Hamilton Harty
After an early career as a church organist in his native Ireland, Harty moved to London at about age 20, soon becoming a well-known piano accompanist.
[2] Of Harty's early compositions, Kennedy singles out the Trio (1901) and Piano Quartet (1904) and the Comedy Overture, premiered at the Proms in 1907.
The frank jollity of its themes and the clearness of their expression, both as regards orchestration and formal structure, make it a delightful "Promenade" piece – that is to say, one which tired people can enjoy at a first hearing and find refreshment in listening to.
The overture was played with evident enjoyment and great spirit by the orchestra under Mr. Wood.Among those whom Harty accompanied in his early days in London was the soprano Agnes Nicholls, whom he married on 15 July 1904.
"[5] The following year, Harty's arrangement of Irish songs was included alongside works of Stanford and Vaughan Williams at a recital by Harry Plunket Greene.
[6] Among Harty's compositions from these years, Kennedy mentions a setting of Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale" (1907), a Violin Concerto (1908) dedicated to and premiered by Joseph Szigeti, the tone poem With the Wild Geese (1910) and the cantata The Mystic Trumpeter to words by Walt Whitman (1913).
After Carmen, the critic of The Times complained that "Mr Harty's rigid beat and inflexible tempi petrified [the] delicate and fragile phrases, and made them sound like quotations from some forgotten German score".
[1] He resumed his association with the Hallé, replacing the indisposed Sir Thomas Beecham for performances of Handel's Messiah in December 1918, Bach's B minor Mass, and Schubert's Great C major Symphony in March 1919.
Writing of his skill as in accompanying either as a pianist or as a conductor, John F. Russell wrote in 1941, "Anybody who heard Harty in his capacity as accompanist could never forget his extraordinary grasp of every nuance and expressive device.
[10] During a Brahms concerto, Artur Schnabel accidentally skipped two bars, but Harty's rapport with and control of the Hallé was such that he kept up seamlessly with the soloist.
His passion for the music of Berlioz was reflected in his programming, and he regularly performed works by contemporary composers including Bax, Moeran, Sibelius, Richard Strauss and Walton.
A fellow passenger on the ocean voyage was a young woman, Lorie Bolland, with whom Harty rapidly fell in love, though there is no evidence of reciprocity on her part.
Harty dedicated two piano pieces to her: Spring Fancy, composed for her birthday on 23 April 1934, and Portrait, written at sea and dated 9 July 1934.
[15] In 1935, Harty seems to have still been well, taking part in five concerts at the British Musicians' Pension Society convalescent home in Holmwood, possibly as conductor or pianist, his role being unrecorded.
He appeared at a London concert for the first time since the operation, in March 1939, conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of The Children of Lir.
They include The Rio Grande, Walton's First Symphony, some outstanding Berlioz extracts and Elgar's Enigma Variations and Cello Concerto (with W.H.
[18] Though few of Harty's compositions continue to be regularly programmed in the concert hall and even the once-popular Handel arrangements have fallen from favour in the era of authentic period performance,[1] all of the orchestral works have now been recorded, notably by the Ulster Orchestra.
