Ballade No 1 in Db
Valse Impromptu @ 6' 12"
Bénédiction de Dieu @ 10' 58"
(Broadcast 4th March 1969)

Pianist Philip Challis (1929-1996) was born in Huddersfield, the Yorkshire town world famous for its magnificent Choral Society. He was able
to sight read by age 4 and quickly progressed, at first with local teacher Frederick Greenwood. In 1948 he took over at short notice in a concert when the advertised soloist Colin Horsley became ill. Challis along with John Ogdon were students of Iso Elinson (1907-1964) at the Royal Manchester College of Music. Moving to London Challis later studied with Herbert Fryer who had attended Busoni's masterclasses. Fryer (1877-1957, a professor at Royal Academy of Music) was a fine pianist who taught many leading performers such as Constant Lambert, Arthur Bliss, Cyril Smith, Kendall Taylor, Colin Horsley, George Malcolm, Lance Dossor, etc

Later on Challis studied with Ilona Kabos (1892-1973), wife of Louis Kentner. Her musical formation had been at the Liszt Academy in
Budapest. She taught many who achieved eminence (Howard Shelley, Janos Solyom, Varella-Cid, Peter Frankl etc) in England then at the
Juillard School in New York.

Challis became a sought after pianist who excelled in the big virtuoso works of Ravel, Liszt, Moscheles, Busoni, Scriabin and Bartok. His
repertoire ranged from Bach, to Romantic, French, and British twentieth century composers. He performed widely in UK and Europe, giving
very many BBC broadcasts from the late 1950s onwards, featured in a number of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts. He made a few LP
recordings and was also a successful teacher in Worthing and London. Sadly he died at age 67.

Other recordings by Philip Challis can be found on this channel's relevant playlist.

https://blogs.bl.uk/music/2014/06/iso...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilona_K...