Wagner Society
in NSW Inc
Bruce Hungerford - Australian - Born Concert Pianist
Members may remember that the winner of the special prize in the Society's 25 th Anniversary essay competition, Nathan Parry, wrote about the piano music of Richard Wagner (No. 103, March 2006 and No. 104, June 2006), basing his essay in part on the fact that Australian Pianist, Bruce Hungerford, had recorded them all in a series of Bayreuth masterclasses in 1960. Recently, I stumbled across some further information about Hungerford, not the least that he was extremely highly regarded by many critics and fellow pianists.
From the New York Times obituaries: 26 January 1977: ‘Died. Bruce Hungerford, 54, Australian-born concert pianist and Egyptologist; in an auto accident; just after giving a slide lecture on Egypt at Rockefeller University in New York City . When he was pianist in residence at the Bayreuth Festival master classes, Hungerford recorded all the piano music of Richard Wagner. More recently he was acclaimed for his powerful, deeply sensitive interpretations of Beethoven, both in concert and on records.'
In a memorial notice in the New York Times, published on 25 January 1987, Tim Page wrote: ‘Ten years ago tomorrow, the pianist Bruce Hungerford died in an automobile accident in the Bronx at the age of 54. Since then all of his recordings have gone out of print, and one will search in vain for his name in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Yet Hungerford has not been forgotten. Many aficionados consider him one of the most temperate, original, penetrating and deeply satisfying of his generation, and rank his incomplete survey of the Beethoven sonatas (he had recorded only two-thirds of the cycle at the time of his death) with the classic interpretations of artists such as Wilhelm Backhaus, Claudio Arrau and Yves Nat.'
Hungerford was born in 1922 in Melbourne , where he began his music studies, then later studied piano with Ignaz Friedman in Sydney in 1944. During the same year, Hungerford insisted on playing for conductor Eugene Ormandy, while Ormandy was on a tour in Melbourne . Ormandy eventually arranged for Hungerford to go to America in 1945 and study with Ernest Hutcheson at the Juilliard School of Music in New York . He came to the Juilliard School in 1945, where he studied with Carl Friedberg and Myra Hess. He made his New York debut in 1951.In his later years, he was a member of the piano faculty at the Mannes College of Music. In 1947 Olga Sam aroff suggested that Hungerford either try to establish himself in Europe as a concert pianist or move back to Australia and become a piano teacher. Although Hungerford continued to perform in the United States for the next ten years, he felt that he needed to conquer Europe in order to launch a major career, so he moved to Germany in 1958 and began concertizing all over the continent. It was during this time that he recorded his Bayreuth Masterclasses – the original tapes of which are in his archives at the University Libraries, University of Maryland ( http://www.lib.umd.edu/PAL/IPAM/IPAMhungerford.html ).
Hungerford was not only a pianist but a learned Egyptologist - he was returning home from delivering a lecture on Egypt at Rockefeller University when he was killed. He was also something of a mystic, with an interest in psychic phenomena, reincarnation and the theories of Edgar Cayce.
Here's a sample of some critical views on Hungerford's playing: ‘From start to finish, Mr. Hungerford's Beethoven playing was a model of its kind: flexible within an over-all, unshakeable, regularity of pulse; logical and lucid in outline, and vigorous without ever losing sight of details in the flush of excitement.'' And: ‘Hungerford's playing has been compared to a combination of fire and ice. He was full of passion and conviction and had very little tolerance for any approach that was not his own. One of the things that made his playing so excellent was this incredible confidence that he was right.' ‘He had a very powerful personality and was really sort of a guru to a lot of people. When I think about him, I remember his beautiful sound, his probing mind, and the intensity that vitalized everything he did.''
If you are interested you could read the rest of Page's memorial review at the New York Times ( http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEED81E3FF936A15752C0A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all ). The Bruce Hungerford Memorial Foundation still awards a prize to young pianists that the recipients regularly mention in their biographies.
Fortunately, it seems that Hungerford's Beethoven recordings were re-issued by Vanguard ( Catalog #: 1193) in 2003 and may still be purchased (you could try the Archiv website http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/albumList.jsp?name_id1=41438&name_role1=2&bcorder=2 ). Sadly, the Wagner LPs appear not to have been re-issued – yet.However, if you happen to have a copy of the black vinyl recordings, we could arrange a hearing at a future Society meeting – please let the Editor know. [Editor]
This page updated:
31-Mar-2008
© Wagner Society in NSW Inc 2004
|