One of those Australian pianist pupils of Leschetizsky,
Fritz Müller, particularly
aroused my curiosity.
Raised in Melbourne in an immigrant German-Australian
home, his early years followed the usual path – fêted child prodigy at eleven in 1899; a committee of
the great and good formed to fund his further development in Europe; and he
left for Berlin, where he was heard later that same year by the great
Australian diva Nellie Melba, who was bowled over by his talent, writing to her
sister in Melbourne: ‘I don’t wonder you rave about him. He is a wonder.’
By this time young Fritz was under the wing of the
conservatoire head, one of the greatest violinists of the era, Joseph Joachim.
All predicted a glittering future for the boy.
But what then? Following a return to Melbourne to raise
further funding and a move back to Vienna to finish his studies with
Leschetizky – virtually nothing. I even came to the tentative conclusion that
he might have been killed in the First World War (in which he did in fact serve
in the German Army).
But not so. Eventually I found some answers in Patricia
Fullerton’s biography of the Australian artist Hugh Ramsay. The Ramsays and the
Müllers were close
friends in Melbourne. To the disappointment of his Melbourne siblings, who had made great sacrifices to support his career, it seems
that Fritz never made much of a splash on the concert platform in Europe, being
content to earn a living playing in the hotels of Munich.
Perhaps Melba had had an intuition that he might not make
the expected grade, noticing that he was ‘rather like a butterfly’. And another
contemporary, the pianist-composer Percy Grainger commented that Fritz lacked
‘a strong mother behind his career.’
Are those factors still the secret to success in making the
transition from prodigy to stardom – driven focus and a strong mother?
The ghastly Dance Moms on current TV suggests that they might still represent a
potent cocktail.
Posts
