BLIND VIOLINIST DEAD

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 45, 28 June 1929, Page 6

BLIND VIOLINIST DEAD

POPULAR LONDON FIGURE. In his youth a friend of the great masters like Liszt and Tschaikovsky, in his old age a street musician, Siguor Alfredo Nardi, the blind Italian -violinist and composer, died at his home in London a few weeks ago, at the ago of 70.

, People who saw the old man, with £is distinguished features, his mass of hair beneath a sombrero hat, and his air of a forgotten Bohemianism, playing in the side streets of the West End, wondered who he was and if, there was a "romance" in his life story.

The story of the "Music Master" who in bid age is reduced to playing for pennies in the streets, has boon the theme of melodrama and Mm. In Nardi's case it was true. In his youth, on the eve of the production Of one of his compositions, he was blinded by a stone.

' In 1907 Nardi went .to London and met success at the Steinway Hall and elsewhere. In' later years, however, engagements . were Ifew, and to make ends meet he would take his violin to the streets or the parks. He was helped on many occasions by titled people who heard him.

Once,, while Nardi was playing in Briiton Street, Mayfair, a young Woman spoke to him. She was Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, now the Duchess of York. She pressed a coin into his hand and on other •occasions took him little gifts. Recently Signor Nardi became seriously ill'and although the people Pof London, whom he' loved, sent | gifts of money, it was the end.