Frank Merrick

Frank Merrick CBE (30 April 1886

Life Merrick was born in Clifton, now part of Bristol, the son of musical parents. Due to his asthma he was mostly educated at home by his parents and by a governess. At the age of eleven he was taken to play for the great Polish pianist Paderewski, who suggested he go to Vienna to study with Theodor Leschetizky. While in Vienna he met Johann Strauss II and showed him a waltz he'd composed. After 70 or more lessons with Leschetizky he returned to London and made his debut, first in 1902 with the Halle Orchestra under Hans Richter, and the following year at the Bechstein Hall.

In 1908-9 he toured Australia with the contralto Dame Clara Butt and played with various chamber musicians, most notably Henry Holst. During the First World War he was imprisoned as a conscientious objector, and learned Esperanto with the help of fellow-prisoner Montagu C. Butler. He dedicated much time to the language and spoke it well; in 1965 he made a recording of some of the Esperanto songs with the well-known mezzo-soprano Sybil Michelow.

Pianist Merrick's peers included Artur Schnabel and Mark Hambourg, and he was perhaps the foremost exponent of the Theodor Leschetizky method in Britain (others included Benno Moiseiwitsch and Mabel Lander).

He made several recordings of the music of Sir Arnold Bax, including the composer's first violin sonata (reissued on compact disc in 2003) and the four piano sonatas. Bax's Pæan for piano is dedicated to him. With Michael Round he made a recording of the Sonata for two pianos and other works by Bax. Other enthusiasms included the keyboard music of Debussy, Reger, Scarlatti and especially Prokofiev, particularly the piano sonatas. He spent many hours at the British Museum copying by hand the works of Field, who at that time was little known; the result was his edition of Field's piano concertos which became vol. 17 of Musica Britannica. Merrick also edited editions of Chopin.

His book, Practising the Piano, first published by Barrie and Jenkins in 1960, has gone through at least four printings.

Composer Merrick is particularly known for winning in 1928 the Columbia Gramophone Company competition to write the remaining movements (scherzo and finale) of Schubert's 8th Symphony. His composition was recorded by Columbia and sold, although these recordings are primarily, if not all, on 12-inch records and now very rare. Other works include a symphony (1912), two piano concertos (1901, 1936), choral music, chamber works and the Piano Sonata in A Minor (1902). His Suite in the eighteenth-century style for solo cello has been recorded by Steven Isserlis.

The original manuscripts of his compositions were donated to CHOMBEC (Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth) and the archives of Bristol University. There are many items, including a large number of Esperanto songs, over 30 of which, by his own account, he composed. He was a vice-president of the Vegetarian Society.