TRIBUTES BY COLLEAGUES.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20489, 7 March 1932, Page 15

TRIBUTES BY COLLEAGUES.

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[By EBNEST EMPSON ] The passing of Mr H. M. Lund recalls very vividly to my mind my first meeting with him. That is now more J ears ago than I care to count. His studio was then located in Montreal street near the German Church. It was a small detached building surrounded by a fairly large garden in.which grew a profusion of vegetables and flowers. In these lay his hobby in which, during his few hours of leisure, he found healthlul recreation. Never shall I forget first meeting him, when I approached lam with the object of taking lessons >\hat impressed me most was his remaikable head with its broad expansive forehead and the keen, intelligent eyes Then next I was attracted by his hands, which were small but particularly sensitive and flexible. But what transcended the purely personal impressions was the feeling that in meeting him one was in contact with a remarkable personality, who represented the line of the great German musical tradition. It seemed incredible to me then, as it does still after many years of reflection and experience, that so great a talent should, by the grace of God, liavo been led to these shores. There must be many besides myself who will ever be grateful for this strange whim of fate. For wo must recall the fact we arc dealing with a man who studied under Madame Schumann and knew Johannes Brahms personally and often heard Liszt and Rubinstein play. Thus ho brought to New Zealand the quintessence of the romantic school at the very height of its flowering. Studying with Mr Lund meant not merely the. disciplining of hand, eye, and car in the art of pianism, but a wonderful revelation of music's power; of its address; direct to the soul through the noblest emotions. Only those privileged to know liim well in the heyday of his prime can have any idea of his lion-lilce energy and the Bpccial force of his inspirations. So remarkable were his gifts that one felt in his playing the evocation of the genius of the composer. As for his touch, in all my experience on the Continent I- have not heard it surpassed for its exquisite beauty and sensitiveness. And what flashes of strange light would he throw over his readings, revealing in them an undrcamed-of wonder and magic! The expression of the beautiful was ever his ideal, his alluring touch enabling him to achieve this with a most beautiful sense of colour value. Doubtless it was this rare gift of poetical expression that made him so fine an interpreter of Chopin. To attempt to realise his conceptions was bewildering to the student at first. Altogether dazed by the experience and the emotions evoked by his playing, and depressed at one's futile efforts to obtain the desired effect, one's gaze would wander upwards to an engraved portrait of Bismarck that hung above the piano. But. from that austero face no elucidation would be forthcoming. One could but carry away the impression, strive hard to prevent its fading, and work away at the instrument in the endeavour to realise it in tone. As teacher he had a most stimulating effect on the imaginative subject. His method was not didactic, but aimed at setting vivid examples of playing before one, which so worked on the feelings that time vas no object in the endeavour to realise this wonderful fullness of expression. Another very stimulating feature was his wide grasp of repertoire. With unerring instinct he seized on the composition most calculated to achieve the desired end. Sacred -indeed are those hours in which music's magic influence first throws its spell over the soul. The writer will be ever grateful to have come under its benign influonce through the precious examples of Mr Lund's Interpretations. Blessed be the memory of this noblesonled musician tlnd gentleman, who has pfcgscd away from our midst full of years and honour. '. /* .; ■