Noel Mewton-Wood plays Byrd (BBC broadcast)

An unpublished BBC broadcast of Australian pianist Noel Mewton-Wood playing two works by William Byrd, Sellinger's Round (LXIV) and The Carmans Whistle. This rare recording, taken from a BBC transcription disc, was shared with me for upload by Nicholas Brown, to whom all thanks.
Mewton-Wood was a phenomenal pianist who sadly took his own life just weeks after his 31st birthday in 1953. He recorded a fair number of concerted works and a few solo outings, but naturally any unpublished performance by an artist of his stature is of great interest, and there is to my knowledge no otherwise available recording of him in this repertoire.
His playing, as always, is superb: beautiful tone, fluid phrasing, and transparent voicing, all clarifying the beautiful melodic and harmonic content of Byrd's writing.
My centenary tribute to the pianist: www.thepianofi...
If you wish to support The Piano Files, please consider membership at my Patreon page: / thepianofiles

[@pianomaly9]

Very fine playing indeed, and a not very frequent refreshing dip into the English Virginalist school. I remember seeing that Anton Rubinstein included The Carman's Whistle as the opening number in one of his series of historical recitals.

[@saltburner2]

Wonderful to have this addition to his all-too-slender discography - thanks!

[@_PROCLUS]

💝💝💝 TY

[@butterflybeatles]

"He was found dead", according to Wikipedia -- does not equate to committing suicide. Was there a suicide note?

[@emilgilels]

If you are so skeptical why don't you read the rest of the Wikipedia article and/or look at the footnotes and perhaps click through to the other listed sources, where your morbid curiosity could be sated.

[@ThePianoFiles]

There is lots of evidence of a suicide - including an attempted suicide days before. There is lots more in Wikipedia - including the sentences prior to 'he was found dead' - and the feature I wrote about him linked in the comments.

[@saltburner2]

@@ThePianoFiles Taking cyanide was also used by Alan Turing - both gay men.