Anthony Goldstone (25 July 1944 – 2 January 2017) was an English

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

, known for his eclectic repertoire. He also played a prominent part in promoting works for piano duo with his wife Caroline Clemmow.

Early life

Goldstone was born on 25 July 1944 in Liverpool. He grew up in Sale and attended Brooklands Primary School there, then

Manchester Grammar School The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) is a highly Selective school, selective Private_schools_in_the_United_Kingdom, private day school for boys aged 7-18 in Manchester, England, which was founded in 1515 by Hugh Oldham (then Bishop of Exeter). ...

. Eschewing a scholarship to Cambridge, he entered the Royal Northern College of Music ( RNCM), then known as the Royal Manchester College of Music (RMCM). There he studied with Derrick Wyndham, and later in London with

Maria Curcio Maria Curcio (27 August 1918 or 191930 March 2009) was an Italian classical pianist who became a sought-after teacher. Her students included Barry Douglas, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Martha Argerich, Evelyne Brancart, Radu Lupu, Dame Mitsuko Uchida, ...

Solo career

After his 1965 debut with the

Royal Manchester College of Music The Royal Manchester College of Music (RMCM) was a tertiary level conservatoire in Manchester, north-west England. It was founded in 1893 by the German-born conductor Sir Charles Hallé in 1893. In 1972, the Royal Manchester College of Mu ...

orchestra under

John Barbirolli Sir John Barbirolli ( Giovanni Battista Barbirolli; 2 December 189929 July 1970) was a British conductor and cellist. He is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 1943 ...

, he went on to success in international piano competitions, and his London debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1969. Among many concerto appearances, his most notable may have been at the

Last Night of the Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

in 1976, in which he played

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

's Diversions for piano left hand and orchestra. Afterwards the composer wrote to him, "Thank you most sincerely for that brilliant performance of my Diversions. I wish I could have been at the Royal Albert Hall to join in the cheers." He was an enthusiastic proponent of the completion of works left unfinished by their composers, most spectacularly recording a four-movement "complete performing edition" of Schubert's

Unfinished Symphony An unfinished symphony is a fragment of a symphony that is left incomplete. The reason as of why and the state of the sketches themselves can vary considerably. The death of the composer is the most common cause for a symphony to be left unfi ...

for piano duet, with Caroline Clemmow.

Goldstone and Clemmow piano duo

In 1984, Goldstone began a piano duo partnership with Caroline Clemmow, whom he later married, in 1989. They owned a pair of

Grotrian-Steinweg Grotrian-Steinweg, known as Grotrian in the US, was a German manufacturer of prestige pianos. The company is based in Braunschweig, Germany, commonly known as Brunswick in English. Grotrian-Steinweg made premium grand pianos and upright pianos. ...

grands, which they kept in the local church of St John the Baptist in

Alkborough Alkborough is a parish of 471 people in 192 households (2021 census) in North Lincolnshire, England, located near the northern end of The Cliff range of hills overlooking Trent Falls, the confluence of the River Trent and the River Ouse. Al ...

, North Lincolnshire, which was also the venue for many of their recordings. Their recordings were widely praised with Gramophone magazine saying "excellent sound and balance, too, the results always firmly focused and truthful in timbre...", Music Web International finding that "the recording quality is excellent" and "the piano sound is very good; rich and full with plenty of detail" and The Classical Reviewer noting that "the church acoustic allows the music to expand magnificently" Only Stephen Pritchard in a review in the ''Guardian'' said of one such recording that the acoustics were "sepulchral", and "pour dsome pretty cold water over some very hot music".

Personal life

He was active in performing and recording until the end of his life. Founder of the Divine Art label Stephen Sutton was quoted as saying: "Until the very last week, he was writing to me about his projects, retaining an amazing level of wit and even frivolity in what must have been extremely difficult circumstances..." Quoted in

References

External links

Anthony Goldstone – Naxos Classical MusicAnthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow performing the well-known Berceuse from Fauré's Dolly SuiteObituary in Limelight by Divine Art Recordings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldstone, Anthony 1944 births 2017 deaths Alumni of the Royal Northern College of Music English male classical pianists Pupils of Maria Curcio 20th-century English classical pianists 20th-century English musicians 21st-century English classical pianists 21st-century English musicians Classical piano duos 20th-century English male musicians 21st-century English male musicians Albany Records artists People educated at Manchester Grammar School