MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2812, 5 February 1908, Page 87

MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

— Paginini. in leaving his most precious violin to Italy, where it has been preserved for many years in the museum in Genoa, did not "display aa good judgment as Joachim, who bequeathed his most valuable instrument to a music-loving relation. A ■writer in the Menestrel calls aftention to the fact that unless Paginini'a violin is soon taken out of its glass and played upon occasionally it will be utterly ruined. Already there are trace* of the action of worms. The instrument ia _ one of the master works of Joseph Antonius Guarneri, and was made in the year 1743. It bears traces of hard and careless usage by its famous oviner.

— A great deal of interest has been aroused in English musical circles recently by the production i>t Guildford of a new two-act comic operetta entitled "Pompilius," the music of which was the work of Mr Theodore Holland. Mr Holland is a young composer of striking talent and of great promise, and has for some time been very well known in Berlin, where he studied the violin under_ the late Dr Joachim. Critics are unanimous in asserting that Mr Holland has a brilliant future before him, and with the present scarcity of native talent, this is a /natter for congratulation on all sides. — Miss Reena Russell Graham, the clever Scotch violinist, is, without doubt, one of the cleverest of the rising generation of musicians. ili-s Russell Graham is the dat'ghter of a Motherwell schoolmaster, and at a very early age showed a marked talent for music. After studying for some time in London, slie went to Prague, where sb© was taught by the famous Professor Seveik, who expressed himself delighted with her extremely rapid progress. Later en fbe appealed in Vienna, Budappsth, Dresden, and Prague, and made her London debut

at the Queen's Hall last April, when hef playing called forth universal praise. — Sir Ray Lankester' has easy, kindly, charming manners, and beautiful taste id all the arts. His little house in Thurloa Piaee is exceptionally furnished and deco> rated. He haa a great deal of Chinesa embroidery about in different shades ol blue, as well as select bits of china and old engraving?, with little touches of red and yellow. Ho is also a fine judge of pictures, and he loves music. In writing to an old friend the other day, he said: " I -am sorry that I couldn't come to you, but I was engaged at the Tademaa. It was a most agreeable evening, and I sat by my old friend, Mary Ander&on,, who lookei? beautiful, and we listened for an hour t< Paderewski. It wae tremendous, glorious, almost terrific. . . . The piano was hii voice, and seemed to oe only a part ol him. I never heard such sympathy or such a prodigious and exciting performance ia ray life. It is incredible and astounding that a man can possess such enthrallingpower and facility."

— The influence exercised by the frima. donna on the evolution of music has nearly always been reactionary. Even so g'-vut an opportunist as Hand»» was- driven to threats of personal violwice in- 'order to secure her submission, and the greatest and most original composers have been precisely those who have treated her with the prima donna has been more or less deposed from the_ special pinnacle which, she once occupied in the popular estimation. She no longer reigns supreme even in the operatic firmaments, where conductors have at last come by their own, end share the homage of the masses with violinists, pianists, and (occasionally) baJlad-singers. Frequenters of the opera during the pasll 20 years will readily recall a period, extending over several seasons, during which the brothers de Reszke quite eclipsed all feminine competitors for popular favour. The popular prima donna 16 still made th» subject of a good deal of fulsome adulation in a certain section of the press, but she no longer inspires the same fanatical heroine-worship exhibited by the admirers of Jonny Lind or Piccolomini. For instance, we cannot imagine that anybody nowadays sits up till midnight in Kensington Gore to watch operatic- stars driving home, as old-fashioned people tell iis they did in the palmy days of Grisi and Mario. For that we have to thank Wagner and Richter, Bayreuth, and symphony concerts. — Spectator. — Sir Walter Parratt, Master of the King's music, is one of the most remarkable of living British musicians. By birth he is a Yorkshireman, and his talent for playing manifested itself at a very early age. Hia father was a clever church organist, and one day, in the absence of his parent, Master Walter — aged seven — played organ in his stead. So well did . he acquit himself that the congregation. l were quite unaware of the change. After this, it was little wonder that young Par* ratt should decide to go in for organ-play-ing seriously. For son\e years he was organist at various churches, including' Armitage Bridge Church, Huddersfield, and Wigan Parish Church. Later, while at Magdalen College, Oxford, he was presented to Queen Victoria, who was so pleased with him that she made him organist at St George's, Windsor, m 1882. As " Master of the King's Music " Sir Walter now resides at Windsor Castle, where he is often called upon to exercise his art for the benefit of the Royal Family.' Sir Walter is an enthusiastio chess-player, and his knowledge of the game is truly remarkable. Some years ago he played. a game of chess whiie sitting at the pianp, and performing from memory some difficult pieces by various great composers. Keeping the moves in. his head and never one© seeing the board. Sir Walter won the game in less than an hour.

— Of prodigies during the- last few years ! we have certainly had enough and to spare (says London Graphic). So exceedingly common have they become that the announcement that a new child wonder is to appear provokes no interest whatever, and no impresario with his finger upon the public pulse is disposed to deal in prodigies any more. Ir sometimes happens, however, that a child is endowed with gifts so great that, on his first appearance, he succeeds in overcoming tho blase attitude which the audience inevitably adopts towards him, and Much has been the case with the new pianist, little Ernst Lengvel. The fact that he .vas announced to make his debut under the alg;i* of Dr Richter was in itself a. sufficient guarantee of the greatness of his powers. For l>r Rieh<er is no sensationmonzer: the standard by which he judges is purely artistic, and has no connection, whatever with the years of the performer. During his time he has introduced us to many artists whose names have since become great, chief among them being,' Rosenthal, Kubelik and Kreisler; and there can be but little doubt that Lengyel i- destined to become as famous as any of bis predecessors. The ta^k which tho hoy set himself on his debut, at the London Symphony Orchestra' 3 first concert was certainly no light one. Liszt's E flat concerto makes the most exacting demands upon the technique of the player, -srhil" Bach * " Chromatic Fantasia and Fimuo" taxes his intellectual powers to the utaio^ l . In both works, however, he won veu'Vi.ie triumphs. At the mature ax p of 1* n(> seems to reioice in the execution and tho power of a Busoni, and' the most t^riitM'ia passages in th(» concerto troubled him nor at all. while his powers of interpretation are already so great that, even if he <li<t not plumb all the depths of Bach's music, his reading of it was far more satisfactory than are those of most pianists of twice his aa-e. Presuming that his talent is unforced, Ernst Lengyel is evidently defined to take a high place amongst the pianists of the day.