Peter Lawrence Frederick Heyworth (3 June 1921 – 2 October 1991) was an American-born British music critic and biographer. He wrote a two-volume biography of

Otto Klemperer Otto Nossan Klemperer (14 May 18856 July 1973) was a 20th-century conductor and composer, originally based in Germany, and then the US, Hungary and finally Britain. His early career was in opera houses, but he was later better known as a concer ...

and was a prominent supporter of avant-garde music.

Life and career

Peter Heyworth was born in the Lawrence Hospital, Bronxville, New York on 3 June 1921."Peter Lawrence Frederick Heyworth"
Ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 10 December 2020 He was the son of Lawrence Ormerod Heyworth (1890–1954), a prosperous commodity dealer born in Argentina,"An outward-looking clarity of vision", ''The Observer'', 6 October 1991, p. 57 and his first wife Ella, ''née'' Stern (1891–1927), who was born in the US. The family moved to England when Heyworth was four. His mother died when he was six, and he was much influenced by her mother, a good pianist of Viennese Jewish family. He was educated at

Charterhouse Charterhouse may refer to: * Charterhouse (monastery), of the Carthusian religious order Charterhouse may also refer to: Places * The Charterhouse, Coventry, a former monastery * Charterhouse School, an English public school in Surrey Londo ...

, and, after wartime service,

Balliol College Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

(1947–1950) and the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

(1950). Heyworth's military service included a period in Vienna, which helped form his musical preferences, which favoured German rather than French music."Peter Heyworth", ''The Times'', 4 October 1991, p. 18 His ambition to become a political or foreign correspondent was frustrated by poor health: he contracted

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

and then

Addison's disease Addison's disease, also known as primary adrenal insufficiency, is a rare long-term endocrine disorder characterized by inadequate production of the steroid hormones cortisol and aldosterone by the two outer layers of the cells of the adre ...

. He joined the London weekly ''

The Times Educational Supplement ''Tes'', formerly known as the ''Times Educational Supplement'', is a weekly UK publication aimed at education professionals. It was first published in 1910 as a pull-out supplement in ''The Times'' newspaper. Such was its popularity that in 19 ...

'' in 1952, and then another weekly, ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'', under its chief music critic, Eric Blom, whom he succeeded in 1955. He was also a European musical correspondent and critic for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' from 1960 to 1975.Kozinn, Allan
"Peter Heyworth, Music Critic, 70; A Biographer of Otto Klemperer"
''The New York Times'', 4 October 1991, p. D15 Although lacking any formal musical education – he had great difficulty reading scores – Heyworth championed his preferences and attacked his ''bêtes noires'' with equal outspokenness. Both in print and in person, he had a reputation for expressing himself trenchantly. He reduced secretaries to tears, quarrelled with

Sir Malcolm Sargent Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent (29 April 1895 – 3 October 1967) was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated include ...

and Colin Davis,Sutcliffe, Tom. "Peter Heyworth", ''The Guardian'', 5 October 1991, p. 21 dismissed André Previn as "mediocre", provoked

William Walton Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include ''Façade'', the cantat ...

into writing music intended to upset him, and wrote so woundingly about

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, (9 December 19153 August 2006) was a German-born Austro-British soprano. She was among the foremost singers of lieder, and is renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta, as well as the op ...

that she permanently gave up singing at Covent Garden. Heyworth's sympathies were with avant-garde music, and he objected to many new works in traditional musical form, maintaining that the

Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

were "cluttered with a lot of second-rate works and a certain amount of sheer derivative drivel". He praised the works of Pierre Boulez,

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...

and

Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include '' T ...

, criticised Ralph Vaughan Williams for "heavy-handed heartiness" and being amateurish in his orchestration. was dismissive of

Frederick Delius Delius, photographed in 1907 Frederick Theodore Albert Delius ( 29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934), originally Fritz Delius, was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family, he resisted atte ...

's music, lukewarm about

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

's, and consistently hostile to Walton's. Apart from his journalism, Heyworth was editor of a volume of

Ernest Newman Ernest Newman (30 November 1868 – 7 July 1959) was an English music critic and musicologist. ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' describes him as "the most celebrated British music critic in the first half of the 20th century." His ...

's writings, ''Berlioz, Romantic and Classic'' (1972), and author of ''Conversations with Klemperer'' (1973) and a two-volume biography, ''Otto Klemperer: His Life and Times''. The first volume was published in 1983; reviewing it in ''The New York Times'',

John Rockwell John Sargent Rockwell (born September 16, 1940) is an American music critic, dance critic and arts administrator. According to '' Grove Music Online'', "Rockwell brings two signal attributes to his critical work: a genuine admiration for all ...

described it as "one of the most informative, readable musical biographies ever written". The second volume was substantially complete at the time of Heyworth's death and was taken to publication in 1996 by John Lucas. Reviewing it in ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

'', Hugh Canning called it "essential reading, not only for the even-handed way he analyses Klemperer's complex musical personality, but also for the richly detailed picture he paints of an era in music-making in which artistic values still counted for a great deal".Canning, Hugh. "The life and times of an electric conductor", ''The Sunday Times'', 7 July 1996, Books section, p. 6 Heyworth retired from his post at ''The Observer'' in June 1991. He died of a stroke on 2 October of that year, while on holiday in Athens. He was unmarried; his long-term partner was Jochen Voigt. Heyworth was survived by a brother and three nephews.

References and sources

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heyworth, Peter 1921 births 1991 deaths People from Bronxville, New York People educated at Charterhouse School English music critics English male non-fiction writers American emigrants to the United Kingdom British gay writers English LGBT writers 20th-century English male writers 20th-century LGBT people Writers from New York (state)