Newspaper Article

Colourful concert pianist

2005

Overview

She divided her time between London, Monaco and her Pyrenean home at Rasigueres in Languedoc. She went to Rasigueres in 1973 when, after losing her voice through tiredness, she was advised to go somewhere hot and dry to rest. She bought the sheepfold and converted it into a tiny home. She also owned a vineyard that produced up to 15,000 bottles a year. The outcome was that, just before her 13th birthday, she played Mendelssohn's G minor concerto in Harrogate with [Basil Cameron] conducting. He advised her to glamorize her name. She converted [Mary Johnstone] into [Moura Lympany] and her mother's maiden name of Limpenny was adapted as Lympany to rhyme with timpani. She continued her piano studies in Vienna with Paul Weingarten while working as an au pair. After winning another scholarship to the RAM, she was taught by Mathilde Verne, who had been a pupil of Clara Schumann, and by Tobias Matthay. Moura Lympany claimed that she had learned some elements of Clara Schumann's style - \"to play straight, nothing chichi, not what I call powdered rubato. And never to bang the keys like so many players do today.\"

• Publisher: Postmedia Network Inc
• Subject: Cameron, Basil / Johnstone, Mary / Lympany, Moura / Schumann, Clara