DOUGLAS MILLER AND THE BRITISH PREMIERES OF RACHMANINOFF PIANO CONCERTOS Nos 2 & 3

 

Miller’s admiration for Rachmaninoff’s music led him along several innovatory paths. In Sept 1909 when in Berlin studying with Godowsky he played the solo part of the second concerto to his master. He later played through the third concerto for him, the score having been published in 1910, a year after its début in New York. Godowsky’s response was enthusiastic  “I know Rachmaninoff – he knows all about a piano”.  The admiration was mutual – Rachmaninoff’s “Polka de VR” is dedicated to Godowsky who recorded it on an Artrio-Angelus piano-roll (prior to 1922).

 

"Rachmaninoff's C#minor Prelude was a kind of joke at the time and I just had to see this man playing" said Miller when interviewed. On 29th October 1910 he gave the second Liverpool performance of Concerto No 2 - "hardly to be accounted a great work" according to 'The Musical Times'. "It would have been the Liverpool premiere if some girl with influence in the committee hadn't got in first a year previously" Miller added. He travelled to a concert in Leeds 12th October 1910 where Rachmaninoff was to play this work . He introduced himself to the Russian composer with a request for his autograph but only a pencil was to hand and now the signature is much faded. At the time Rachmaninoff spoke fluent German but had no English.  The composer himself performed the second concerto in Liverpool some three years later (27th Jan 1914) and in the concert’s second half he gave three of his Preludes (Fee £73,2022 value £6,600).  The concert was repeated 29th January in Manchester and 1st February in London.

 

Rachmaninoff completed the Third Concerto in September 1909 and gave the premiere in New York,  November 1909 with Walter Damrosch conducting;  a few months later the composer once again was soloist, this time with Gustav Mahler as conductor. Miller was chosen to play the work by Dan Godfrey and the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra ("Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra" from 1954) for the British premiere. The programme was advertised but the composer withdrew the orchestral parts intending to play it himself in England. Miller played the work but with organ replacing orchestra, collaborating with Dr Arthur Pollitt at St George’s Hall where the latter provided the orchestral part on the famous Father Willis organ. Given the very generous acoustic of the hall, this was surely a demanding undertaking.  The venture was then repeated at St Agnes’s Church, Ullet Road, Liverpool, a very different acoustic space, with Caleb Jarvis at the organ.

 

Rachmaninoff did then appear at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 24 Oct 1911 to play the British premiere, on that occasion with conductor Simon Speelman who was also the violist in the famous Brodsky Quartet.  In the second half Rachmaninoff conducted his Symphony No 2 (fee £105, 2022 value £9,788) concluding with a group of solos. The programme was repeated in London 7th November.

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In 1915 at Royal College of Music nineteen year old student George Thalben Ball (subsequently famous as a virtuoso organist and choir trainer) became the second British pianist to perform this still little known concerto. From the nineteen thirties Vladimir Horowitz ensured its lasting popularity.

 

Rachmaninoff’s third and final visit to Liverpool took place in 1936 when, conducted by Sir Hamilton Harty, he performed his ‘Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini’ (Fee £157, 2023 value £8,882)