Frederic H. Cowen

Sir Frederic Hyman Cowen was a British pianist, conductor, and composer whose talents embraced songs, symphonies, oratorios, and opera. He was born at Kingston, Jamaica, on 29 January 1852 and brought to London as a child when his father secured a post at Her Majesty’s Opera. His parents recognized his remarkable musical gifts – he was a child prodigy – and arranged tuition with Henry Russell, Julius Benedict, and John Goss. Further training followed at Leipzig and Berlin. He was initially seen as a solo pianist, but by the 1870s, he had achieved a reputation as a composer

In 1867 he went to Berlin, where he studied composition under Friedrich Kiel and Carl Taubert, and took piano lessons from Carl Tausig, enrolling at the academy created by Julius Stern, known as the Stern’sches Konservatorium. A symphony (his first in C minor) and a piano concerto (in A minor) were given in St. James’s Hall on 9 December 1869, and from that moment Cowen began to be recognised as primarily a composer, his talents as a pianist being subordinate, although his public appearances were numerous for some time afterwards.

His cantata, The Rose Maiden, was given at London in 1870, his Second Symphony in F major by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society in 1872, and his first festival work, The Corsair, in 1876 at Birmingham. In that year his opera, Pauline, was given by the Carl Rosa Opera Company with moderate success. His most important work, his Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Scandinavian, which was first performed at St. James’s Hall in 1880 and went on to establish itself for a decade as one of the most popular symphonic works in the repertoire, brought him some international recognition.  Appearing in 1880, it proved to be the most regularly and widely performed British symphony until the arrival of Elgar’s First. In 1884 he conducted five concerts of the Philharmonic Society of London, and in 1888, on the resignation of Arthur Sullivan, became the regular conductor of that society.  His employment there came to an abrupt termination in 1892 when he apologised for any shortcomings in the orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony before they had rendered it, due to the lack of rehearsal time that he felt he had been given. The directors took umbrage at his remarks and did not renew his contract. In the year of his appointment to the Philharmonic Society, 1888, he went to Melbourne as the conductor of the daily concerts given in connection with the Exhibition there for the unprecedented sum of £5,000. In 1896, Cowen was appointed conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society and of the Hallé Orchestra, succeeding Sir Charles Hallé. He was ousted from the Hallé after three years in favour of Hans Richter. In 1899, he was reappointed conductor of the Philharmonic Society of London. He also conducted the Bradford Festival Choral Society, the Bradford Permanent Orchestra, the Scottish Orchestra (now known as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra) and the Handel Festivals at The Crystal Palace for some years, as well as being a regular attendee at many British music festivals, both as conductor and composer.

Cowen’s career, both as composer and conductor, is now unjustly forgotten. He was one of the first British-born professional conductors to have the respect of critics, orchestral musicians, and the public, and he held lengthy tenures with every major British orchestra active before 1900. In addition, his six-month engagement with the Melbourne Exposition made him the most highly-paid conductor of his time.  Although he regarded himself primarily as a symphonist, he was most successful in lighter orchestral pieces when treating fantastic or fairy subjects, where his gifts for graceful melody and colourful orchestration were shown to best advantage. Whether in his cantatas for female voices, Sleeping Beauty and The Water Lily, or his imaginative concert overture The Butterfly’s Ball (1901), he succeeded in finding graceful expression for poetic ideas. The dance music movements in his orchestral suites were refined, original, and well-orchestrated. Much of his more serious music was commendable rather than inspired and seldom successful in portraying deep emotion.  Indeed, his choral works, written for the numerous musical festivals around Victorian and Edwardian Britain, typify the public taste of his time. Of his 300 or so songs, they encompass everything from the popular ballad to the high art song, the latter of which led him to be described as the ‘English Schubert’ in 1898.

Cowen received honorary doctorates from Cambridge and Edinburgh in 1900 and 1910 respectively, and was knighted at St. James’s Palace on 6 July 1911. Cowen married Frederica Gwendoline Richardson at St. Marylebone Registry Office, London, 23 June 1908.  He died on 6 October 1935 and was buried at the Jewish Cemetery, Golders Green.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Hymen_Cowen