MUCH MARRIED MAN.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 May 1931, Page 11

MUCH MARRIED MAN.

MUSICIAN’S SIX WIVES. The life story of the world’s most married living man of genius, Eugen d’Albert, the pianist and composer, who was born of British parents in Glasgow, is told by Herr Wilhelm Raupp in a biography which has been causing considerable stir in German artistic ■circles. Herr Raupp tries to explain why the great musician’s six marriages ended in shipwreck, and he defends him : against the charge of heartlessness constantly being brought by feminists in England, Germany, and other countries. Not one of the six women with whom d’Albert fell in love was able, it seems, to follow him to the emotional and intellectual heights where his soul ranged, although one, Hermine Finch, in the course of a marriage lasting 15 years, nearly succeeded in doing so. D’Albert lives in retirement among the Italian lakes, and his friends in Berlin say he is not likely again to try his luck in matrimony. His first wife ■was Louise Salingre, a Weimar actress, whom he met soon after leaving England in 1883. They were married at [Heligoland, and at first their married life was placid and happy, but the master found fault with her because she preferred, as a good housewife, the kitchen to the dizzy heights where his genius took him. The marriage was dissolved in 1890.

Teresa Carreno, the pianist, was the next wife. Like the first, this second marriage opened harmoniously, and the musician—whose fame was steadily mounting—was loud in Teresa’s praise in letters to friends, but before four years had passed there were signs of “incompatibility,” and .the marriage was. dissolved. Overcome by misery resulting from this second disappointment, the master plunged into work. The third Mrs. d’Albert was Hermine Finck, another Weimar actress, whom the composer married in 1995. In her the master said he was confident he had found his destined “soul mate.” The marriage lasted 15 years,- ending like those before and those that were to •follow in complete disaster. The biographer says that d’Albert parted from Hermine because he idolised her, and “the inexorable and cruel need for selfexpression could not for once allow itself to be subjugated by the. moralpreaching law of the bourgeois. The fourth wife was Ida Fulda, a woman of “creative personality,” but who, according to Herr Rauppq remained enigmatic and cold when in intervals between work the master stretched out his hand for hers. This marriage was of short duration, and Ida was succeeded by Fritzi Jauner, one of the masters most gifted pupils. The fifth wife was a sportswoman who played tennis and golf, but she too was apparently unable or unwilling to climb to emotional and intellectual heights. She was succeeded, as wife No.°6, by Hilda Fels, a charming -Jewess from Mannheim. The sixth marriage was not more successful than the others, Hilda, according to Herr Raupp, having no idea of the real nature ot the man of genius, her husband. In 1928 the last woman withdrew from the life of the musician. A life-long search after the ideal woman, says the 'biographer, had ended in failure. Dresses of feather-weight and chiffon tweeds, worn beneath coats of

matching, but heavier, tweed form one of the most successful ensembles for present wear, says the London Daily Mail. Nearly 3000 yards of these materials are being sold every week at one Oxford Street shop. Some of these new tweeds are so light that any average dress weighs, as little • as eight ounces. The output is almost entirely British. Many women are selecting Yorkshire tweed—-the lightest weight of all—for dresses, with matching coats of Cumberland, Scottish or Irish tweeds, which are heavier. One of the most popular designs has a diagonal weave in two or three colours. Of such genre is a suit, the dress of which is of chiffon tweed with a grey diagonal weave on a dark brown ground. The same design in a heavier weight is used for the coat, which has collar and cuffs of brown shaved lamb. The phases of development through which tweed has gone this year form an interesting link

in fabric history, and the tweeds for next season indicate, a further metamorphosis. Some of those designed for late winter and early spring wear , are reversible. One surface is a finelywoven, smooth woollen ma.terial in two colours, horizontally blended, the bther a slightly rough tweed with vertical thread stripes. The contribution from Yorkshire mills to coming spring fashions in tweed is a romaine ',or georgette tweed, a dress of which will weigh just under half a pound.