reinecke, who taught him piano and composition, Wilford cherished an ardent admiration. Indubitably the appreciation was reciprocal, for Reinecke dedicated two piano arrangements of songs by Mendelssohn and Rubinstein to his pupil. After leaving Leipzig Wilford 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, in 1875, he founded in Brussels the ‘Société Schubert’, a concert series of his own with special attention to chamber music. At the inaugural concert he programmed, among others, young Isaÿe (1858-1931) and the famous harpist and composer Charles Oberthür (1819-1895). As for his own contribution, he played work by Schumann and the two Reinecke arrangements dedicated to him. In 1877 Wilford moved to Dresden, where he was active in local music life until 1889, composing among other works his opera Mahaferid.
After a study trip to Italy he returned to Belgium, settling down in Antwerp. There he becomes friends with Peter Benoit (1834-1901), the pioneer of the Flemish music movement. He supported Benoit’s plans to turn lyrical drama (with spoken text) into a viable alternative for classical opera. He also used his international contacts to programme Benoit’s oratorios in Germany, while concurrently making piano reductions of several of Benoit’s works.

read more / weiterlesen  / Flemish preface … > HERE