Mrs Fiedler Now Soloist

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31595, 5 February 1968, Page 2

Mrs Fiedler Now Soloist

Mrs Arthur Fiedler, on her second visit to New Zealand, is no longer merely the maestro’s wife. She has the added status of being Miss Ellen Bottomley, soloist.

What started as a family joke has become a serious business and Mrs Fiedler is billed to give four performances as narrator for Aaron Copland’s “Portrait of Abraham Lincoln.”

The Fiedlers arrived in Christchurch yesterday for the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra’s 1968 proms season. Mr Fiedler is guest conductor.

Under her maiden name, Mrs Fieldler will be the narrator in four - prom concerts at Wellington, Masterton, Auckland and Hamilton. Her first performance will coincide with Lincoln’s anniversary, but unfortunately she will not appear in the South Island.

Although she is Mr Fiedler’s protege, it took him more than 20 years to discover her, and the real credit must go to her daughter, Johanna. Before arid after her marriage, Mrs Fiedler performed for amateur drama groups, but recently she has devoted herself to several charities and has often appealed for funds on the radio. About three years ago, Mr Fiedler called at the radio station on business and he was told that Mrs Fiedler had a wonderful radio voice. He went home and reported the compliment to the family.

When Mr Fiedler was at home for the Boston Pops Orchestra's 10-week session soon afterwards, the narrator for the Lincoln portrait sent a telegram saying that he could not fulfil his engagement.

When he told his family that evening, Johanna, his elder daughter (known in

family circles as Yum Yum), said: "Poppa, why don’t you try mummy.” “And that,” Mrs Fiedler said yesterday, “was the joke of the year. The family cob lapsed in hysterics. “Maestro thought about it and put it to me as a serious proposition. He was going to do it with Marian Anderson in New York and he thought that working with a woman’s voice would be a good experience.

“I thought he was being perfectly ridiculous and I told him so. The thought of getting up to perform with 99 men plus Fiedler would be enough to terrify anyone. “But when he double dared me to do it, I gave in. I’m like that.” In the two weeks that were left before the Concert Mrs Fiedler had to learn the portrait It takes between 18 and 20 minutes and must be "in absolute tempo with the orchestra”. Her husband bought Adlai Stevenson’s recording and she. played this over and over until everyone was heartily sick of it but at the end of the fortnight she turned in a professional performance. “I had the courage of the innocent—you know, fools rush in where angels fear to tread- My three children sat in the audience pea green with fright It was fear of God and fear of Fiedler that kept me going.” Mrs Fiedler was delighted when Mr Fiedler suggested out of the blue that she appear in New Zealand. She has performed the address twice since her first appearance three years ago. “You don’t have to act, just let the words speak themselves.”

This is her first long trip with her husband since she visited New Zealand two years ago. She was deeply shocked by the sudden death of her eldest brother just after she returned home, and later she suffered by a serious illness which curtailed her activities. Her three children are growing up. Johanna, now 22, graduated last spring and is now assistant to the manager of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. Her job involves a lot of public relations work and Mr Fiedler is always very amused when she writes to say she has arranged an interview or a television appearance for him. He usually responded with “Fancy that brat telling me what to do,” said Mrs Fiedler. Deborah, now 20, attends Radcliffe College, the women’s section of Havard University. Peter, aged 15, attends Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachussetts.

The children all had long years of tuition in the piano, much against their will at times. But Mr Fiedler insisted on the ground that it was a discipline that would be a basis for anything they might want to do later.

Johanna now plays the viola, Deborah is outstanding on the cello and Peter has his own guitar group. As a special privilege he was allowed to play at Deborah’s coming out party, said Mrs Fiedler. His father has no objection to his son’s guitar group because it keeps up his interest in music.