Musical news Volume 7

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 Excerpt: ...hearing at his father's house all the great singers and players of the day. He declares, in his reminiscences, that the wildness of Liszt frightened Mm so much that he ran out of the room when the Abbe used to play. He received a good classical and general education; Edouard Roeckel taught him the piano, he studied harmony and composition with George French Flowers, and Pugni, the famous composer of ballet music, was engaged to teach him melody and rhythm after the Italian style. His father rightly set much importance on the acquirement of languages, and chiefly from Maggioni and Lablache he learnt Italian, Boyanville taught him French, and from Thalberg he acquired some German. Mr. Beale spoke these languages fluently, and very useful he found them in travelling about with the different touring parties his father placed under his charge. The account he gives in his book of a tour in 1847, when Grisi, Mario, Alboni, G. A. Osborne, De Beriot, and Chopin met together and played at Manchester, supplies an interesting picture of how music was managed in those days, and shows, moreover, the talent for organisation and management he himself possessed. Mr. Beale's activity was indeed remarkable; he was ever to the front with some new scheme, or was striving to carry out a fresh idea. He was the originator of the National Music Meetings at the Crystal Palace; the object of these was to encourage emulation among different classes of musicians, and by means of competitive performances to bring into public bight vocalists and players of merit unable otherwise to gain a hearing. The scheme served some useful purpose, and was the means of introducing to our concert-rooms several singers of merit. It is a pity that these Meetings were allowed to drop; if the Eisteddfod s...