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

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text excerpt

Sir Charles Halle, like Benedict, was a very active and industrious man, who, besides playing the works of the classical masters, such as the whole of Beethoven's Sonatas by heart, conducted the celebrated Free Trade Hall Orchestral Concerts at Manchester. He did a great deal to cultivate musical taste in that town, giving his audiences the best singers and instrumentalists, and also did fine work through his various tours with his orchestra in the provinces. No foreign artist of note came to England without receiving an engagement from Halle to appear at his concerts, and as a pianist he excelled in Beethoven, Mozart, and Schubert, and made the compositions of Stephen Heller known in England. In 1869 he sat next to me at one of the Philharmonic Concerts among the audience in St. James's Hall, when Madame Norman-Neruda played a violin concerto in place of M. Henri Vieuxtemps, who was prevented by illness from playing, and he recommended her to the direc- tors as his deputy. She was so successful that poor Vieuxtemps had no chance of appearing again at those concerts that season. Halle had not heard her before, and was charmed with her playing. As every one knows, she afterwards became his wife.

excerpt from 'Memories of a Musician: Reminiscences of Seventy years of Musical Life' pp. 116-7 (204 words)

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