ROUND THE WORLD.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14360, 4 February 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

ROUND THE WORLD.

WITH A PIANO. Mark Hambourg, tho famous pianist, has' ,been giving tho Birmingham "Weekly Post" an account of Jiw adventures "Kound the World With a Piano.'-' In tho course of it he says:— "Tho travelling was very rough during portions of my South African tour, and I experienced tho greatest difficulty in transporting my piano from placo 'to place. Soino of my journeys 111 bullock carts 1 shall never forget, for the roads wero little more than rough tracks, so tliat the jolting and general discomfort can he better imagined than described., I frequently had trouble, too, in persuadiiig tho native "boys" to lialidle my piano, for many of them wero under tho impression that it contained "devils"—tho big "devils" talking in tho loud bass notes, and the littlo ones in the treble.

Some of my Melbourne audiences had rather more enthusiasm than musical knowledge, and when they clamoured for Chopin's "Because" as an encore, it took me some time to realise that '' Berceuse " was meant.

On the other occasion I was performing a piunoforto concerto, the orchestral part being played' on another piano. Jilio two pianos wero placed end to end, the accompanying instrument being the farther away from the audience, so that in the Bomi-darkness of the stage it was almost invisible to those present in the body of the hall. At one point there occurred a pause in the piano solo, at which the second piano took up the orchestral part, and it was then that ono lady was heard to remark to another: "Marvellousl What a wonderful pianist! Ho takes his hand off the piano and it still goes on playingi" To which her friend replied, "Yes, but you see his feet going. Isn't lie a wonder on the pedals P" ______^__