The highly acclaimed British pianist has inscribed an album leaf to dear Ethel (English composer Ethel Smyth) with three lines quoting Beethoven on the higher meaning of art. Under the quotation she has penned that it is on the occasion of the Beethoven centenary.

Fanny Davies gave her first public performance at age six, going on to become a pupil and disciple of Clara Schumann. Her recording of Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor represents a direct tradition from the composer. Although much admired for her performances of Beethoven, Schumann, and Brahms, she was also a very early London performer of the works of Debussy and Scriabin and gave many chamber music performances with Joachim and Piatti. In 1892, she appeared with Richard Mühlfeld and Alfredo Piatti in the first London performances of the Brahms Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114. She also gave the first London performance of Brahms's D minor Violin Sonata with Joachim and she gave the first public performance of Edward Elgar's Concert Allegro, Op. 46, in 1901, which was dedicated to her.