Marie Hall
From Free net encyclopedia
Current revision
Marie Hall was born on April 8, 1884, at 15 Victoria Street in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. She received her first lessons from her father, who was a harpist in the orchestra of the Carl Rosa Opera Company. She also studied with a local teacher, Hildegarde Werner. At the age of nine Emile Sauret heard her and was instrumental in having her sent to the Royal Academy of Music in London. She also received instruction from Edward Elgar in 1894, from Wilhelmj, in London, in 1896; from Max Mossel, in Birmingham, in 1898, and from Professor Kruse in 1900. In 1901, upon the advice of Kubelik, she went to Sevcik, in Prague. She possessed a most remarkable technique, which she believed was entirely due to Sevcik's wonderful teaching. She played for the first time at Prague in November, 1902; Vienna in January, 1903, and made her London debut on February 16 1903, scoring an instantaneous success in all these places. She was also successful on her visit to America. While she appeared to be not very strong physically, she possessed a wonderful tone and proved herself strong enough to engage upon long tours, and perform exacting programs without fatigue. She was easily the foremost living English woman violinist of her time.
Ralph Vaughan-Williams wrote the exquisite 'The Lark Ascending' for Marie Hall, and dedicated it to her. She gave the first public performance at the Queen's Hall under Adrian Boult in 1921. She played the wonderful Viotti Stradivarius, which is now among the prized instruments in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Marie Hall died in Cheltenham in 1956.
This article is based on a text from the Etude magazine, 1909-1922.