Leslie Howard
50th Anniversary Concert at Wigmore Hall
‘The Prince of Pianists’
Leslie Howard presented an all-Russian programme this July. Famous for his scholarship and understanding of Liszt, Howard’s love of the Russian composers Glazunov, Borodin and Rubinstein is unsurprising in that they all owe a debt to the Hungarian composer and pianist in one way or another. It was Liszt who took the burgeoning Borodin under his wing and conducted his music whenever he could, and Borodin dedicated his orchestral masterpiece In the Steppes of Central Asia to Liszt; Glazunov visited Liszt in Weimar in 1884 (Liszt arranged for the teenager’s First Symphony to be performed, and the Second Symphony was dedicated to Liszt in gratitude); and although Liszt did not need to help the young Rubinstein in promoting his compositions, the lad had spent much time studying the master’s performance technique and was soon to be celebrated as the greatest pianist after Liszt.
