Concertos for Phyllis and Cyril, and Much More

Pianists Phyllis Sellick (1911-2007) and Cyril Smith (1909-74) were long-time fixtures on the English concert scene. Both pursued separate performing and teaching careers following their 1937 marriage while also appearing as a piano duo. That changed in 1956, when Smith suffered a stroke, rendering him unable to use his left hand. 

Subsequently the couple began performing works for piano three hands, eventually leading three leading British composers to prepare works for them to perform. These were collected on a 1970 LP that is the centerpiece of this post.

Also on offer are three other albums. They contain the couple in a 1952 recording of a Mozart sonata for two pianos, and Smith's recordings of the Dohnányi Variations on a Nursery Song and that old stand-by, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2.

Concertos for Phyllis and Cyril

The three smiling musicians on the cover above are the composer Malcolm Arnold, who conducted this record, along with Sellick and Smith.

Together with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the trio produced this winning LP of "Concertos for Phyllis and Cyril," with two new works and one new arrangement from three of England's best-known composers.

Smith and Sellick introduced Arnold's Concerto for Phyllis and Cyril during the 1969 Proms, where it was quite a success. The brief work, in the composer's most genial manner, is highly engaging. Its finale is written in a sort of 1920's pastiche, which provides a nice segue to the second work on the program, which was actually composed in 1921.

An early work by Arthur Bliss, the Concerto for Piano, Tenor, Strings and Percussion, was written when the 29-year-old was, from the aural evidence, under the spell of Stravinsky's Petrushka. Bliss later reconfigured the work as a Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra. Finally, he worked with Clifford Phillips to produce a three-hand edition specifically for Smith and Sellick. It's quite an enjoyable work.

The longest work on the program is Gordon Jacob's Concerto for Three Hands, again written for the couple, and dedicated to them as the composer wrote, with profound admiration, adding, "in view of what they have achieved in adversity which would have overwhelmed lesser people, this is no empty phrase."

Arnold was a pupil of Jacob, whom he greatly admired. In his autobiography, Arnold observes that "somehow the [Jacob] Concerto never takes flight — well, not completely, because it is too well-made." With Jacob, emotion never took the upper hand, Arnold observed.

Sellick and Smith play as one on this record. Their precision and lovely tone are admirable; so are the compositions, orchestral playing and vivid recording. As Edward Greenfield wrote in his Gramophone review, "[T]he two central characters in this enterprise are both marvelously responsive, reacting warmly to music written or adapted for them."

Music by Mozart and Dohnányi

Seventeen years earlier, Sellick and Smith were recording for EMI's other marque, Columbia, which produced this odd coupling of Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 488, and Ernö Dohnányi's sly Variations on a Nursery Song, which dates from 1914. The latter is a work for single piano (here, Cyril Smith) and orchestra.

The Mozart sonata recording dates from December 1952, and displays the same unanimity of approach and tone heard on the Arnold recording. Phyllis and Cyril apparently were well matched both in music and in marriage.

Andrew Porter in The Gramphone was only mildly impressed, calling the performance "cool and gracefully turned," but "not in any way memorable." However, he reserved his real scorn for the coupling.

Dohnányi's work generally elicits two responses - one, it is clever and delightful; two, it is a bore. Porter was decidedly of the latter view, calling it "a tiresome piece of music," and complaining that Smith doesn't display the panache needed to bring it off.

Well, perhaps, but I will note that Smith's pianism is nicely fashioned and always apposite. Sir Malcolm Sargent and the Philharmonia accompany in this January 1953 recording from Abbey Road.

Smith's way with the Dohnányi must have been popular with the record buying public - this go-round was a remake of a 1944 recording, of which more below.

March 1954 Gramophone ad

The First Variations on a Nursery Song

In 1944, Columbia took Cyril Smith up to the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool for the pianist's first attempt at the Variations on a Nursery Song (or Theme, as it is called here). 

Malcolm Sargent was again the leader of the ensemble; he was then the Liverpool Philharmonic's chief conductor. This February 1944 recording date was just a week before Sargent was knighted.

Sir Malcolm Sargent

Honestly, there is little difference between the two recordings. The Philharmonia produced a more refined sound, but Smith is much the same.

Contemporary reviews were split; some thought Smith was too poker-faced; others thought he was fine. Howard Taubman in the New York Times praised him being "a piano soloist who knows how to play with a light touch." But then the critic was a fan of the work.

I did not include US Columbia LP discmate, a Liszt concerto not with Smith but Witold Malcuzinski.

Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 2

Smith, Sargent and the Liverpool Philharmonic were again collaborators for a June 1947 spin through Rachmaninoff's ever-popular Piano Concerto No. 2.

Cyril Smith

The critical opinions were again divided: some thought that Smith was not a big enough keyboard personality to match up with the powerful Rachmaninoff. But the Gramophone Shop Supplement insisted that "by avoiding the rough and ready pounding found in most of the extant versions, this work can be and is taken out of the doldrums. A reading that combines power with restraint."

My own view is that while Smith plays beautifully, a bit more personality might not have been out of place.

The first two LPs above come from my collection. I've filled out the post with transfers I've remastered from Internet Archive needle drops.

I am sorry that I don't have a solo recording from Phyllis Sellick to offer. However, I can recommend the 1945 recording of William Walton's wonderful Sinfonia Concertante, with Sellick and the composer conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony. The transfer is by my friend Bryan Bishop, aka Shellackophile, done for Internet Archive and available here.