"cant, humbug, democracy, egalitarianism, systematised mass education, cultural trendiness, sentimentality, linguistic imprecision, obscurantism, received opinion purveyors and busybodies are his bêtes noires. One who damns so-called “Musical Appreciation” classes as training in “how to obtain the highest rate of investment return from Beethoven” and the science of educational psychology as “the drawing of obscurity from fools” is arguably a preternatural controversialist; one who displays unfailing emotional and intellectual precision, pansophy and heroic sanctity in commending beaux idéaux to his readership is surely an instinctive and radiant communicator: one who does both is, uniquely and inevitably, Sorabji."
Which is a passage I find about as impenetrable as much of Sorabji's own music !
I did once look at a score of one of Sorabji's Piano Concertos in the offices of a music publisher; it was dedicated to Alfred Cortot. I don't think Cortot - or Philip Levi - ever played it but perhaps this was due to Sorabji banning public performance of his music for a large part of his life.
An article by Marc-André Roberge (online) quotes Sorabji praising Levi’s Busoni as early as 1930, indeed (though I may misread and it’s only the music, not the performer, being praised…)
Going through some old reel-to-reel tapes I came across a performance of the Hummel A minor concerto which I recorded from the radio; the pianist was Philip Levi. A little research (and memories of discussing the piece with the music master at school) leads me to the conclusion that this was a Music of the Masters BBC programme given on 30th October 1962 with the BBC Welsh Orchestra conducted by Rae Jenkins. Looking through the old Radio Times listings I find that Philip Levi was a regular BBC broadcaster from the late 1930s into the 1960s; he seems to have been something of a Busoni specialist - indeed I remember listening to a broadcast of the Concerto he gave- but there were also programmes of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and other composers of the standard repertoire.
In spite of all this worthy activity -the Hummel concerto shows him to have been a fine pianist- I cannot find a mention of him in books, on the internet (apart from the BBC listings) or anywhere.
Do any of the older MWI contributors remember Philip Levi or know anything about him?
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