Fanny Davies

Fanny Davies (b. Guernsey, 27 June 1861-d. London, 1 Nov 1934) was an English pianist, a very notable pupil of Clara Schumann's, who was particularly admired in Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, and the early schools, but was also a very early London performer of the works of Debussy and Scriabin. In England she was regarded as the 'successor' of Arabella Goddard, though her style and technique differed from Goddard's considerably.

She studied privately in Birmingham, then at Leipzig Conservatory under Carl Reinecke and Oscar Paul: she then studied under Mme Schumann at Frankfurt. Her first public performances were in Birmingham at the age of six. Her concert career began with the Saturday and Monday popular concerts in 1885; with the Philharmonic concerts 1886; Berlin 1887; Gewandhaus, Leipzig, 1888; Rome, 1889; Beethoven Festival at Bonn, 1893; Vienna Philharmonic 1895; Milan 1895 and 1904; Paris, 1902, 1904 and 1905; Holland 1920 and 1921; Prague 1920 and 1922, and Spain 1923. She was frequently engaged by the Royal Philharmonic Society, making her last appearance in its Society programme on 15 Nov 1915 under the baton of Thomas Beecham in Mozart's G major concerto K 453.

Her work in the large concert works was admired by many for its lyrical projection, warmth and clarity of inner lines and musicianly authority. George Bernard Shaw was not a great admirer, and in 1891 described her as a 'wild young woman'. In May 1892, after a performance of Beethoven's Choral Fantasia, he wrote: 'To those who cannot understand how anybody could touch a note of that melody without emotion, her willing, affable, slap-dash treatment of it was a wonder.' But a year later, at her Crystal Palace performance of the Chopin F minor concerto, he was warming to her, calling it 'the most successful feat of interpretation and execution I have ever heard her achieve.'

Her once-popular late 1920s recording of the Schumann concerto represents a direct tradition from the composer. Harold Schonberg observed, 'behind her neat, controlled, tasteful playing one can see the specter of Clara.' Yet despite an old recorded sound the performance is not without its fire and drama.

Fanny Davies was also admired in chamber ensemble, playing often in trio with Joachim. In 1892 (March 28, April 2-4) she appeared with Richard Muhlfeld and Robert Hausmann in the first London performances of the Brahms A Minor Clarinet Trio op 114, when the Joachim Quartet with Muhlfeld was also performing the op 115 Quintet. In her accompaniment of Joachim in the Brahms Hungarian Dances (April 1892) Shaw referred to her 'curious tricks and manners which so often suggest wicket-keeping rather than piano-playing.' She was accompanist for lieder recitals given in 1894-6 by the baritone David Bispham, in Schumann and Brahms (including op 112 Liebeslieder); and in Brahms lieder for Gervase Elwes and Marie Brema on their German tour in 1907.

Like Leonard Borwick (another Mme Schumann pupil and accompanist in lieder to Harry Plunket Greene), she 'embodied in a remarkable degree the unique qualities of the romantic school of which... Clara Schumann was admittedly the most spontaneous and finished exponent. The succes of these two native artists was destined to afford great encouragement to rising students both in England and on the continent. It also helped to create among the general mass of amateurs a taste for pianoforte playing of a more warm-blooded type than had hitherto satisfied them,' wrote Hermann Klein in c 1891. Miss Davies also published articles of a musicological nature (e.g. on Schumann's music, Musical Times August 1911, and on Brahms's own playing and tempi in the C minor Piano Trio op 101, in Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music) and gave musical lectures. An article about her appeared in the Musical Times for June 1905.

Recordings

Schumann: Davisbundlertanze, op 6, omitting nos 3,7,15 and 16. Columbia Records C-67797/9D (Alb CM-142), 3x12" records, 6 sides.
Schumann: Concerto for piano and orchestra in A minor, op 54. with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Ernest Ansermet. Columbia Records, C-67580/3 (in Alb CM-114) or C-9616/9, in Darrell but deleted c.1936.

Sources

D. Bispham, A Quaker Singer's Recollections (New York 1920).
R.D. Darrell, The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music (New York 1936).
A. Eaglefield-Hull, A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London 1924).
W. Elwes & R Elwes, Gervase Elwes (London 1935).
W. Murdoch, Brahms (Rich and Cowan, London 1933).
H.C. Schonberg, The Great Pianists (London 1964).
G.B. Shaw, Music in London 1890-1894 (London 1932).