Harriet Cohen
Harriet Cohen CBE (born December 2, 1895 in London ; † November 13, 1967 there ) was one of the most outstanding British pianists in the first half of the 20th century.
Harriet Cohen first appeared in public as a pianist at the age of 13. From 1912 to 1917 she studied at the London Royal Academy of Music and completed her training with Tobias Matthay , at whose school she also taught herself.
In the course of her career she has appeared as a soloist, as a chamber music partner, for example with Lionel Tertis and William Primrose and with orchestras. Concert tours took Harriet Cohen through Europe and America from the 1920s to the 1940s. In addition to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and the Elizabethan epoch such as William Byrd or Orlando Gibbons, her focus was on those of her English contemporaries, for example in 1933 she played the world premiere of the piano concerto by Ralph Vaughan Williams dedicated to her . Arnold Bax , with whom she had a long love affair, wrote a number of compositions for her. Béla Bartók dedicated the last six pieces of his microcosm to her . Harriet Cohen also advocated the piano music of Russian composers such as Shostakovich or Kabalewski . In 1948, an injury to her right hand forced her to concentrate on the left hand repertoire for several years. In 1960 she finally withdrew from the concert stage.
Cohen's various honors included, for example, being appointed Commander of the British Empire in 1938. In 1951 the Harriet Cohen International Music Award was launched. As Vice President of the Women's Freedom League , Harriet Cohen was also active as a women's rights activist and was associated with the Jewish National Fund . Before the Second World War, she performed with the Palestine Symphony Orchestra .
In 1969 Harriet Cohen's memoir was published posthumously under the title A Bundle of Time in London.
literature
- Joan Comay: Who's who in Jewish history . 3rd ed., Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2001, p. 84, ISBN 0-415-26030-2 (online)
- Routledge (Ed.): A Historical Dictionary of British Women . Europa Pubn. Ltd., 2003, p. 109, ISBN 1-85743-228-2 (online)
Web links
- Aryeh Oron: Harriet Cohen (piano, arranger) . Bach Cantatas website, March 2007 (English)
- The Life and Lovers of Harriet Cohen. Helen Fry's Music and Men, archived from the original on September 2, 2009 ; accessed on November 13, 2017 (English).
- Harriet Cohen (1895-1967), pianist . Pictures in the National Portrait Gallery
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cohen, Harriet |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British pianist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 2, 1895 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 13, 1967 |
| Place of death | London |