Noel Mewton-Wood (20 November 1922 – 5 December 1953) was an Australian-born concert pianist who achieved some fame during his short life.
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Born in Melbourne, he studied with Waldemar Seidel at the Melbourne Conservatorium until the age of fourteen. After further studies at London's Royal Academy of Music, Mewton-Wood spent time with Artur Schnabel in Italy.
In March 1940, he returned to London for his debut performance at Queen's Hall, performing Beethoven's third piano concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham. He later performed in France, Germany, South Africa, Poland, Turkey and Australia.
Mewton-Wood's The Times obituary of 7 December 1953 described his debut performance:
| “ | At once his remarkable control and his musicianship were apparent: the ascending scales in octaves, with which the pianist first enters, thundered out with whirlwind power, but he could summon beautiful cantabile tone for the slow movement and the phrasing of the rondo theme was admirably neat for all the rapidity of the tempo; a true understanding of the relationship in concerto between soloist and orchestra, and of the soloist's part in ensemble, betokened the musician, the potential chamber performer." | ” |
Mewton-Wood was a close friend of Benjamin Britten.[1] In 1952-53, while Britten was occupied in the writing of his opera Gloriana, Mewton-Wood deputised as the accompanist for Britten's partner Peter Pears.[2]
At the age of thirty-one, Mewton-Wood committed suicide[3] by drinking prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide), apparently blaming himself for the death of a friend. The notes written by a friend of Mewton-Wood, John Amis, for the reissue of the Bliss Concerto recording, indicate that Mewton-Wood was gay and was depressed by the recent death of his lover.
Benjamin Britten wrote Canticle III: Still falls the rain for Mewton-Wood's memorial concert.
In addition to Beethoven, Mewton-Wood's repertoire included:
He also composed chamber music, a piano concerto, ballet music, and music for the films Tawny Pipit (1944) and Chance of a Lifetime (1950).
Noel Mewton-Wood features in Sonia Orchid's novel, The Virtuoso, narrated by a fictional obsessive admirer and sometime lover of Noel. The novel is informed by the author's own musical background as an accomplished pianist, and her interviews with many of Noel Mewton-Wood's friends and contemporaries.