Adelina De Lara - "Clara Schumann and her teaching" - Reminiscences and Examples

Adelina de Lara (23 January 1872 -- 25 November 1961) was a British classical pianist and composer.
She was born Lottie Adelina Preston in Carlisle, Cumberland on 23 January 1872 to parents George Matthew Tilbury (aka Preston) of Southampton and Anna de Lara. Her grandfather was the Spanish Count Laurent de Lara. Her mother was the sister-in-law of Sir Landon Ronald. She was given the performing name of Adelina de Lara after a visit to a music shop with her father, to secure her first engagement. The music shop proprietor considered the name Adelina Preston far too 'English' to perform under and thus suggested her mother's maiden name as a suitable replacement. She first appeared in public at the age of six, and gave recitals throughout the UK until the age of twelve.
She was educated at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt under Iwan Knorr, and studied piano with Fanny Davies and Clara Schumann, whose work she championed for most of her life. She was close friends with Johannes Brahms through her studies. As an adult, Adelina de Lara performed in public for the first time following her studies in 1891 and continued for over seventy years, making her final appearance on 15 June 1954 at the Wigmore Hall London. She made many recordings for the BBC and appeared on BBC Television on her 82nd birthday.
During World War II she played for Dame Myra Hess at the National Gallery and later in life, Sir Adrian Boult. In 1951 Adelina was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). The late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother was both an admirer and a friend and sent good wishes for concerts on many occasions. She also worked as a teacher, her students including Eileen Joyce and many other distinguished pianists. She composed many pieces which have included ballads, song cycles and many for piano including two concertos. There were also two suites for strings, including 'In The Forest', which was performed in 2005, in Gloucester Cathedral by the Gloucester Academy of Music.
Adelina de Lara's autobiography entitled Finale was published in 1955 and she died at the age of 89 in Woking, Surrey on 25 November 1961.
(Wikipedia)

[@cyrilignatiuskendrick6663]

Priceless recollections from a musician on the scene early enough to experience these great 19th Century musicians personally and yet who lived long enough to relate these experiences through modern recordings.

[@enriquesanchez2001]

Now - THIS that catapulted me into a Time Machine - which will stay with me a long time. PRICELESS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[@3047L-f6m]

wonderful playing... I absolutely love the part where she starts the last movement of the Schumann Fantasie, as if there was no right and wrong, just music. honest, without any affectations. note the gently rolled chords, simply masterful.

[@stephenhunt2900]

Thanks to Gullivior. I'd no idea this sort of reminiscence had been captured on record. More..much more of this, please.

[@tonyrowe4701]

one of the real gems on the internet ....

[@antoniorosa2365]

Simply marvelous ! Thank you for sharing !

[@StephenGottPianist]

What a great privilege to listen to this. I am playing the two Brahms Rhapsodies at the moment and it's great to hear 1st hand account. I like her sense of humour too.

[@gidimeir]

Thank you! … priceless!

[@davisatdavis1]

If I ever become a piano teacher, I will be sure to refer to things I learned in here, and link my students to this video.

[@discurio]

Adelina de Lara was one of the pianistic prodigies and performed as a six-year-old in England. She was discovered by Fanny Davies and prepared by her to study with Clara Schumann. In 1886, de Lara came to Frankfurt, where she studied for almost six years with Clara Schumann. Brahms also instructed her occasionally in the interpretation of his works. After completing her studies she was returning to England and began a long, successful career. Clara Schumann herself considered de Lara as the best among her students. De Lara has performed in Australia, the USA and South Africa. She made many broadcasted for the BBC and in the 1950s for the (no longer existing) Clara Schumann Society as well as the Adelina Recording Trust. Adelina de Lara had way more temperament than Fanny Davies for instance. Her piano playing had great sonority; she had a brilliant technique and differenciated phrasing.

[@ericastier1646]

That reminiscence is a treasure in itself. How often do you get a living voice recording of someone who lived inside the circle of Clara Schumann and who passes on to us in a living voice account of the relation to even more prominent masters of the classical piano as Chopin or Brahms. Here you get an invaluable account that Clara Schumann played with no agitation, and you can easily infer from the account of her respect to Chopin that he almost also certainly did. This almost give us a visual impression of how Chopin played. No agitation, no theatrical body movement. It is the mark of the great pianist which includes Rachmaninoff also. A great majority of the 20th century popular pianists like A. Rubinstein or today's Kissin or Lang Lang are hysteric at the piano throwing their bodies and having a theatrical approach that is the mark of the degeneration of this lost art. Many will say it is also due to the heavier Steinway action that denatured piano technique. It is true Steinway has done a lot indirectly to kill the creative aspect of classical piano by making it louder and a banging harmonious mess. It brought it to the masses and also destroyed the poetic side of it.

[@firephilosopher7645]

You cannot actually be serious when you say that Arthur Rubinstein was 'hysteric at the piano throwing his body and having a theatrical approach'. Are you kidding me? Arthur Rubinstein??? Lang Lang yes...but Arthur Rubinstein? Do you even know who Arthur Rubinstein is?

[@ericastier1646]

@@firephilosopher7645 Yes i recognize my error this was 8 years ago it probably was a lapsus i am well aware that A. Rub. played with a calm static body all the action being efficiently focused in his arms and fingers, although i am not a fan of his interpretative style.

[@MrInterestingthings]

Heavier key depth has given us more variety and touch.Im sure u know this.Steinway has made all our music better.Nothibg to me is worse than the sound of a piano made before the1860s.Recently after watching Rubinstein I asked myself how he could even risk having his hands so far from the keyboard .I think there are many issues related to public performance. We cannot control our faces as we play and should not waste effort trying to do so.Now some people need to emotionalize as they play or the they will really not be engaged. This should be obvious but if one blindly follow a teachers precepts well then.

[@ericastier1646]

@@MrInterestingthings No at all, don't fall into the self popagandizing Steinway adverstising. They have made classical piano world worse than it was, and i hold them responsible for causing the focus on performance instead of both performance + composing,. In the 19th century it was unthinkable to be a performer only pianist. But the increase in piano action depth and heaviness lead to an increasingly long time to master a piece even for prodigies due to a lot more of wrist, hand elbow placement required to even be possible to play demanding pieces on a heavier action. This eliminated the time student pianists spent behind the piano to simply improvise because again any piece needed a lot of technical practice before sounding like one intended due to the heavy action. This lead to the extinction of the composer/performer pianist. In the second half of the 20th century already all piano composers were no longer high level virtuosi and that also lead them to write unpianistic pieces as they lacked the technical understanding that the likes of Chopin or Mendlesohnn had. And that is only half the story, in terms of sound the thick steel cable with tons of tension have changed the piano sound to a totally metallic sound and in the bass an awful rattle and messy muddy sound. I have played on Chopin's 1845 Pleyel Grand restaured to be authentic parts. The colors of each register are inexistant in modern pianos, the singing tone is unbelievable addictive and beautiful, there is a woody timber that is completely lost in modern pianos. Without a doubt i would prefer such a piano made new based on 1845 than a grand Steinway. I am not alone in that view many famous performers have said as much. The best thing for the piano world would be for Steinway to go bankrupt.

[@firephilosopher7645]

@@MrInterestingthings I think something you said is a widespread misconception so I wanted to say something about it. No one 'needs' to emotionalize when they play in order to be engaged. To be sure, the bodily and facial expressions/contortions are habitual and automatic for many pianists, but that does not mean that we can't regain voluntary control of the muscles that control those bodily/facial expressions by learning new habits. No one else is contracting our muscles but us, so yes they are under our control. And I think it is really the exact opposite of what you say - the facial/bodily contortions are where the wasted effort is. How could it be 'wasted effort' to simply release the muscular activity responsible for the excess movements? You are literally sparing yourself effort. When the body is quiet and you are only engaging those movements necessary for sound production, then we have 'cortical real estate' in the brain freed up for concentration and truly listening, literally fewer signals firing. Of course it varies in degree from pianist to pianist, but it always comes at some cost to the performer and the performance. We are free to engage in those movements or not, but let's not pretend that we 'need' to or that they are necessary in order to be engaged in the music. And, full disclosure: I don't pretend that I don't do also do this myself to some extent, but I know I can always improve in this area, and I know that it's possible to regain control of those habitual movements and that they are completely unnecessary to be engaged in the music. And I always notice the positive results in the actual sound production and phrasing when I do eliminate extraneous movements/muscle contractions.

[@yoandmest4747]

Thanks for sharing. This is a real gem. Best regards.

[@willemvantwillert-organist]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting

[@CrapFan]

Great document! Thanks.

[@anthonydecarvalho652]

Wonderful

[@VallaMusic]

how extraordinary !

[@bloodgrss]

Wonderful testament to have... Also fascinating about the pedal...since Schumann grew up while the piano was actually being developed, and the 'taste' for its evolving affects challenging the ears expectations and skills...

[@gerardbedecarter]

Fascinating!

[@sivakumarvakkalanka4938]

Thank you for posting this .

[@jmonsegue]

Lovely!

[@pianomaly9]

I have a copy of her autobiography, "Finale", which is subtitled "from Clara Schumann to Television". I hope her TV appearances are retrieved and put up on YT some day.

[@scottalbers9314]

Really remarkable

[@terrybyrne4324]

This is remarkable - to hear actual recollections of someone who knew & was taught by Clara & Brahms! Does anyone know when this recording was made?

[@SandWolf_]

Woah, the concerto without the usual accents sound weird. I need getting used to this

[@irabraus9478]

Lift your arms between the opening chords of Schumann op.13/ finale!

[@CheyenneUbaghs]

I would like to use this for a thesis, could you mention your source? many thanks.

[@Starritt_Piano]

what piano is she playing on in terms of the make? its tone is wonderfully round.

[@TomekTomek333]

Bluthner

[@marylou1072]

5:26 5:42 my girlfriend thinks that too