MUSIC.

LADY HALLE.

LADY HALLS, better known as Mme. Norman-Neruda, was not only a great musician, but she came of a musical family

and of a musical race. Her ancestry for one hundred and fifty years had been distinguished as execatants or Composers, and the Bohemians are born fiddlers. Her first public appearance in Vienna, when she was only seven years old, revealed to critics such as Hanslick powers of execution and ex- pression quite out of the common, and her triumphs were

repeated throughout Germany before her arrival in London early in 1849. There she took part, with other members of her family—her sister Amalia was a pianist—in the series of mixed performances at the Princess's Theatre, but her real de'but was at a Philharmonic concert on June 11th, under Costa. It is pleasant to know that the Spectator of

that date was fully sensible of the great gifts of the little newcomer. In the issue of June 16th, 1849, there appeared an appreciative notice, from which the following passage may be quoted :—

" Much interest was excited by the appearance of Mademoiselle Wilhelmina Neruda, a little girl some twelve years old [she was just ten], whose violin-playing is not merely wonderful for a child, but sufficiently pure and beautiful to gratify a cultivated taste. She played a concerto which de Beriot was in the habit of playing with an unerring certainty of hand, a vigour of bow, a brilliancy

of tone, and a graceful facility which alniost reminded us of do 13eriot himself._ youthful phenomenon that we have ever met with has equaled this gifted child. The audience were load in their expression of delight, mingled with surprise ; for hardly anybody in the room had ever heard of her before, though she had, with other members of her family, been entertaining the audiences at the Princess's Theatre with music between the, dramatic performances."

This was high praise indeed, bat it waa neither isolated nor undeserved. Mlle. Neruda was a prodigy—there could be no

doubt of thatbut she- belonged to that limited class -of prodigies who not only survive, but develop, mature, and improve. This was all the more remarkable in her case; because for many years she led the life—so difficult to reconcile

with the pursuit of the highest aims—of the travelling virtuoso; a life of constant excitement, fatiguing journeys, and star per= formance J. She not only came through this trying moral and physical ordeal, but she grew in artistic stature all the time. The writer of the short notice in the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica speaks of her truly as the first of women violinists

who could stand comparison with the men. The accuracy of the statement may best be illustrated by the fact that she often took part with Joachim_ in the performance of Bach's

double concerto and did not suffer from so arduous an associa:" tion. For thirty years she appeared as a soloist at the

principal concerts in London and Manchester, and as a leader at the " Pops," and retained her prestige and position through- out. Female executants are too often the comets of one or two seasons, but Lady Halle was a star that shone with a steady radiance. Her popularity was immense—it is not too much to say that the three favourite violinists with British audiences from, say, 1875 to 1900 were Joachim, Sarasale, and Lady Halle—but, to her lasting credit, it was achieved without the slightest concession to the weaknesses of her

audience. Joachim himself was not more uncompromising in his inflexible antagonism to charlatanism, parade, and what has been called " pomatum music." Her bearing on the platform was dignified and graceful. She had no affectations or minauderies, but gave the impression of being absorbed as

well as interested in her work ; and no one with a visualising faculty can think of her without recalling that rapt and far-off look which in moments of fervour' came into her eyes. Correct intonation was one of her strong points, and she had a wonderful and wholly individual charm of tone, a quality un- doubtedly enhanced by the magnificent Stradivarius on which she performed. No one played the music of Spohr with greater effect. If she bad a fault, it was that of seldom sustaining a note with an exactly equal volume of sound, her tendency being always to augment its dynamic power. But this was the only con cession to sentimentality in what was otherWise a singularly pure style.

Alike as a concerto player and in the classical recitals of chamber music, in which she was so long associated with Sir Charles Ha116, she rendered most valuable service as an educator of public taste. But in another direction her in- fluence was even more remarkable. She was the first great

woman violinist of the nineteenth century, for the sisters Milanollo, though brilliant- and delightful performers, can hardly be said to belong to the same class ; and the practical proof which she afforded- in her own -person of the capacity of women to play the king of instruments at once picturesquely and efficiently helped more than- anything else to break down the monopoly of stringed instruments enjoyed by male executants. It was not an altogether new departure, for in 1784 Lord Mount-Edgcumbe attended a concert in Venice, when be enjoyed " the almost incredible sight of an

entire orchestra of female performers ;" and Dr. Burney trans-

lates a long letter from Tartini, dated March 5th, 1760, addressed to Signora Maddalena, a pupil of his at a convent school in Padua, giving full instructions as to bowing, fingering, shakes; &c. But with . rare exceptions, the standard reached by female violinists was but mediocre until the advent of Mlle: Neruda. Before her time they were few and far betvieen: Now their name is legion : they greatly outnumber the male students of stringed instruments at all our musical colleges and academies ; and their accomplishment and-musicianship are, on an aiei-age, at least as high. But out of all this' galaxy of talent no player' of her sex haa yet emerged to dethrone Lidy Halle froth the soirereignty which she claimed when little more than a child-and retained till her death in Berlin at the