I very much appreciate musicians (and managers) who as it were have more than one string to their bow. One of my favourites from the past is the singer, pianist, conductor, composer and teacher, Sir George Henschel. (It’s how managers are grown in Japan.)
He was born in 1850 at Breslau, then in Germany (now Wrocław in Poland), and in
his youth he was a close friend of Brahms. Over a long career, he toured as a
concert baritone, accompanied his wife, the American soprano Lillian Bailey at
the piano, became chief conductor of the newly-formed Boston Symphony Orchestra
and later of the fledgling Scottish Orchestra, wrote much vocal music and,
later in his performing life, dispensing with a separate pianist, accompanied himself
in concerts and on recordings.
Here he is, singing and playing 'Der Leiermann' (the 'Hurdy-Gurdy Man') from
Schubert’s Winterreise song cycle in 1928 at the tender age of 78: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URZQkGISVSc
I love the story told by his daughter, contralto Helen
Henschel, of the time when, conducting the Scottish Orchestra in a symphony (she
doesn’t say which), the first clarinettist was taken ill: “My father sang the
whole of his part, while conducting the symphony, and nobody knew anything
about it.”
Above: Henschel by Alma-Tadema, 1879
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