Dame Moura Lympany

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's Archive. For rights' reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy nine, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:31

On our desert island this week is the celebrated pianist Moura Limpedy, who has recently celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of her first public performance.

Presenter0:41

Olympetae is a most attractive name. Where does it originate?

Dame Moura Lympany0:45

It's my mother's maiden name.

Dame Moura Lympany0:48

But in the old spelling.

Dame Moura Lympany0:50

I was actually born Johnston, Moora Johnston.

Dame Moura Lympany0:54

and though on my birth certificate was put Mary Johnston,

Dame Moura Lympany0:59

Uh I was called Moora from birth. It's a diminutive of Mary uh in Russian.

Dame Moura Lympany1:04

And then when I was twelve and I was about to give my first concert,

Dame Moura Lympany1:08

Basil Cameron said to mummy, What's her name? and she said, Moora Johnston. He said well, he said, Moora's lovely, but Johnston doesn't go with it, and it does it won't look good.

Dame Moura Lympany1:18

on the posters. And so he said to Mummy, What's your name? and she said Limpany, uh the L I M P E D N Y.

Dame Moura Lympany1:26

And uh he said, Well, that's a bit better. And she said, Then what about the old spelling, L Y M P A N Y? And he said, That's beautiful and that's how I became Lympne within a few seconds, and remained it all my life.

Presenter1:38

Was your mother a musical lady?

Dame Moura Lympany1:41

She was very musical. She played the piano and she also played the cello. And uh she said that she

Dame Moura Lympany1:48

got her love of music and her understanding when she was in Russia. She went to Russia before she was married.

Presenter1:54

And like you, she was a very good linguist.

Dame Moura Lympany1:56

She was a very good linguist. In fact, she spoke very many more languages than I do. She spoke seven. I speak about three or four.

Presenter2:02

Now you went off to boarding school abroad very early indeed.

Dame Moura Lympany2:06

Yes, um, you see, we were very poor and my father uh had been an army officer and uh he had never really been trained to do a job. And my mother had to try and keep

Dame Moura Lympany2:18

Keep us all going. There were three of us. I had two brothers. One was killed in the war.

Dame Moura Lympany2:23

And therefore she sent me to Belgium, having seen an an advertisement in the Catholic Times which said a convent in Belgium.

Dame Moura Lympany2:33

A five pounds a term. Five pounds a term. Well, don't forget after the war, that was uh in the nineteen twenties, I suppose. The the pound was worth a lot of Belgian francs.

Presenter2:43

Yes, but I've been doing some quick calculations. That works out at about eight shillings a week. Were you adequately fed?

Dame Moura Lympany2:49

They all eat very well in the middle of the middle.

Presenter2:50

That's what I got.

Dame Moura Lympany2:52

And I not only ate very well, but the nuns were just divine to me. And there was um an older man there, Monsieur Jaminet, who's about seventy five or so, who used to come and give lessons in dramatics, you know, plays and, you know, choral things. And he was he was a poet, he was everything. And uh he began to realize very soon that I had this talent. And so the nuns allowed me to practise sometimes as much as five hours a day.

Presenter3:18

Even when the other girls were playing netball or hockey or whatever they do in Belgian conference, you didn't mind. You you were quite happy with your practice.

Dame Moura Lympany3:21

Yeah.

Dame Moura Lympany3:23

No, I would I just no, play, play, play. I was at the piano all day long.

Presenter3:28

Now you made your debut at twelve years old. How did that come about?

Dame Moura Lympany3:32

Well, my mother and I were living at that time in either Bexhill or St Leonard's on Sea.

Dame Moura Lympany3:40

And mummy took me to a concert at White Rock Pavilion, Hastings. Basil Cameron was conducting, and there was a boy prodigy playing.

Dame Moura Lympany3:49

And I listened to the concert, and when it was over I said to mummy, Mummy, couldn't I play?

Dame Moura Lympany3:54

And she said, Well, I'll I'll ask m Mr Cameron. So she wrote Mr Cameron and um he said he'd give me an audition and I played to him and he said yes, I'll engage her. And uh he said the concerts are already fully booked in Hastings for the season, but I'm going to do the summer season in Harrogate. Would you like her to play there? So Bobby said yes. And so I was booked for the 8th of August in in Harrogate and that's how I gave my my first concert. And I played the Mendelssohn G minor concerto because it was the only thing that I'd ever learnt that I could play with orchestra.

Presenter4:32

And that is indeed your first record, the first record you've chosen for your desert island, your own recording.

Dame Moura Lympany4:38

Yes, because it has just been reissued for my fiftieth anniversary.

Presenter5:41

The opening of the Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. one in G minor, recorded with the Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik.

Presenter5:50

What was your plan in choosing these eight records for your desert island?

Dame Moura Lympany5:55

Well, when I started I chose a number of records which I love very much and then I realized

Dame Moura Lympany6:02

that they were practically identical to the ones that I had chosen when I believe I came to you twenty two years ago and did Desert Island.

Dame Moura Lympany6:11

And I thought, this is really going too far to have practically the same records again. And then I thought, well, since I'd be on an island, on presumably on my own, I would be looking back

Dame Moura Lympany6:23

on my life, I would reminisce about the fifty years of concert giving that I had, and I thought, wouldn't it be nice to reminisce with my own records instead?

Presenter6:39

You've chosen a programme of your own.

Dame Moura Lympany6:41

On my own recordings, yes.

Presenter6:42

Or where do we go next, after the

Dame Moura Lympany6:44

Well, I thought perhaps uh we should uh play the first record I ever made.

Presenter6:51

What was that?

Dame Moura Lympany6:52

which was the preludes of Rachmaninoff. And that was very interesting because during the war, I think it was like nineteen forty

Dame Moura Lympany7:01

Ah, Decca came and asked whether I would do the twenty-four Rachmanov preludes, which had never ever been recorded, not even by the composer.

Dame Moura Lympany7:10

and I knew exactly two of the twenty four, but I said yes, as usual, and so I learnt them as I went along.

Dame Moura Lympany7:17

And uh they've been a great success.

Presenter7:20

Which one have you chosen?

Dame Moura Lympany7:22

I've chosen the G major one, uh which is one I often play as an encore.

Presenter8:27

The Rachmaninov Paliod number sixteen in G major.

Presenter8:31

Now let's go back to your childhood. You made your debut at twelve.

Presenter8:36

A very promising youngster, but there was a great deal to do. You won a scholarship, didn't you?

Dame Moura Lympany8:40

I won a scholarship at the age of thirteen to the Royal Academy of Music.

Presenter8:44

Hmm.

Dame Moura Lympany8:45

And then I stayed there three years.

Presenter8:48

and won a gold medal.

Dame Moura Lympany8:50

Yes, I won uh the gold medal for the best student of the year.

Presenter8:53

You had already started broadcasting at this point.

Dame Moura Lympany8:56

Yes, the B B C were very um kind and and had me for many

Dame Moura Lympany9:01

recitals. And then eventually, a a little bit later, I think I was in probably about fifteen or sixteen, Reginald Redman, who was at the Card F B B C,

Dame Moura Lympany9:14

He began asking me to record things that were not played very often, and he would say, Do you play this? and I would say yes, and go out and buy the music.

Presenter9:25

Where did you study next?

Dame Moura Lympany9:26

And then I went to Vienna for one year.

Presenter9:29

Yes, you kept yourself in Vienna by acting as no paragli.

Dame Moura Lympany9:32

Well, i if you l yes, I suppose it it was a kind of au pair because uh my mother had arranged for me to um go to a convent in which

Dame Moura Lympany9:41

I would talk English and give English lessons to the girls in return for my board and lodging.

Speaker 19:46

Mm-hmm.

Dame Moura Lympany9:47

And I studied in Vienna with uh Paul Weingarten.

Speaker 19:50

Yeah.

Dame Moura Lympany9:51

had about nine months with him, enjoyed it very much. Then I came back to England and I got another scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. But after two terms my mother, for some reason or other, she was very ambitious for me and perhaps she thought that the

Dame Moura Lympany10:04

It was high time to go higher places. She uh got me to Mathilde Verne.

Dame Moura Lympany10:11

who had taught Solomon.

Dame Moura Lympany10:14

And she was also a pupil of Clara Schumann, the wife of Schumann.

Dame Moura Lympany10:19

And

Dame Moura Lympany10:20

That was a new type of life for me, a new type of lesson completely.

Presenter10:26

In what way?

Dame Moura Lympany10:27

Well

Dame Moura Lympany10:28

She she was very, very strict, and um whereas I really had a very good technique, I could play anything, she said you must practise regularly from now on, and you start, say, at ten till eleven.

Dame Moura Lympany10:43

And then again twelve till one and then say three thirty to four thirty and uh cup of tea and then five to six. You must practise and learn to practice regularly.

Presenter10:52

You still do that?

Dame Moura Lympany10:53

I still do that. I'm very, very disciplined.

Presenter10:55

Now you gave the obligatory recital at the Wigmore Hall.

Dame Moura Lympany10:59

Yes, that was uh Mathieu Verne's idea, and that was a great success.

Presenter11:04

There was an international competition, a big international competition, in which you did exceedingly well.

Dame Moura Lympany11:09

That was in Brussels. And uh that was in nineteen thirty eight. And Matte by this time I had gone to Matte because

Dame Moura Lympany11:17

Dear Mathieu Fern had died.

Dame Moura Lympany11:19

And Mattei said to me, You must go in for this competition. I said, Oh, I didn't stand a chance. There were going to be pianists from all over the world, up to the age of thirty. I was twenty one.

Dame Moura Lympany11:30

And anyway, I went in and I was lucky enough to to be second to Gillel's.

Dame Moura Lympany11:36

And

Speaker 111:36

Let's go to the

Dame Moura Lympany11:37

Yes, but I uh would love to tell you about

Dame Moura Lympany11:40

The last week of the competition, which was when the twelve finalists.

Dame Moura Lympany11:46

Yeah

Dame Moura Lympany11:47

Put into thee.

Dame Moura Lympany11:49

Palace of Lachen, you know, the Royal Palace of Lachen.

Dame Moura Lympany11:52

And the queen was staying there at the same at that time, so was King Leopold.

Dame Moura Lympany11:58

and we were all given a room with a bed and a piano in.

Dame Moura Lympany12:03

and we practised there. But in the evenings Ghillels would play jazz for us and we would dance.

Speaker 112:10

And

Dame Moura Lympany12:10

And King Leopold came along one morning and said, It seemed to me that I heard strains which weren't very classical last night.

Presenter12:18

Yeah.

Dame Moura Lympany12:19

And a lot came from that competition because actually we put into that chateau

Dame Moura Lympany12:27

To learn a new work we had seven days to learn a new concerto, which was composed for the occasion by Jean Absiles.

Dame Moura Lympany12:35

And I played it by heart.

Dame Moura Lympany12:38

And I think that o was a tremendous help, should we say, in getting me uh the second prize.

Speaker 112:41

Do we say

Dame Moura Lympany12:44

but also it was a tremendous help in getting me

Dame Moura Lympany12:48

the first performance of the Kartraturian piano concerto, because now we come to nineteen forty.

Dame Moura Lympany12:55

There was to be a a concert at the Queen's Hall, which was, you know, before it was bombed, of new Russian works.

Dame Moura Lympany13:04

And they asked Clifford Curson.

Dame Moura Lympany13:07

uh whether he would learn the cachetone piano concerto for the occasion, and there was only a month to learn it in.

Dame Moura Lympany13:14

And he said, Well, I have a lot of work. But he said,

Dame Moura Lympany13:18

Go to Mora Lympney, she learns very quickly.

Dame Moura Lympany13:21

And that had a great deal to do uh with, shall we say, my career, because um it was a very, very brilliant work. Then I was asked to record it uh

Dame Moura Lympany13:31

It was the first recordings we see outside Russia. And I also gave the first performance in Paris and in Brussels and at the Scala and in Vienna.

Presenter13:40

So now that's to be your third record. Which part of it we're going to hear?

Dame Moura Lympany13:44

Oh, I think I think we'll have this last movement for change.

Presenter14:47

The third movement of the Catraturian concerto

Presenter14:51

that you played with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Anatole Fistulari. Now, Rachmaninoff and then Katyturin, you've always had an affinity with Russian music, haven't you?

Dame Moura Lympany15:02

Yes, it's very amusing that I was called uh a specialist in Russian music. You see, for me it was just pure chance, like so much of my career anyway. Uh first I'd been asked to do the Rachmanov prelude so that was a success. So I then was asked to do the Rachmanov third concerto. That was a success. So then I was asked to do the Rachmanov second and then the first concerto.

Dame Moura Lympany15:26

And then we started on Prokofiev one and three, and in the meanwhile I think I'd done Katraturian. So, I mean, these were all Russians. But I did a lot of English music, you know. That of course is forgotten.

Dame Moura Lympany15:38

Because uh English music doesn't get played as often as Russian music.

Presenter15:41

Basically.

Presenter15:42

We've got some English music next. Would you like to talk about that?

Dame Moura Lympany15:45

Well, I I chose the Rawsthorne number one concerto.

Dame Moura Lympany15:51

For many reasons.

Dame Moura Lympany15:52

First of all, I love the work very much. I think it's a very good work. It was also the work that I was asked to play immediately after the war.

Dame Moura Lympany16:02

In many festivals, the British Council asked me to go and play in Paris with Adrian Bold. We went over.

Dame Moura Lympany16:10

And we gave a concert two concerts, in fact, in Paris five weeks after the liberation of Paris.

Dame Moura Lympany16:15

And

Dame Moura Lympany16:16

The British Council asked me to learn the Rosthorn for the occasion.

Dame Moura Lympany16:20

And after that I went to

Dame Moura Lympany16:24

Prague at the first festival after the war, which was in

Dame Moura Lympany16:29

And I played it there.

Presenter16:31

Now which section of that are we going to hear?

Dame Moura Lympany16:33

I think we'll play the last the Tarantelle.

Presenter17:32

The third movement of the first Rosthorne piano concerto.

Presenter17:36

with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Herbert Mingis.

Presenter17:40

Now the war had held up your development as an international artist, hadn't it?

Dame Moura Lympany17:45

Well, it did, but you see, I think that uh in another way it gave me tremendous experience here. I played all over the place naturally and um

Dame Moura Lympany17:56

It gave me a big repertoire and it gave me the opportunity to play often, which is very, very good. It's it's experience all the time.

Presenter18:04

You have an exceptionally big repertoire, haven't you?

Dame Moura Lympany18:07

Yes, I now play about sixty concertos.

Presenter18:09

Sixty left.

Dame Moura Lympany18:10

And uh I'm always learning new things. For instance, now I'm doing a lot of Malcolm Williamson.

Presenter18:16

Mm-hmm.

Dame Moura Lympany18:16

And uh

Dame Moura Lympany18:18

The Benjamin Britton piano concerto, which I never did before. So

Presenter18:22

So

Dame Moura Lympany18:23

Uh you'll see. I think it's very good. It it keeps me young.

Presenter18:27

What's your fifth record for the Desert Island?

Dame Moura Lympany18:30

Well, I've chosen Mozart.

Dame Moura Lympany18:33

I used to play a great deal of Mozart and um I've chosen the C major and I've chosen the slow movement.

Presenter19:41

The slow movement of the Mozart concerto number twenty-one.

Presenter19:46

accompanied once again by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Herbert Menges. Now in your career of fifty years since that twelve year old debut you've done a vast amount of travelling Russia, the Far East, South America, North America, all over Europe.

Presenter20:00

United States. You've lived in the United States, of course.

Dame Moura Lympany20:03

Yes, well, I married an American in fifty one, so I went to live out.

Presenter20:05

I would

Presenter20:06

Isn't it a rather lonely life travelling from place to place, hotel to hotel? Sometimes, I should imagine, a rather terrible hotel.

Dame Moura Lympany20:14

No, sometimes hotels are terrible, but I really like my traveling and my loneliness because it gives me a chance to replenish the the batteries. Um I generally read my music going up.

Dame Moura Lympany20:27

or alternatively um a book. And coming back, I would generally do my tapestry. I don't do it going to a concert because uh I'm frightened of it tightening my hands.

Presenter20:39

And of course there's the anxiety of planes or trains not being on time. You're always on time, but it's been said that you were late for your wedding.

Dame Moura Lympany20:48

Oh, well that's a very sweet story. My husband, being American, had flown over at a moment's notice, taken about a week's holiday or something, to come over and marry me. So we got uh what you call it, uh the uh special license, and we got married in Chelsea registry office. And as I happened to be playing at the proms that day,

Dame Moura Lympany21:09

We had arranged it so it suited him for his days, and then I could get off.

Dame Moura Lympany21:14

On so-called honeymoon, you see.

Dame Moura Lympany21:16

And so

Dame Moura Lympany21:18

My friends had arranged for uh a lovely, beautiful white Rolls-Royce to pick me up at 10.20. It was just round the corner from Chelsea Road Street.

Dame Moura Lympany21:27

And at ten twenty five, the car not being there, we rang through and they said, Oh, we've got a book for next week and said, Not next week, it's right now, you know. So he said, I'll be right over. So he was over, but I was late for my wedding.

Dame Moura Lympany21:40

And um anyway uh I went to the rehearsal at the proms and I arrived there at twelve and uh the journalist wrote uh pianist late for her wedding, on time for her rehearsal and then as I w went in the orchestra stood up and played the wedding march.

Presenter21:59

Right, record number six.

Dame Moura Lympany22:01

Well, I chose the preludes of Chopin, and I chose the number four in E minor.

Presenter23:05

The Chopin Prelude number four in E minor. Now apart from tapestry, what are your other interests?

Speaker 323:13

Well, I am mad about gardening, of course.

Presenter23:16

I gather that in your London house you've got in the middle of London you've got a greenhouse.

Dame Moura Lympany23:22

I managed to get a greenhouse on a flat roof there.

Dame Moura Lympany23:26

And it's really my pride and joy. And I I've got a lot of

Dame Moura Lympany23:30

things growing there. They they haven't brought me any fruit yet, but I've got mangoes and guavas.

Presenter23:37

and you have wider agricultural interests in front.

Dame Moura Lympany23:40

I've got a vineyard in France, yes. Splendid.

Presenter23:43

How big?

Dame Moura Lympany23:44

It's one one acre. Brings me in about

Dame Moura Lympany23:48

or probably about a thousand twelve hundred bottles a year.

Presenter23:52

and as one who's been privileged to taste it, it's good stuff.

Dame Moura Lympany23:55

It's I think it's very good. But do you know we've had the gold medal in Paris? I mean

Dame Moura Lympany23:59

We've had the proper acclamation void.

Presenter24:03

Another record.

Dame Moura Lympany24:05

I chose this time

Dame Moura Lympany24:07

The Schubert Trout Quintet.

Dame Moura Lympany24:11

Because I love it very much.

Dame Moura Lympany24:14

And it's really a pity that I haven't played more chamber music. I did when I was at the Groll Academy of Music.

Dame Moura Lympany24:20

But even now, you know my day is taken up with learning new works. And therefore you can't be giving your days to playing chamber music with your with your colleagues. So that's why unfortunately I haven't done so much chamber music.

Dame Moura Lympany24:38

So here we have my

Dame Moura Lympany24:41

SHUBERT, Child.

Presenter25:44

The opening of Schubert's Trout Quintet with Principles of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Presenter25:49

Now, as a castaway, obviously you wouldn't starve, you can cultivate.

Dame Moura Lympany25:54

Well, I would hope that I could have got away with a few seeds in my pocket, and that would have started me on my gardening there.

Presenter26:01

How good a carpenter are you? Could you put up a shelter?

Dame Moura Lympany26:03

Not in the slightest.

Presenter26:05

No. Good at fishing?

Dame Moura Lympany26:07

Yes, I probably could f find a piece of string and a cork or something and fish. That's the only way I know how to fish, though I do it.

Presenter26:15

Would you try to escape?

Dame Moura Lympany26:17

Well, I don't know how I could escape, because I'm not a good

Dame Moura Lympany26:21

Swimmer, so how could I escape?

Dame Moura Lympany26:24

I'd have to wait for a boat to come and fetch me, wouldn't I?

Presenter26:27

We'll try and organize that. Your last record.

Dame Moura Lympany26:31

My last record I chose the Rachmanov third concerto.

Dame Moura Lympany26:35

It was one of the first I ever did.

Dame Moura Lympany26:38

And uh

Dame Moura Lympany26:39

It's always been one of my very, very favorites.

Presenter27:40

The Rachmaninoff third piano concerto with the New Symphony Orchestra of London conducted by Anthony Collins.

Presenter27:47

Now if you could take just one disc of the eight of yours which will play this, which would it be?

Speaker 327:54

Well, I would take the mentals and

Dame Moura Lympany27:56

Yeah.

Presenter27:56

And you're allowed to take one luxury to your island. What have you chosen?

Dame Moura Lympany28:00

Well, I'd like to take my wine, but then I wouldn't call it a luxury, I would call it a necessity.

Presenter28:05

We'd call it a luxury, right? You shall have your wine. And one book, apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, which are already there.

Dame Moura Lympany28:07

Right.

Presenter28:12

And we put the bar up on multi-volume encyclopedias.

Dame Moura Lympany28:16

Well, I think I would like a book that taught me or told me how to

Dame Moura Lympany28:23

Grow

Dame Moura Lympany28:24

uh flowers and vegetables on a desert island.

Presenter28:28

Right, we'll organize something and thank you, Moora Limpany, for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Dame Moura Lympany28:33

Thank you for having me.

Presenter28:35

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 128:43

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.