David Wilde

David Wilde (25 February 1935 – 23 October 2025) was an English pianist, composer and academic teacher. He won the 1961 Liszt–Bartók Competition. In 1962, he won the Queen's Prize and was invited to play with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic at the Royal Concert in the Royal Festival Hall in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II. Wilde was a professor of piano at the Musikhochschule Hannover from 1981 to 2000 and later became a visiting professor in keyboard studies at the University of Edinburgh. During the 1990s, he composed many works which protested against human rights abuses that were happening at the time and was twice honoured by the city of Sarajevo. Wilde frequently played as a soloist at the Proms.

Life and career Born in Stretford, Greater Manchester, on 25 February 1935, he studied as a boy with Solomon and his pupil Franz Reizenstein . He studied composition at the Royal Manchester College of Music with Richard Hall from 1949, elected a fellow in 1953. He won the 1961 Liszt–Bartók Competition in Budapest.

Personal life and death Wilde's first marriage ended in divorce in the 1980s.

Recordings Wilde's recordings include Beethoven's Violin Sonatas with Erich Gruenberg, Reizenstein's Violin Sonata, also with Gruenberg, Thomas Wilson's Piano Concerto, especially composed for him, and works by Schumann, Liszt, and Chopin. He recorded for His Master's Voice, Decca Oiseau Lyre, Lyrita Saga and CRD, and latterly exclusively for Delphian Records of Edinburgh, who issued a recordings of music by Dallapiccola, Busoni, and Liszt, Schumann and Brahms. A Brahms recital was issued in 2010.

He recorded Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, released in 1977, Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind instruments with the same orchestra, and Stockhausen's Gruppen, in which he played first celesta for the UK premiere in Glasgow conducted by Gibson, and first piano when Boulez conducted it in London.

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/the-cellist-of-sarajevo