OUTLOOK
Clifton playing the organ for 'Safety Last'
One of our regular organists, Clifton Hughes, delighted an audience of about 70 last month by accompanying the silent movie "Safety Last" on the church organ. As an introduction he told us something of his very early piano-playing and so it seemed appropriate this month to include this article written by Clifton.
The applause in the Wigmore Hall went on and on, and I was pushed back on to the stage several times to acknowledge it. My mother never forgave the recording engineer who faded it out after 15 seconds on the scratchy 78rpm disc that immortalised my first public performance, at the age of 3. I had my first piano lesson three months before my third birthday. Seeing tiny hands of my own children at that age I find it hard to believe, but the recording bears witness to my progress from that time.
I remember asking to learn. My mum and I used to sit in the room while my elder sister Vanda had her lesson. One day I went up to the piano, plonked some notes and said I wanted to learn too. To humour me the teacher, Mr Bailey, put a big piece of paper on the music stand bearing two huge staves, and began to point to the notes. I grabbed it from the stand and threw it to the floor: ‘No – proper music like Vanda’s.’
So he started to give me the last few minutes of Vanda’s lesson until I had progressed enough to have one of my own.
Mr Bailey was the proprietor of the Bucks School of Music at 16 High Street, and the annual pupils’ concert was held in the Wigmore Hall in London. I remember the green room, and the steps down to the stage, and I have the recording to this day, mistakes and all. ‘Sur la glace à Sweet Briar’ had cross-over hands – a sure-fire audience pleaser!
Wonder boy pianist
The Weekly News dubbed me ‘The Wee Wonder of Wycombe’, and several months later the Paramount Newsreel team came to Wycombe and made an item about the ‘Wonder Boy Pianist’, then 4 years and 9 months old. I played a piece of Mozart and demonstrated my perfect pitch, identifying notes with my back turned to the piano. When the newsreel came to the Odeon in High Wycombe I had to follow it with a live performance, which included singing a Welsh song, accompanied by my sister. I remember being lifted on to a chair so that I was high enough to reach the microphone on its stand.
Fast forward 40 years and imagine my Mum’s delight when I found a copy of the newsreel item in a London archive and was able to give it to her on video.
The pupils’ concerts moved to Wycombe Town Hall and I, along with several other pupils, then had the amazing experience of playing a piano concerto with orchestra every year from the ages of 7 to 14. I passed my Grade 8 when I was 11, broadcast on the radio at 13 and got my ARCM performer’s diploma at 16, before going to Oxford to read music. At 14 I had won a scholarship to study in London with the Russian concert pianist Julius Isserlis, grandfather of the cellist Stephen Isserlis. This gave me a new level of insight into music and performance, but I was sorry to leave the gentle hands of Mr Bailey, who had given me so many rare musical opportunities.
Fortunately, such freakish youthful development doesn’t necessarily continue, so it’s as an amateur that I’ve enjoyed the piano all my life, and nowadays I play it much like anyone else of my age (70+).
But when I go to the Wigmore Hall I can still see myself, a tot in the short white trousers, being pushed out on the stage, somewhat bewildered, to face the storm of applause after my public debut.
Clifton Hughes
In January Clifton Hughes (story above) accompanied the silent film 'Safety Last' by Harold Lloyd. A good attendance filled the church.
A good attendance .... Rapt attention