TWO STARS WHO SHINE AS ONE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 30, 19 January 1940, Page 10

TWO STARS WHO SHINE AS ONE

F you want to be reassured that romance has not gone out of art, that technique, "platform appeal," and high pressure salesmanship are not the only things that make for success, take a good look at that engaging pair, Ethel Bartlett and Rae Robertson, and find out how they came, not only to play two-piano music, but to make a big success of it. True, they are married; and romance is supposed to stop when housekeeping begins, But, as a distinguished French critic reminds us, they seem to have solved that too. Both of them were wedded to their art before being wedded to each other. One has often heard of an artist who has sacrificed his — or, more likely, her — career for matrimony. Here are two people who have "sacrificed" two careers for each other; and in so’ doing have gained fame. Each of them was a rising pianist, But they were newly married, and for one to be playing in London while the other was in Scotland or Ireland was not their idea of life. What they wanted to do was to play together. They had done it as students; they had opened up a new world for themselves, and they wanted to go on exploring it. And here they were, separated from each other, each becoming a popular pianist. But when they met, they played together, discovering new talents, and delighting an eager circle of friends, And one

day they were induced to play some of their music in public, To their utter surprise they were an even greater success together than they had been separately, so the logical thing was to continue together. Recognition Was Slow Artistic success is one thing, and a payable proposition another. It took years to gain that recognition for their two-piano recitals that brings fees commensurate with the standard of their performance. But in the wide and loving comradeship of all art these young people found a friend who knew all too well the bitterness of struggle that is so often a prelude to success.

This friend was the brilliant artist, Dame Laura Knight. She persuaded them to go, at whatever cost, to America. They followed this advice, and their first tour of the United States proved the turning point of their lives and set British and Continental music centres clamouring to hear, and rehear, the new two-piano team. Success Overseas They are not the first British artists to discover that an overseas reputation is a passport to success at home. This rule applies to all kinds of entertainers, from the comedian to the cantatrice. And contrariwise, it is the dearest ambition of almost every Continental artist to gain the hall mark of a London’ success — with operatic singers, especially that of Covent Garden,

Ethel Bartlett’s association with painters is such that her portrait has graced the Royal Academy for four successive years; she has been, in fact, so much in demand that all sittings have now to be refused, for fear of too great encroachment upon her work. The woman of French-Hugenot-Irish-Welsh ancestry married the man from Inverness — perhaps this in part accounts for the spiritual unity that lies behind their amazing artistry. 4YA listeners will hear Ethel Bartlett and Rae Robertson, pianists, on Friday, January 26, at 9.45 p.m.