English pianist William Murdoch was born 1888 near Melbourne and lived there until he was eighteen. He won a scholarship
to study piano at the Royal College of Music in London.
His interest in chamber music led him to performance partnerships, with the violinist Albert Sammons and violist
Lionel Tertis, along with other players. He was never a superstar but was, nevertheless, a very considerable pianist,
and alongside his concert career followed a busy recording schedule for Columbia and Decca. He made a pioneer acoustic recording
of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto with the conductor Hamilton Harty, and together with Sammons and cellist W H Squire
he made the first electrical recording of the ‘Archduke’ Trio.
His interest in research resulted in books on Brahms and Chopin, and he also published a few songs and piano pieces, including
several transcriptions of Bach chorale preludes and works by Handel and Vivaldi.
He died in 1942 in Surrey at the age of fifty-four.
