MARK HAMBOURG’S HOME.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 957, 9 July 1908, Page 17

MARK HAMBOURG’S HOME.

The most treasured possession of Mark Hambourg, whose tour of Australia under the direction of Messrs. J. and N. Tait commences in Sydney on the 18th inst., preserved reverently and produced only for the delectation of particular friends, is a manuscript of Beethoven’s with the great composer’s own notes in the margin as to what he intended to do with the music when completed. It was originally the property of Liszt, and he passed it on to Madame Marie Brandt, and she in her turn gave it to the young Russian, whose reverence for the great master made him well worthy of the honour. The score is preserved in Hambourg’s permanent home in London. It seems curious to picture him in a home of his own, for no artist spends more time in travel. But he has one, and a very artistic one it is, presided over by his young wife and brightened by the presence of an infant daughter. In it Hambourg, mindful of the comfort of the rest of the household, has had a music room constructed with thick walls and double padded drors, where, if the spirit moves him, he can repair for practice in the middle of the night without the chances of disturbing sleepers. Within the four walls of that room are gathered scores of valuable mementoes, taking their owner’s, thoughts back to pleasant friendships founded all over the world. On walls are many pictures in oil and" water colour, as well as in black and’

white, all gifts from people who had met him, and in the cabinets are more bulky articles that form a sort of museum of world products.