SWITZERLAND: WORLD FAMOUS CONCERT VIOLINIST IDA HAENDEL TEACHES A FEW YOUNGSTERS IN VERBIER

Record ID: 391918

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: WORLD FAMOUS CONCERT VIOLINIST IDA HAENDEL TEACHES A FEW YOUNGSTERS IN VERBIER
  • Date: 10th August 2001
  • Summary: SV IDA HAENDEL TEACHING CARLA LEURS
  • Embargoed: 25th August 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VERBIER, SWITZERLAND
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: Entertainment,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2NWL6ILIK7IDY85M53SOZEXOP
  • Story Text: No one dares ask the lady her age but everyone begs her to play her fiddle. It was the founder of the world-famous Proms, Henry Wood, that first discovered the talent of Ida Haendel when she was just six years old. She's since packed out every concert hall from Carnegie Hall to the Royal Albert Hall. But a few hand-picked youngsters were flown to Verbier for a masterclass with the master.
    Every musical reference book quotes Ida Haendel's date of birth as December 15th, 1924. But they're all wrong, she says.
    She lied about her age as a child in order to fool London County Council into allowing her to perform when they were banning performances by children under 14. And that feisty spirit has stayed with her ever since.
    A child star in London before the Second World War, Haendel was discovered by the founder of the Prom concerts, Henry Wood, and thrust into the limelight. Her protector as well as mentor, Wood panicked when the young Haendel wanted to desert the concert halls for the hospitals of wounded soldiers.
    "Henry Wood said "No, no Ida is a concert violinist, we cannot allow that. It's too dangerous for a child to go around the country and play at all hours, all day and all night." But she did. Her memories of playing Schubert's Ave Maria are her most vivid, "absolutely heart rending to see these beautiful young men bed-ridden, badly wounded. But it was so inspiring, also for them and for me. I felt I was doing something that was really almost holy."
    The other lasting memory is when her father presented her with her treasured dog, whom she named Decca after she got a recording contract with the label. Even today, although she's onto Decca number two, Haendel and her piccanese are inseparable.
    She has a similar relationship with her violin, which she says is now part of her body. She's in Verbier teaching a handful of carefully selected virtuosos-in-the-making how to turn their playing into something exceptional. But these youngsters' talent is already in place. It would be impossible otherwise. "You have to be born with a talent. You cannot be made an artist. That's out of the question." Particularly in the case of the violin, which is widely believed to be the most difficult instrument to learn.
    "It's true. The position is counter everything. Just stand like this for ten, twenty minutes, see how you feel. You're going to drop from exhaustion. But it's a very interesting point when you really do the playing you don't even notice that you are tired. I mean some people can, I can go on for hours and hours and hours. It's a kind of self-hypnotism."
    Carla Leurs, who's 23 and just on the verge of a professional career, has flown from the Netherlands to Verbier to have tuition with the legendary Haendel. She's practicing Mozart's Violin Concerto in A for an international competition coming up next week.
    Learning from a woman who was trained by the likes of Carl Flesch and Georges Enescu and recorded with people in the league of pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy should stand Carla in good stead.
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