Peter Hill (pianist)
Peter P Hill (born 14 June 1948) is a British pianist and musicologist.
Biography
[edit]Hill, a native of Sheffield, was awoken to 20th century music when he bought some Schoenberg in a Winchester music shop and "played those Op.19 pieces with a kind of missionary zeal... this taught me about the only real reason for playing music – that you feel passionately about it and want to communicate something"; he later recorded all Schoenberg's piano music for the BBC.[1] He had been a chorister as a child, read music at Oxford then continued his studies at the Royal College of Music, both with Cyril Smith with whom he studied from age of 19, and pursued a research fellowshiop on Xenakis at Royal Holloway College.[1] He was a founder member of the contemporary music group Dreamtiger.[1] He was awarded first prize at Darmstadt in 1974 for performances of music by Cage and Stockhausen.[2] He became a lecturer in the Department of music at Sheffield University in 1976 and was co-director with violinist Peter Cropper of an MA in Music Performance course, alongside undergraduate teaching.[2]
He was acquainted with the French composer Olivier Messiaen, visting him several times in Paris[1] and has edited a volume of essays on Messaien's music (The Messaien Companion) and co-written a book about him.[3][4] As well as playing the complete works of Messiaen, he is also known for his performances of other 20th-century piano repertoire.[1] Among other recordings are Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Stravinsky, and music of the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg and Webern).[2]
Hill is now an Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Sheffield[5] and a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music.[6]
In November 2013, he gave the world premiere of Messiaen's piano piece La Fauvette passerinette (1961), which he discovered and edited for performance.[7]
Publications
[edit]- Hill, Peter (1994). The Messiaen Companion.[5]
- Hill, Peter (2000). Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62714-1.
- Hill, Peter; Simeone, Nigel (2005). Messiaen. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10907-8.[3]
- Hill's recordings of Messiaen's piano music, made under the guidance of the composer, for Unicorn-Kanchana, were later available on the Regis label.[5]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Fanning, David. Universal Truths (interview with Peter Hill). Gramophone, September 1989, p.414-415.
- ^ a b c Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music, biographical note on Peter Hill, accessed 5 March 2009.
- ^ a b Hill, Peter (4 November 2005). "Pianist Peter Hill looks at composer Olivier Messiaen". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ^ "Pianist Peter Hill on Messiaen's Birds". The Boston Musical Intelligencer. 13 October 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ^ a b c "Peter Hill". Naxos Records. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ^ "Fellows and Honorary Members". Royal Northern College of Music.
- ^ Hill, Peter (2019). "Peter Hill writes about the discovery of Messiaen's La Fauvette passerinette". Retrieved 9 April 2019.
External links
[edit]- Peter Hill at the University of Sheffield
- Read some of Peter Hill's articles on Messiaen
- Peter Hill's professional website
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- Academics of the University of Sheffield
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- Classical pianist stubs
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