Edward Cahill: 1955 Cape Town Recordings plus 1947 Silent Footage

Solo recordings of Australian pianist Edward Cahill (1885-1975) produced in Cape Town in 1955. These private recordings have been remastered by Selene Records in Poland and pitch-corrected by Jonathan Summers (Curator of Classical Music at the British Library) - with a bit of level adjusting on one track by yours truly - and they are made available for this upload from the pianist's nephew and biographer Michael Moran, to whom all thanks.
The largely forgotten Cahill lived a fascinating life, performing for Queen Mary in London and for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in Paris. He was already active as a performing artist when he was invited by Alfred Cortot for lessons to fine-tune his skills, and he later trained with Leonie Gombrich, a pupil of and later assistant to the great Theodor Leschetizky.
Despite being aged 70 at the time that these private recordings were produced, Cahill demonstrates truly astonishing technique and interpretative mastery. In the more demanding Chopin Scherzo No.2 and Polonaise No.6, he plays with great strength and bravura, and in both the vivacious and more nuanced works in this collection, he plays with extraordinary sensitivity and refinement.
These recordings are followed by some brief film footage of the artist as he played at the reopening of the Teatro Romano in Ventimiglia, Italy in May 1947.
Chopin:
0:00 Etude in A-Flat Major Op.25 No.1
2:30 Scherzo No.2 in B-Flat Minor Op.31
12:23 Waltz in A-Flat Major Op.42
16:10 Polonaise No.6 in A-Flat Major Op.53
Liszt:
22:31 La Campanella
27:30 Silent film footage at Teatro Romano in Ventimiglia, Italy in May 1947
Moran's 2016 biography of Cahill is available here:
www.amazon.com/Pocket-Paderew...
scholarly.info/book/the-pocke...

[@nickboldewskul2136]

The Heroic Polonaise is superbly played with exceptional control in the Polish calvary section and a quiet tone in the left hand at an almost Lhevinne-like speed. La Campanella has rubato and accents that I didn't expect but delighted to hear. A wonderfully unique pianist!

[@pianomaly9]

Yes - he's dead level with Lhevinne's recording.

[@MrInterestingthings]

My jaw dropped listening to his Aeolian! Unforgettable! Such taste! I had to listen again none of the pleasingvulgarity one hears so often in 2nd Scherzo&the waltz. His phrasing,timingslmost sounds like the piano is breathing! Friedman and Petri pupil lived in Australia but this is truly fine,strong playing wout masculine histrionics. Really some of the best Chopin playing I've ever heard. I'm astonished. Saddened. But when u have this taste and make these kind of judgments you must know how fine an artist you are. I've heard Italian recs if Rubinstein from the 30s that sound rash& not thoughtful. If this was on the radio his rep posthumously would grow.Thr Scherzinger coda the most intelligent yet still exciting thing one can imagine!

[@saltburner2]

Thank you for saving this forgotten master - few outside Australia will have heard of him, It was in the following year that Ignaz Friedman died - in Australia! I have long considered his La Campanella a benchmark recording.

[@pianomaly9]

Once again a stunning master emerges from the shadows. I haven't been this impressed since you gave us Sirota's Don Juan. Focusing on the "Governess" Scherzo, as Liszt dubbed it, and Amy Fay's remark that it's "thrummed to death by (scores of) tyros" - I've heard several Golden Age recordings of the piece, some admirable and some, not so much. Horowitz' 1957 studio recording of it was imprinted on me at an early age and it's always remained the benchmark. Mr. Cahill's performance is on the same level of imagination, control and fiery characterization, while of course not being a carbon copy. Amazing. Those of us who have knocked around in the piano world for years have sometimes heard a remark like "You should have heard my (or a friend's) teacher (a virtually unknown name).........I swear, they played like a Golden Age pianist!" This time it's true. The other selections are no less vividly and expressively played. What a shame that this is all that survives of his art........and at the end, I've never seen a pianist in performance shaded by a beach umbrella!

[@chikunliao]

Thank you a great deal.

[@lorenzopone869]

The Étude Op. 25 No. 1, is simply sublime.

[@reamartin6458]

Excellent thanks