excerpt from 'Memories of a Musician: Reminiscences of Seventy years of Musical Life' pp. 341-4 (560 words)

excerpt from 'Memories of a Musician: Reminiscences of Seventy years of Musical Life' pp. 341-4 (560 words)

part of

Memories of a Musician: Reminiscences of Seventy years of Musical Life

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urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

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341-4

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I cannot conclude my Reminiscences without giving an account of the wonderful concert which Madame Patti so generously gave for my benefit on Thursday, June 1st, 1911. Some weeks previously Madame Patti asked my daughter Georgina to call on her, when she told her how concerned she was about my accident, which had quite incapacitated me from following my profession, and said that she intended that I should have a benefit concert, at which she would sing for me, in spite of the fact that she had already retired into private life. Soon after she called, with Baron Rolf Ceder- strom, to see me, and told me what she proposed to do. She said she had written a letter to Lord Blyth asking him to interest himself in the concert and assist her in getting it up, which he had kindly consented to do. Lord Blyth formed an honorary committee, including many notable names. Their Majesties the King and Queen, Queen Alexandra, and the whole of the Royal Family gave their gracious patronage. All the great artists who were asked by the committee to give their services at once complied. Madame Ai'no Ackte, who had only a short time before arrived in England, promised at once to sing ; also Miss Maggie Teyte, Mr. Ben Davies, Mr. Gregory Hast, and Mr. Robert Radford. Mischa Elman, who had only the previous day returned from America, said he would play. Mr. Harold Bauer came specially from Paris, and M. Jean Gerardy from Brussels. Miss Ellen Terry, Miss Cecilia Loftus, Mr. George Alexander, and Mr. Henry Ainley consented to recite, and the conductors were Messrs. F. A. Sewell, Adolph Mann, Percy Kahn, and Alfredo Barili, Madame Patti's nephew. With such a splendid array of distinguished artists the suc- cess of the concert was assured. Much to my regret, I was compelled by my doctor's orders to stop at home ; but I was not alone, as I had asked my old friend, William Kuhe, to come and take tea with me. He arrived, and we chatted pleasantly together, when presently my daughter Georgina, who had gone to the concert, arrived in a taxi to tell me the news that Madame Patti had just finished her last song and that she was in wonderful voice. Her reception by the enormous audience, said my daughter, was something to be remembered ; they kept cheer- ing and applauding for at least five minutes, and Madame Patti was quite overcome by the ovation. She sang in the first part Mozart's "Voi che Sapete," with Lotti's " Pur Dicesti" as an encore, and in the second part Tosti's " Serenata," and for the encore " Home, Sweet Home." Many people had tears in their eyes, for nobody has ever sung this simple ballad with greater pathos than Madame Patti, and every syllable was distinctly heard by the vast as- sembly. Even the wife of the composer, Sir Henry Bishop, who sang it often to my accompaniment many years ago, could not equal Patti in the singing of it. The Diva received numerous bouquets, and I sent her a large laurel wreath, with the dates 1861 and 1911 on satin streamers, as a remembrance of her first appearance at Covent Garden fifty years before. She has indeed had a wonderful career, and has kept her voice as fresh and beautiful as when she first carried London by storm.

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excerpt from 'Memories of a Musician: Reminiscences of Seventy years of Musical Life' pp. 341-4 (560 words)

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