years pregnant with doubt, disappointment and all kinds of fears; The gloomy climate, so different from that of sunny Victoria, affected his spirits.
[2] Murdoch's first public recital in London towards the end of 1910 was very successful, and in 1912–1913 he toured Australia with Louise Kirkby Lunn.
Murdoch gave recitals in Scandinavia in 1918 and in the following year began his long association with the violinist Albert Sammons, which developed into the formation of the "Chamber Music Players".
In 1933 Murdoch published a volume on Brahms, in which he analyzed all his work for the piano, and in 1934 appeared Chopin: His Life, an interesting record that made use of much new material.
He had intended to include a comprehensive study of Chopin's works in a later volume, but this had not appeared when Murdoch died at Holmbury St Mary, Surrey, on 9 September 1942.
When he first appeared he had a brilliant technique to which the years added the warmth of temperament and sensitiveness of thought, needed for the expression of a fine musician.
The critic William James Turner wrote in 1916: Even when we get to the best pianists it is rarely, if ever, that we find a combination of exceptional technical mastery with tone-power, the delicacy of touch, brilliance, command of color, sensitiveness of phrasing, variety of feeling, imagination, and vital passion.