MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 536, 13 December 1928, Page 14

MUSIC

(By

F.1.R.)

Mr. Lindsay Evans, formerly accompanist to Melba,*and collabarator in "two-piano” work with Frank Hutchens (whose puplll he was) has been appointed to a professorship at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney. Percy Scholes has resigned his position as music critic of the British Broadcasting Association and music editor of the “Radio Times” in order to retire to Switzerland and devote himself to the compilation of a new Encyclopaedia of Music. * * * Scotney to Return It is about five years since Madame Evelyn Scotney was last in Melbourne. Since then the brilliant singer has added to her triumphs abroad. Early in the new year she will appear on the Australian concert platform under the J. and N. Tait management, in “One Hundred Years of Song.” It is interesting to recall the fact that the singer first came into prominence in Melbourne when she sang at a reception to Lord Kitchener. This was attended by Dame Nellie Melba, who was so impressed with the young vocalist’s possibilities that she pioneered her trip to Europe, where she studied further with such success that she made her debut in Italy in “Lucia di Lammermoor.” Her career was then assured, and she sang in the leading opera houses of Europe and America, as well as on the concert platforms of London and other cities. One of her most notable successes was achieved at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, where she was associated on several occasions with Caruso. * * * Musician Returns Mr. Claude Tanner, of Wellington, after five years’ study and engagements as ’cellist in England and the Continent, has returned. Mr. Tanner’s artistic experiences included visits to New York. Rio and Buenos Aires, when he played. The greater part of his time at Home, however, was spent at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he studied the ’cello under Professors W. E. Whitehouse and B. Patterson-Parker, and he was appointed sub-professor of that instrument for a term of three years. He travelled abroad during the vacations of the academy, acquiring concert experience.

Mr. Gravestock’s Watch Mr. E. J. Gravestock has a practical proof of Cherkassky's generous nature. On a recent evening he. received a gold wristlet watch bearing the inscription, above the boy’s name, “To my dear friend, E. J. Gravestock, in remembrance of my first visit to Australia.” His entrepreneur carries with him many presents from artists whom he has piloted through Australia. Another gold watch reminds him of that fine ’cellist Jean Gerardy; studs and links of other celebrities.

Shura’s Message On the eve of leaving Melbourne, Shura Cherkassky, the young Russian pianist, sent a farewell message to Nancy Weir, the 13-year-old Melbourne pianiste. It was a verbal message, which for all its boyishness of expression might have come from her grandfather. Said Sixteen Years to Thirteen: “I think it will be a crime if you don’t get to Germany—to Berlin, Dresden or Leipzig, to study under Kreischmuller. I think you have marvellous talent and a great future if you don’t get spoilt. With your temperament I can see there is a chance of that happening. But you must remember never to get swelledlieaded. Any boy in my place would be swell-headed, you’d think, wouldn’t you? Well, I’m not the least bit, because I know if I got that way I wouldn’t be the right stuff. For an artist to be satisfied is fatal. No matter how successful you seem to be, always remember how much better you might be.”