David Wilde

David Wilde
David Wilde in 2020 at The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh
Background information
Born	1935 (age 88–89) Manchester, England
Genres	Classical, orchestral
Occupation(s)	Composer, pianist

David Wilde (born 1935 in Manchester) is an English pianist and composer.^[1] As a boy he studied with Solomon and his pupil Franz Reizenstein, who had also studied composition with Hindemith and Vaughan Williams.

A frequent soloist at the Henry Wood Proms, working with such conductors as Horenstein, Boulez, and Downes, he shared with Jacqueline du Pré the honour of opening the BBC's second TV Channel in the North of England with Sir John Barbirolli and the Hallé Orchestra in 1962. In the same year, Wilde won the Queen’s Prize and was invited to play at the Royal Concert in the Royal Festival Hall, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Sir John Pritchard, in the presence of HM Queen Elizabeth II, to whom he was afterwards presented by Sir Malcolm Sargent.^[2]

During the 1990s he composed many works protesting against human rights abuses in our time and was twice honoured by the city of Sarajevo. "The Cellist of Sarajevo", (1992) dedicated to Vedran Smailovic, was recorded by Yo-Yo Ma^[1] for Sony Classical, and the opera London Under Siege, after an idea by Bosnian poet Goran Simic, was produced by the State Theatre of Lower Saxony in 1998.^[3]

As a pianist Wilde has won several major prizes, including a first at the Liszt-Bartók competition in Budapest in 1961. Nadia Boulanger was a jury member and invited him to Paris for further study. "Mademoiselle", as she liked to be called, described him as "Superb performer, magnificent musician", and he remained in close touch with her for the rest of her long life.^[2]

Recordings include the complete Sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven with Erich Gruenberg; the Sonata for violin and piano by his teacher Reizenstein, also with Gruenberg; the Concerto by Thomas Wilson (specially composed for him); and works by Schumann, Liszt, and Chopin. He has recorded for HMV, Decca Oiseau Lyre, Lyrita Saga and CRD, and now records exclusively for Delphian Records of Edinburgh, who have already issued a recordings of music by Dallapiccola, Busoni, and Liszt, Schumann and Brahms. A Brahms recital was issued in 2010.^[4]

Wilde was Professor of Piano at the Music Academy in Hannover from 1981 to 2000, and since his return to the UK in 2001 has been visiting professor in Keyboard Studies at the University of Edinburgh.^[5]