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                   WILLIAM DOUGLAS MILLER  - PUPIL OF LEOPOLD GODOWSKY IN BERLIN AND VIENNA,

                                                           TEACHER OF SIMON RATTLE

 

MILLER was the sixth child of prominent maritime lawyer Alexander Miller, brought up in a well-to-do part of

Liverpool near Prince’s Park. As a gifted young pianist he attended Liverpool College. His piano teacher Frank Bertrand had been trained in the  Leschetitsky tradition. Bertrand encouraged his eighteen year old pupil to apply

to Leopold Godowsky who at that time was resident in Berlin.

 

Already an embryo composer Miller wrote in hope to Rachmaninoff in Dresden requesting lessons. Rachmaninoff

did not teach composition. Undaunted the young man was accepted by Godowsky at audition in January 1907, remaining in Berlin until 1910 as a member of the master pianist’s class. In 1913 he spent time in Vienna with him for one to one tuition, returning to Liverpool every so often. After a spell as a Second Lieutenant in World War 1 where he suffered a war wound he returned to Liverpool; then in August 1914 married Dorothy (Dolly) Bateman. Given that the outbreak of war put a stop to any appetite he may have had for further continental projects the

twenty six year old pianist decided to settle in Liverpool. After all, as his grand daughter put it, his was a rather unworldly personality (her pen portrait included at the end of the 90th birthday dinner tributes)

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Douglas Miller performed Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto in 1910 and would have been the first pianist in Britain to perform the Third Concerto Op 30 had not the composer himself presented it in Liverpool and London in 1911. To reserve this premiere to himself Rachmaninoff had withdrawn the band parts, thus Miller was prevented from giving an advertised performance with the Bournemouth Orchestra.

 

William Douglas Miller was a very gracious, kind and immensely talented personality who had no desire to make

a career as a touring recitalist, happily restricting his concert activities to north west England, and for many years was a sought after piano teacher whilst composing steadily up to his final months.  During  sixty years Miller gave many concerts and recitals, rarely outside Liverpool. For relaxation he enjoyed bird watching and countryside

walks with Dorothy. He was short sighted and wore blue tinted spectacles; most often he would smoke a pipe as

he

worked at piano and desk. On the mantelpiece at their home, 42 Catharine Street, was displayed a signed letter

of commendation from Godowsky “Douglas Miller has gained a mastery in his art that enables me to cheerfully recommend him as a pianist”. From time to time he also gave public talks or lecture recitals. In addition to

private teaching Miller was listed on the influential Liverpool School of Music staff alongside Gordon Green,

Dr Caleb Jarvis, Frank Bertrand etc. Another of the several music academies centred in Liverpool was the

Matthay School which flourished until the 1960s.

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In “Simon Rattle: the making of a conductor” (1987) author Nicholas Kenyon writes about Miller’s teaching

of the talented young musician as he tackled some of the big piano repertoire works alongside early conducting opportunities.  In July 1971 Miller, for his last public performance, played the piano part in Stravinsky’s ‘Second

Suite for small orchestra’ conducted by his 16 year old pupil Simon Rattle. Once the latter became a student at

Royal Academy of Music he had Gordon Green as piano professor but they didn’t really hit it off  - the pupil didn’t practise enough for the teacher’s liking.

 

Among composers Miller had a particular interest in John Field’s solo and concerted works; among contemporary composers Walton, Bax and Medtner. In 1914 Joseph Williams, London published his slim booklet “The Problem

of the Minor Scale and its Solution”. The Millers’ only son Nicholas who died in 1958 at the early age of forty one

was senior lecturer in radiation chemistry at Edinburgh University and also worked in Canada as part of the Anglo-Canadian Atomic Energy Project. His father’s response to the loss was to compose the first of ‘Two Nocturnes’ as a memorial (published by Paxtons, London 1960). A Third Nocturne was written later on. A very rare recording

of Miller playing Nocturne no 1 in 1965 (published by the Liverpool Bluecoat Society), and Nocturne no 2 played

by John Peace can be heard in a Youtube video (scroll down).

 

Miller’s compositions (click Compositions page) are, in the main, scores for one and two pianos along with three

ballet scores composed for performances by the prestigious Liverpool Ballet Club. Margo Fonteyn, Robert

Helpmann and Frederick Ashton danced with the company in 'Giselle' in 1936. Of Miller's three piano concertos,

the first was broadcast in 1924 conducted by Adrian Boult, the second and third performed with Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (later RLPO).

 

At the dinner organised by his friend Raymond Perez (a Stephen Wearing pupil) to mark the ninetieth birthday

in 1978 Douglas Miller was fêted by many notable fellow musicians and friends as an outstanding contributor to cultural life in Merseyside. The evening began with Wearing and Reginald Blackburn playing  Saint-Saëns

‘Variations on a Theme of Beethoven’.  Among many tributes and signed photos were those from Shura

Cherkassky, Sir Clifford Curzon, Ronald Stevenson, Gordon Green, Sir Charles Groves, Anthony Hopkins,

Sir Peter Pears and Radu Lupu (pupil of Heinrich Neuhaus  who had studied with Godowsky). Perez printed

a birthday booklet containing some of the tributes (click Gallery page of signed photograph tributes).

The following year Liverpool University conferred on the pianist an honorary MA degree.

                                               

                    

    Scroll down for images and Youtube recordings​