Filippo Gorini

As part of the exhibition "The Courtauld Collection: A Vision for impressionism", the Fondation invites the young pianist Filippo Gorini for a recital in honour of the remarkable series of concerts that Elizabeth Courtauld organised with the pianist Artur Schnabel in the 1920s.

Elizabeth Courtauld (1875-1931), or ‘Lil’ as she was known, shared her husband’s love of art. In fact, it was she who, in 1922, acquired the first two modern paintings to enter their collection. However, Lil’s greatest passion was music. Just as Samuel championed Impressionism, Elizabeth believed deeply in the public importance of great classical music, and she too was prepared to challenge the tastes and habits of the establishment to achieve her goals.

In the 1920s the Courtaulds’ magnificent London residence, Home House, was a showcase for music and art: ‘one of the most cultured and tasteful households, presided over by one of London’s most gracious hostesses’, in the words of one contemporary. In 1927, Elizabeth invited the celebrated Austrian pianist Artur Schnabel (1882-1951) to give a recital at Home House, initiating a warm and productive friendship. Schnabel’s experience of the Volksbühne, the workers’ concert societies in Germany, was an inspiration for Lil and in 1929 she launched the Concert Club. Based on a subscription model, its purpose was straightforward: ‘The object of this Club is to stimulate interest in music, and to obtain a wide and stable audience, drawn from lovers of music for whom the usual prices have been too high.’

Elizabeth Courtauld declared that she did not want artists to be ‘paralysed by the stupidity of fashionable audiences.’ Consequently, she and her music director, Malcolm Sargent, selected programmes that included lesser-known and new work, and they always sought to present the very best international conductors and soloists. Lil was personally responsible for many of these relationships. Featuring Schnabel, Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter and others, the Concert Club’s opening season was a triumph and the press celebrated the beginning of ‘a new chapter in the history of music-making.’ The musical establishment was thrown into disarray by the success of the Concert Club and Elizabeth Courtauld was denounced for her perceived favouritism of foreign musicians. She was unmoved, responding with words later echoed in her husband appreciation of painting: ‘[Music] is the purest form of art, and it is supranational.’

Following a long illness, Elizabeth Courtauld died in December 1931. Her husband maintained the Concert Club until 1940 by which time a total of 132 Courtauld-Sargent concerts had been presented. These included some of the most remarkable musical performances given in London before the War. The first Courtauld-Sargent concert to take place after Elizabeth’s death was Artur Schnabel playing Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. This was one of Samuel Courtauld’s favourite pieces of music and he attended the performance, which became a tribute to his wife. Prompted by the concert, he wrote poignantly to his daughter the following day: ‘I feel so strongly that Lil has not gone far away or for long’.

Ernst Vegelin van Claerbergen

Head of the Courtauld Gallery