Klaus Döring's Classical Music/Klaus Döring's Klassische Musik

Born: August 13, 1879 - Ingelewood, Bowdon, Cheshire, England Died: June 12, 1962 - Rock Mill, Washington, Sussex, England The English composer, John Nicholson Ireland, was born into a family of Scottish descent and some cultural distinction. His parents died soon after he had entered the Royal College of Music at the age of 14. He studied piano and organ there, and later composition under Charles Villiers Stanford. Subsequently John Ireland became a teacher at the College himself, his pupils including Ernest John Moeran (who admired him) and Benjamin Britten (who found Ireland’s teaching of less interest). He was sub organist at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street, London SW1, and later became organist and choirmaster at St. Luke’s Church, Chelsea, London. Ireland frequently visited the Channel Islands and was inspired by their landscape; he was evacuated from them just before the German invasion during World War II. Ireland retired in 1953, settling at the small hamlet of Rock...

The Piano Concerto in E-flat was John Ireland's only concerto. It was composed in 1930, and given its first performance on 2 October of that year by its dedicatee, Helen Perkin (1909-1996), at a Promenade Concert in the Queen's Hall. The work was an immediate success, and it was frequently performed by pianists such as Clifford Curzon, Moura Lympany, Eileen Joyce, Gina Bachauer and Arthur Rubinstein. While it is considered one of the best piano concertos ever written by an Englishman, it is not often heard nowadays and is not part of the standard repertoire.