Cor de Groot
Cor de Groot, full name Cornelis Wilhelmus de Groot, was a Dutch composer, conductor and pianist. He was born in Amsterdam on 7 July 1914 and died there on 26 May 1993. He was the son of the pianist and performer Cornelis Wilhelmus de Groot and Elisabeth Anna Leemhuis, and married Cornelia de Haan.
De Groot studied piano with Egbert Veen and Ulfert Schults at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he also studied composition and conducting with Sem Dresden. He graduated with distinction in 1932 and later taught piano to Lex van Delden.
In 1936 he won fifth prize at the internationally known piano competition in Vienna. From 1938 to 1946 he taught at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He appeared with leading Dutch orchestras, including the Residentie Orchestra under Willem van Otterloo. Between 1937 and 1959 he performed 73 times with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, working with conductors including Willem Mengelberg, Eduard van Beinum, Otto Klemperer, Rafael Kubelík, Antal Doráti, Eugene Ormandy and George Szell. With Szell, he performed Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. In 1942 he gave two performances of his own Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Paul van Kempen.
From 1960 he worked for a time as music director at the Dutch Radio Union, becoming its artistic director in 1966. Persistent problems with his right hand forced him to play piano only with his left hand. He adapted 70 compositions for this purpose, while other composers wrote left-hand works specifically for him; these were later collected by Donemus under the title Mano sinistra.
As a composer, De Groot wrote not only for piano but also concertos for flute, clarinet and violin. His selected works include Symphonie classique (1930); three piano concertos, beginning with Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp major (1931); Concerto classica for piano and orchestra (1932); the Oboe Concerto (1938); the Flute Concerto (1940); the Clarinet Concerto (1941); Divertimento (1949); Minute Concerto (1950), comprising eleven movements each exactly one minute long; Capriccio for piano and orchestra (1955); and Variations imaginaires for left hand (1961). He also wrote ballet and film music. For light music, he used the pseudonym Guy Sherwood.
De Groot became particularly known for his interpretations of Classical, Romantic and Spanish repertoire, while also performing modern works by Dutch composers including Jurriaan Andriessen and Henk Badings. A substantial number of his performances were preserved in recordings for Philips Records.