A REMARKABLE MUSICIAN.

Bruce Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 1753, 28 May 1886, Page 4

A REMARKABLE MUSICIAN.

»■ ■ ■ Count Zichy, who is now all the rage on the continent of Europe, gave proof of a remarkable aptitude for music and for poetry while a mere boy; his verses, like his compositions, haviug, from the first, a flavor of mysticism. He had visions, and fancied he saw the Virgin and heard the heavenly choir around her ; when he would seize his violin and take part in the celestial concert. When the vision had disappeared, he would take his pencil and . write a devout poem, describing the sights and sounds of his vision. In his fourteenth year, after an accident in the hunting field, he had to undergo the amputation of his right arm, and the surgeon strictly forbade his attempting any study or physical effort. One day he put a

sealed paper into his tutor's hand, after obtaining his promise that the paper should not be opened until theexpirafcion of a year from that day. When, after a year, the paper was opened, ifc was found fco contain these words : — " If, in a year from to-day, I am nofc able to do, with my one arm, all that other people do wifch their two arms, I will shoofc myself through the head." From the day when he wrote and sealed this vow, the young Cotmt ■would eat no article of food that he had not cut up for himself, and no fruit thafc he had not succeeded in peeling ; and he lefc his nails grow until he had contrived the means of cutting them. He managed horses, rowed his boat, loaded his gun, and shot game in perfection, thanks to the ingenuity he brought to the service of the iron will thafc dwelt in his seemingly fragile personality. He studied law as well as the violin and the piano, was a diligent reader, conposed four plays which he had performed in the theatres of Buda-Pesth, and published several novels and two volumes of poems. The young Count made the conquest of his great compatriot, Liszt, who decided his vocation. One day, when Zichy was playing the piano in Liszt's room, the greatest of pianists came quietly behind him, kissed him on the forehead, and said to him, " Thou shalt have no rival !" Lißzfcthen took him as his pupil and trained him during six years helping him to replace his right; hand with his thumb ; bufc great as was Liszt's faith in his pupil, he never dreamed that Zichy would succeed in dashing off chromatic scales with his thumb and executing with his left; hand leaps of five and six octaves — " tiger leaps," as the great maestro styled them. After his first concert, given in Vienna, M. Handsclick, the leading musical critic of Austria and Hungary, declared " many people play the piano j a few of them charm their hearers ; as for Zichy, he bewitches." Since then the count has gained j£_B,ooo by his concerts, and has given every farthing thus gained by him to the poor of the countries in which he has played. One day a lady remarked to Liszt, in allusion to Zichy's loss of his right arm, " poor fellow ! how much he is to be pitied ! " " Not he ! ' replied Liszt, " but sometimes his piano ; and always those who have not heard him !" When Zichy played in Berlin the critics declared that, for a playei to do what he did with one hand, there must be some special mechanism in the piano. Joachim, the celebrated violinist;, there~ upon invited the Berlinese fco come and examine Zichy's piano. Such crowds came to the hotel to do so, thafc Zichy quitted Berlin, and the innkeeper charged a small sum at the door, and made almost a fortune. The Count bad long intended to give a concert in Paris for the poor of the region. This he has now done, and with the same brilliant success that always accompanies fchis amazing player.