Moura Lympany Collection
Mary
Johnstone (Moura Lympany) was born in Cornwall, England on August 18, 1916. She
received her first piano lessons from her mother at age 3. At 7, she was sent to
school in Belgium, where she studied piano, violin and voice before proceeding
to the Liège Conservatory of Music. She made her debut at age 12 in Harrogate,
England, performing the Mendelssohn G Minor Piano Concerto. Her subsequent
studies were with Paul Weingarten in Vienna, and with Mathilde Verne and Tobias
Matthay in England. Lympany's concert career was firmly established in 1938,
when she won Second Prize at the Ysaye Piano Competition, Emil Gilels being the
First Prize winner. Moura Lympany enjoyed a career as a recitalist and soloist
for over 60 years. She performed regularly in her native England, in Scotland
and the United States, and she made several tours of Australia, New Zealand and
South Africa. Moura Lympany was one of several pianists (including Myra Hess and
Benno Moiseiwitsch) who performed frequently in England during WWII, and after
celebrating 50 years on the concert platform in 1979, she was awarded the CBE
(Commander of the British Empire) in 1980. Lympany had a large repertoire which
featured standard works, but also included Concertos by contemporary British
composers such as Richard Arnell, Cyril Scott, Alan Rawsthorne and John Ireland.
She was the first western pianist to tour the Soviet Union after WWII, and she
earned a reputation as an interpreter of Russian music. She performed
Khachaturian's Concerto under his baton, and she was the first pianist to record
the complete Rachmaninoff Preludes. Her extensive discography consists of
recordings for British Decca, HMV, and Erato. Later in life, Lympany curtailed
her concert engagements to oversee her wine vineyards in Rasiguères, France,
where she also established a festival of music and wine. She gave her last
public concerts in 1996, and she died in France on March 28, 2005.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
SERIES I - Performance Files
SERIES II - Subject Files
SERIES III - Correspondence
SERIES IV - Photographs
SERIES V - Scores
SERIES VI - Audio / Visual