From the ARCHIVE

The great cellist and pedagogue Carl Fuchs (1865–1951) recalls some of the great players and composers seen during his time in Manchester – including the original Brodsky Quartet

FROM THE STRAD JULY 1932 VOL.43 NO.507

For the first visit to Manchester of Richard Strauss I do not remember a worse fog. The concert was at the Schiller-Anstalt (German Club) in Nelson Street, where many great artists (Casals among others) had made their first bow to a Manchester audience. The hall was filled with a dense fog, and when we were playing his quartet with him, a most irritating freezing draught descended on to us from the stage. Strauss told me afterwards it was the first time he had had to skate on a piano!

Dvorak was a brilliant specimen of a bad conductor, and when he produced his “Mass” in Birmingham Dr. Richter acted as interpreter at rehearsal. The selection of our great Manchester conductor for that purpose had a touch of the comic, for who does not remember the many stories of unintentional humour caused by his imperfect English? At the performance Dvorak’s cuff threatened to come out. Instead of letting it do so he stopped conducting, and in his gauche way tried to push it back. The performance became very shaky, and disaster was only just averted.

At another Birmingham festival Grieg conducted. He constantly mixed his languages, saying, for instance, “Gentlemen, please as piano as moeglich,” and on another occasion, “The corns should be stronger” (influenced by the Italian “corno” for horn). I also remember his first appearance at a Hallé Concert when his pianoforte concerto was played by Hallé, Grieg conducting, and his wife singing some of his songs in Norwegian. Later on he came to Manchester again, and the Brodsky Quartet played his quartet to him. The Queen’s Hall (London) directors then arranged for a Grieg Festival to be held in the autumn. We were to play his quartet again, and Dr. Brodsky a Grieg violin sonata with the composer at the piano. The concert did take place, but, alas, not as a festival, but as a memorial concert, for the lovable little man had died a few weeks before.

The many visits to the Manchester Schiller-Anstalt of the Bohemian String Quartet were memorable events. Suk, Dvorak’s son-in-law, was second violin, and Nedbal a supreme viola. Wihan, to whom Dvorak dedicated his ’cello concerto, was the ’cellist. One Sunday afternoon, following their Saturday concert, they were expected at our house at four o’clock to play to a party of music lovers. In addition to being fine musicians they were true “Bohemians,” and when at last they arrived—our guests had been waiting a long time—they said they hoped dinner was ready for they were very hungry! Then it dawned upon me that it had been a gentle hint when Wihan, the ’cellist, told me the day before that he had heard so much about the excellence of English mutton!

FELIX BROEDE