FROM 'CELLO TO CELLAR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 342, 11 January 1946, Page 6

FROM 'CELLO TO CELLAR

Famous Musician Now Runs An Australian Country Hotel

(By

RAY

WILLIAMS

Pictures

by

GORDON

SHORT

N the cellar of a three-storied brick hotel in Taree, a country town of 7,000 people in the beautiful Manning River district of New South Wales, I watched the proprietor tapping 18-gallon kegs of beer. The hands that swung the keg and rammed home the piping were the hands of a great ’cellist who, not-so’ long ago, thrilled audiences of 15,000 in the Holly‘wood Bowl; hands which have entranced ‘millions of music lovers throughout the English-speaking world for more: than 20 years, and have won praise from the greatest critics. 2 They were the hands of the Australian Lauri Kennedy, who has starred with the masters of orchestra, song and instrument, and who proposes to make a world tour in a year or so. Why Not? Lauri and his wife, famous as Dorothy Kennedy (and Dorothy McBride) have been back in. Australia from America since July, 1944. They were unable to find or buy a home-so they bought an hotel, "Why not?" said Lauri, adjusting the gas pressure on the beer. "For more than 30 years I have lived in hotels, and paid. Now Til live in one and it will pay me." ; Staying with an uncle, J. J}. Keenan, of Point Piper, Sydney, in whose care

Lauri grew up, the Kennedys were considering buying a block of flats to find a home in Australia, where wartime cessation of building has created an acute housing shortage. Then a business friend offered. them the unexpected chance of a good country hotel. "So. we have a home and a new hobby," said the artist, who had one of the lovéliest houses in Hollywood. Success Story Few ‘success stories are more spectacular than that of Lauri Kennedy, the Australian boy who stalked the stage in baggy pants and sang comic songs with barnstormers. As an _ extra turn he

played almost every musical instrument to small straw-chewing audiences. Even then he was good, and while still a boy he toured India with a troupe. Among his instruments he had two fav-ourites-the trumpet and the ’cello. From the hurly-burly of trouping, Lauri graduated to the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, and to the company of the musically great. He became a protegé of. Melba. Once he played with several-others at a little concert in the Albert Street Conservatorium, unaware that Melba was present. He did not suspect that he was remoulding- his life.

When he finished his selection, Melba led the applause, shouting, "Bravo! Bravo! Encore! He must play an encore!" Through the confusion came a summons from Melba. To the still bewildered young man the diva said, "What are you doing here? You have a great talent and a career before you. You must go abroad." . The youth asked nervously where he should go. "England," she replied. "No, America first, and then England." At this stage of his career, Kennedy was also a skilful boxer, but he -gave up his favourite sport lest he injure his now all-important hands. Marriage It was therm that he met Dorothy McBride. She was Adelaide born and had inherited musical’talent from her father, organiser and conductor of the famous South Australian Thousand-voice School Choirs, and her mother a successful soprano. Dorothy’s sister, Daisy McBride, was wife of Lauri’s friend and cousin, the poet and playwright, John Drinkwater. Dorothy as a child showed musical talent, and in her ’teens won a scholarship to the Elder Conservatorium, Adelaide, where she was the youngest player to obtain the degree of Bachelor of Music. John McCormack was urging her to take her art to U.S.A. and England even at the moment that Melba was giving the same advice to Kennedy. They married and went abroad together. New York awed and humbled them. Lauri grew increasingly anxious. He had no work and no income. People named ‘in Melba’s letters of introduction were (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) out of the country. The couple were very lonely, and more than a little worried as their dollars shrank swiftly to cents. Turn of the Tide Then Kennedy met John McCormack, who heard him play and at once offered him a tour of America. In the season they gave six concerts in New York, six in Boston, six in Chicago, two in San Francisco (with audiences of 15,000 each) and concerts in all principal cities from coast to coast. On his first appearance with McCormack (at Carnegie Hall, N.Y.) Lauri scored a hit. As they toured America, the praise of critics for the unknown ’cellist rose to a powerful chorus. Their closing concerts were given in the New York. Hippodrome, because Carnegie Hall was not big enough. Lauri was successfully launched, So was his first son, David, born in New . York. David is now serving with the United States Army Air Force. He flew in the Atlantic Ferry Command for a_ long period, and when this was written he was with the 25th Weather Squadron, Bradley Field, Connecticut. Late in 1920 Lauri and Dorothy went to London, where they again met Melba just before she went to the Continent, Lauri’s London debut was made with Chaliapin in. the great basso’s first appearance outside Russia after World War I., at the Royal Albert Hall. The young Australian was so successful that he played at six concerts in the famous hall within five months, Critics of two continents were now recording ‘the appearance of a new star who had even achieved the distinction of stealing both headlines and "leads" of critics’ stories from such artists as McCormack and Barbirolli. Crowned Heads Lauri Kennedy, with Melba, found himself playing at Lord Farquhar’s London house (Grosvenor Square) to an audience which included the Queens of England, Norway and Italy, Princess Mary, Princess Maud, Prince George and many other members of Royal families and the peerage. In the next few years Lauri and Dorothy travelled 300,000 miles and played to 3,500,000 people in Britain and America. They had studied as an ensemble, which became as popular and Tichly praised as their individual work. It was in this period that their second son, John, was born. The success of the young Australians continued to mount. In 1927 Lauri played for Queen Elizabeth, then Duchess of York. He wrote for the occasion a setting of an old Sdots melody, which the ‘Queen liked and praised, Mrs. Kennedy played as associate artist with such people as McCormack, Lucrezia Bori, Toti dal Monte and Enrico Caruso. Caruso even engaged her to supervise the musical education of his daughter Gloria. In 1929 Lauri received a cable-from Sir Thomas Beecham, asking him to return to England and help form the great new Symphony Orchestra under BBC auspices, in which Kennedy was ap--pointed soloist and principal ’cellist.With this orchestra Kennedy Lite he has played with practically every con-

ductor and every living composer of note. He had the responsibility of editing, fingering, and bowing of scores, and instructing and training his ’cello section up to symphonic standard. Conductors with whom he played included Beecham, Boult, Barbirolli, Busch, Casals, Goossens, Harty, Iturbi, Koussevitzky, Kurtz, Ronald, Sargent, Toscanini and Weingartner. He also reorganised the famous Chamber Music Players, and Kennedy, Sammons, Tertis, and Murdoch were considered to be the finest ensemble of its kind in existence. In chamber music he played and recorded with Carl Flesch, Mischa Elman, Jascha Heifetz and Kreisler. Kennedy achieved another laurel by being appointed professor of ’cello at the Royal College of Music, London. Pressed to give concerts, he resigned from the BBC in 1935 to devote all his tinie to solo and chamber music. The Greatest Compliment Then came. the greatest compliment yet. Toscanini was travelling to London to conduct the Coronation Festival of eight concerts with the BBC Orchestra --but he refused to conduct unless Lauri Kennedy returned to play leading ’cello, Kennedy cancelled an American passage to play for the Coronation in Westminster Abbey. Later, to visit Australia in 1938, Lauri rejected an offer from Toscanini for a New York season. Since then he has scored. repeatedly in America’s greatest music centres, including? suces with Sir Thomas Beecham in the Hollywood Bowl. In His Father’s Footsteps It Was at this time that their second son, John, gave the Kennedys one of the most gratifying surprises of their lives. John had grown up in England, where he was born, in the care of a doctor’s widow, while his parents toured as musicians must. An ear affection necessitating frequent operations caused them considerable "anxiety while he was a bdy, but he was able to begin the study of law at Oxford University. Then when he was 21 John wrote a startling letter. He had thrown away the prospect of a law career to devote himself to the ’cello, He had taught himself, yet had won the principal scholarship at the Royal College of Music, where his. father had been professor of ‘cello. The parallel between father and son continued. The BBC cabled to Lauri that John Kennedy had been engaged to play ‘cello solo at a broadcast concert from Birmingham. Unknowingly, the son had selected as his solo the first item ever recorded by his father, on an old Edison record in New York, many years ago-"Kol Nidrei." Further his father by wedding a musician, John has married Priscilla Stoner, student violinist at the same academy. my "It seems John will take up where I left off," said Lauri, with satisfaction. From the cellar stairs a barmaid called, "Beer’s off the blue tap, Mr. Kennedy!" ee the .world-famous virtuoso set the beer supply for the isberacks "Bleeper-cutters, farms storekeepers, and business men of quiet country town,