MUSICAL PRODIGIES.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 13, 15 July 1905, Page 13

MUSICAL PRODIGIES.

Speaking of Vivien Charbres, a violinist of nine, who was the chief figure at an orchestral concert given in London recently, a London paper says she gave a wonderful account of herself in Bruch's Concerto in G minor, Vieuxtemps's "Fantasie Appassionata," and Paganini's "Moses" fantasia. While she .was never in difficulty in fingering and bowing these exacting works, she is credited with interpreting them with "notable intelligence, sincerity, and good taste. ' The tone, of course, was small, but intonation scarcely ever failed, and the playing never lacked spirit and confidence, while in the Finale of the Concerto the little artist's execution proved aingularly firm and resolute. By her entirely unaffected manner, too, Vivien Chartres won over her audience, and the Concerto at an end, the child caused much amusement by rushing off the platform at top speed." This little girl is the daughter of Mr. John Chartres, a distinguished Londoii journalist. Her mother, a poetess well-known by the "nom-de-plume" of "Annie Vivanti," was in the past also engaged in journalism. Strangely enough, both Mr. and Mi». Chartres used to hold strong views about infant musical prodigies. Speaking to a London interviewer, Mrs. Charties acknowledged that on one occasion, when she went to hear Bronisiaws Huberman for W New York paper, she folt so hurt at tlie sight of the boy doing what seemed inhuman for his age, that she closed her notice of him' with the words, "Go, little lad, and burn your fiddle, wonderful as it is, aud run out and ploy in the beautiful sunshine." Vivien was about two years old then, and her mother little dreamt of her following in the footsteps of young Huberman. Her parents were unable to resist her progress, and they have considerably modified their views about prodigies. "We had thought," explained Mrs. Chartres, "that these mites who play so remarkably have been forced through awful, endless hours of unutterable drudgery at practice. But it is not so. They possess a marvellous ease of acquirement, which is beyond the comprehension of grown-ups, lot alone beyond their imitation." Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Chartres plays the violin, though tihey are both pianists, and little Vivien's career as a violinist was brought about in this remarkable way. One night in Paris two and a half yearß ago, Signor Santa Vicca, an Italian violinist, paid them a visit. Vivien was supposed to bo in bed, but after Santa Vicca had played Sarasato's lovely "Zigeunerwoisen," the party found Vivien at the door in tears. She had crept downstairs in her nightdress to liston to the music. Next day a tiny violin was bought for Vivien, as a toy, but she began to play with amazing rapidity, and six months later she attroctcd the attention of Sevaik, who gave her some lessons. Subsequently she studied witl> Signor Marescalchi, of tho Monte Carlo orchestra, but never practising for more than three hours a day. Mischa Elman, another violin prodigy, gave his first recital in London a few days later. Concerning him) tho Daily Telegraph saye he is "a player whose command of expression seems to be as great as his technical dexterity. Ib is a genuine pleasure to liston to the little fellow's interpretations of passages of ■tender and poetical sentiment. How he is nble to suggest that of which it is impossible he can have any knowledge is a problem that must be placed amongst tho unsolved mytsteries of existence. Partly it is no doubt the possession of an extraordinary imitative faculty, and a contributing causo to tho effect may be the indefinitcness of music, and the association of ideas in the listener's brain, but when this is accepted, Mischa Elman's playing remains a musical mystery thfct defies explanation."