X-Nico

6 unusual facts about Clifford Curzon


Artur Schnabel

Among Schnabel's many piano pupils were Gavin Williamson, Victor Babin, Clifford Curzon, Rudolf Firkušný, Adrian Aeschbacher, Lili Kraus, Leon Fleisher, Stefan Bardas, Carlo Zecchi, Claude Frank, Leonard Shure, Alan Bush, Vitya Vronsky, Nancy Weir, Konrad Wolff, Jascha Spivakovsky, Eunice Norton, Henry Jolles, Maria Curcio, Noel Mewton-Wood and radio personality Karl Haas.

Clifford Curzon

Curzon was particularly well known for his interpretations of Mozart and Schubert.

Curzon studied at the Royal Academy of Music where he won the prestigious Macfarren Gold Medal in 1924, at the age of 17, Curzon was the youngest pupil ever to have been accepted into the senior school.

During his premiership, Edward Heath invited musician friends, such as Clifford Curzon and the Amadeus Quartet, to perform at either Chequers or 10 Downing Street.

In 1940 Edward Clark offered him the British premiere of Khachaturian's Piano Concerto in D-flat, with only a month's notice, but he was very busy and said he would not be able to learn it in time; he suggested Moura Lympany in his place.

Philharmonia Quartet

Its performance in the Brahms F minor Quintet with Clifford Curzon was considered 'exhilarating'.


Anatole Fistoulari

Besides his ballet recordings, Fistoulari served as recording accompanist to many legendary singers including Jan Peerce, Inge Borkh, Victoria de los Ángeles, and Boris Christoff, pianists like Edwin Fischer, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Clifford Curzon, Wilhelm Kempff, Earl Wild and Shura Cherkassky as well as violinists like Yehudi Menuhin and Nathan Milstein.

Tobias Matthay

Many of his pupils went on to define a school of 20th century English pianism, including York Bowen, Myra Hess, Clifford Curzon, Moura Lympany, Eunice Norton, Lytle Powell, Irene Scharrer, Lilias Mackinnon, Guy Jonson, Vivian Langrish and Harriet Cohen.


see also