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

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text excerpt

It was at Madame Dulcken's house that all the most distinguished musicians assembled, especially those who left Paris owing to the French Revolution. There I first met and heard M. Kalkbrenner, a German pianist, who had settled in Paris, Mr. Charles Halle, who, as every one knows, became one of the most important musicians in England and settled here, and Mr. Wilhelm Kuhe, who died here in October 1912, after residing in this country for more than sixty years, and celebrating his eighty-eighth birthday the previous December. He became, unfortunately, totally blind, and used to play the piano by touch only, but would play every day of course, without music for several hours. Hector Berlioz used often to go there, and also his wife, an Irish lady who was a great Shakespearean actress, and before her marriage was Henrietta Smithson. Berlioz had a fine, big head and a Roman nose, huge forehead, and piercing eyes. Some of these pianists played during the evening receptions. Madame Dulcken often played Mendelssohn's Concerto in G minor with Quintette accompaniment, played by my father, Herr Goffrie, myself, and two other instrumentalists, whose names I have forgotten; in fact, she was almost the first to make this lovely concerto known and popular it was really her cheval de bataille. She was a very brilliant player, and a charming woman as well.

excerpt from 'Memories of a Musician: Reminiscences of Seventy years of Musical Life' pp. 53-4 (225 words)

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