MISS MOTTO-VIOLINIST.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1833, 21 August 1913, Page 4

MISS MOTTO-VIOLINIST.

ITER VISIT HERE. Cut-off as we are in New Zealand by distance from the artistic centres of Europe, the occasional visits of artists who have distinguished themselves on the other sido of the-world, are all the more welcome. As a matter of fact, we have something to be thankful for, as, at ailtoo long intervals, stray glimpses havo been given of the evolution which art and music is undergoing to-day in these wider fields. In Miss Marie Motto, who arrived in the Dominion some two . or three months ago from London, and who is at present staying in Wellington, is to bo found an accomplished violinist; who has practically lived and breathed' and thought music all her life. Her principal teachers were M. Sainton and Senor Arbos, the latter having been a pupil of Herr Joachim. For several years she studied at tho Royal Collego of Music, and it was wliilo a student thero (and the winner of a special scholarship) that she gave her first ooncert in London. It was a successful one, and, since then, ■ Miss Motto has won for herself an assured place in the musical world, and, as the leader of a string quartet, has played at many of the great London ■ concerts. Miss Motto has also played in Dublin a great deal, and speaks with the greatest pleasure of her Dublin audiences as being keenlv receptive, discriminating, and sympathetic, which is exactly what one might' expect. ' Among tho students who were at the collego at the same time as she (though, of course, students of another branch of music) were Madame Clara Butt and Madamo ICirkby Lunn., Tho former was even then tall and big, with a. remarkable voice, but few among them, if any, anticipated that she would become the noted singer that she is to-day. Such is the wheel of life. It is somewhat significant, perhaps, that so many of the teachers at the college should have come .from tho Continent. At tho same lime, Miss Motto spoke of tho great awakening that had taken place in the musical world in England within tho last twenty years, and of the change of attitude with which it .was now regarded on the part of the public. Tho visit of Herr Joachim to London, she thought, might have had something to do with this awakening, and also the fact that so many notable people have given themselves up to it, and mado it their career, or if they did not do that, gave music every possible encouragement. . Then, again, there was the influence exercised upon English people by the musical world upon the Continent. So many parents now delight in music, and are anxious that their , children should bo musical, and in these days, when we hear so much, of musical prodigies, (here may possibly lie the lurking hope in the bottom of their hearts Ihat aii'on® their own might ho found a dormant genius. In any case, it is a nation's gain. Of course, in London and ! on the Continent there, are so many notable musicians whose names we havo not even heard of out liere. Such are some of our drawbacks. Naturally, Miss Motto has heard, and has met, many of the famous figures in the musical world, but the foremost in her house of memory is tiie tip-lire of Lady Jlalle- whose fire and genius had not deserted her at seventy vear« of age. That, up to the time of her death, so much should have been left lier was indeed a wonderful thingIt has already been mentioned that Mis~ Motto is the fortunate possessor of a "Strad," the gift of a friend. Each violin made by the great.Stradivarius boro n special mim'o, and this one is known as "The Conqueror," and is dated 1737. And 10-dnv the most accomplished maker cannot excel the master of so many years iigo. 'inr|, '10. mutter I'rnv mw'li he is imitated, the work nf his hands and of his soul—the work into which ho must have breathed his genius—is still unapproachable. Miss Molto has, indeed, boeii fortunate in her friends, for she was also given the bow of her trreat teacher. M. Sainton, who died in ISHO. It. was piven to her by his ton short!;? after Us father's deaths