Part 22 (1/2)

MADAME NORMAN-NERUDA (LADY HALLe)

Her Birth--Precocity--Learns the violin at four years of age--First of women violinists--Sensation at her first public appearance--Arrival in London--Plays at Philharmonic concert, being ten years old--Tour in Russia--Arrives in Paris--Arouses enthusiasm--Second visit to London--Memorable consequences--a.s.sociation with Popular Concerts, directed by Arthur Chappell--Her great fame--Her character--a.s.sociation with Halle--Their memorable concerts--Experiences in England--Her position in musical history.

Wilma Neruda was born at Brunn, Moravia, in 1839. The family from which she came had been long famous in musical history. The story of her precocious genius reads, even to-day, as something akin to the marvellous. When she was about four years of age, her father, as the late Frantz Neruda told me, made her a miniature violin, more with a view to her amus.e.m.e.nt than with any contemplation of serious results.

It was not long, however, before he became conscious that in this little daughter, he possessed a treasure, and one that was likely to prove a moving element in musical history.

That his judgment was justified, events too have shown.

At that time, strange as it may seem now, the idea of a woman-violinist was not only foreign to public instinct, but was even contrary to the general sense of propriety!

Her fame, notwithstanding, rapidly increased in local circles, and it was not long before she was taken by her father to play before a great Church dignitary, not only to gain his patronage, but, through it, to allay any prejudice that might be aroused by so unusual a spectacle.

The interview was entirely successful, the Cardinal having heard her, saying, ”One whom G.o.d has so blessed should play ever to His Eternal Glory.” Her progress was so astonis.h.i.+ng that her father took her, in 1846, to Vienna, where she made her first public appearance, at the age of seven.

The sensation her playing produced was phenomenal, and soon all Europe was eager to hear the wonder-child.

A grand tour was the natural result, during which she performed in the princ.i.p.al cities of Germany, and arrived in London in May, 1849. On June 11th she appeared at a Philharmonic concert, where she played a concerto by De Beriot, the child being then ten years old.

The enthusiasm with which she was received is a matter of history.

Her next important experience was a prolonged tour in Russia, of which she ever retained vivid memories. Many were happy, some lugubrious, and the one she most cherished was a cordial reception given to her by the Imperial family at St. Petersburg.

Her next scene of triumph was Paris. She arrived there in 1864, and made her first appearance at one of the Pasdeloup concerts--the most important organisation of the kind in France--with a success that was, as she often said in after life, perfectly bewildering.

It is not difficult to imagine it.

She was possessed of a technique that could hardly be surpa.s.sed, and a genius equally remarkable, a const.i.tution that defied fatigue, and an enthusiasm that years of incessant work such as she was destined to experience, did not dull.

There is little doubt that her great powers were displayed, at this time, in their most dazzling splendour.

In May, 1869, Madame Norman-Neruda--as she had become known through her marriage with the Swedish composer--visited London again, and the event proved to be decisive, little as she thought it, as to her future career. She came to play at a Philharmonic concert, but was prevailed upon to stay through the summer, so that she should inaugurate, in the autumn, a new era in the history of the ”Popular Concerts”--an inst.i.tution that had been established ten years previously by the eminent firm of Chappell and Co., with the late Mr. Arthur Chappell as director. The main feature was the performance of cla.s.sical chamber music.

The event may be justly described as historic. Her success was absolute and convincing. The fact that a woman was seen ”leading” a quartet of performers that embraced the greatest players that Europe could produce, was one of intense significance.

One great result was not long in showing itself. The violin soon became fas.h.i.+onable in a girl's hands, and from a fas.h.i.+on it has degenerated into a rage.

To her lasting fame, Wilma Neruda was the first to demonstrate, under conditions that were often discouraging and sometimes forbidding, that a woman could, in this form of art, hold her own with the greatest of male exponents.

Madame Norman-Neruda was a woman of extraordinary strength of character.

Austere in manner and of cold demeanour, as she undoubtedly was, in any direction that her sane judgment pointed out as worthy, she was capable of generosity that was, at once, spontaneous and n.o.ble.

Her most prominent characteristic was, I think, intellectuality. She could not, it must be admitted, ”suffer fools gladly.”

Had she desired a motto, a very appropriate one would have been ”Odi profanum vulgus.”[32]

From that eventful year of her life, 1869, Madame Norman-Neruda spent the greater part of her time in England, devoting the spring and winter to the Chappell, Halle, Philharmonic and other important concerts, with occasional visits to the Continent to play at functions of exceptional interest.

Her career in England is so well known that it is not necessary to dwell at any length on it here. Suffice it to say that her work was incessant, and that hers was, soon, a familiar figure on every concert platform throughout the length and breadth of the country. It is not difficult to imagine that the constant travelling would provide occasional and novel experiences; one of them Lady Halle related to me.