Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Tertis Family
- 2 Early Career
- 3 The Great War
- 4 The Chamber Music Players
- 5 American Tours
- 6 Return to the Royal Academy of Music
- 7 The Elgar and Walton Concertos
- 8 The BBC Orchestra, Delius, Bax and Vaughan Williams
- 9 A Shock Retirement
- 10 The Richardson–Tertis Viola
- 11 The Second World War
- 12 Promoting the Tertis Model Viola
- 13 Return to America and Eightieth Birthday Celebrations
- 14 Second Marriage and Last Appearance
- 15 TV Profile and Ninetieth Birthday
- 16 Final Years
- Notes
- Appendix 1 Tertis’s Violas
- Appendix 2 The Tertis Model Viola
- Appendix 3 Tertis’s Writings and Talks
- Appendix 4 Tertis’s BBC Appearances
- Appendix 5 Tertis’s Honours
- Appendix 6 Music with Tertis Connections
- Appendix 7 The Tertis Bequest
- Appendix 8 The Tertis Legacy
- Discography
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Tertis Family
- 2 Early Career
- 3 The Great War
- 4 The Chamber Music Players
- 5 American Tours
- 6 Return to the Royal Academy of Music
- 7 The Elgar and Walton Concertos
- 8 The BBC Orchestra, Delius, Bax and Vaughan Williams
- 9 A Shock Retirement
- 10 The Richardson–Tertis Viola
- 11 The Second World War
- 12 Promoting the Tertis Model Viola
- 13 Return to America and Eightieth Birthday Celebrations
- 14 Second Marriage and Last Appearance
- 15 TV Profile and Ninetieth Birthday
- 16 Final Years
- Notes
- Appendix 1 Tertis’s Violas
- Appendix 2 The Tertis Model Viola
- Appendix 3 Tertis’s Writings and Talks
- Appendix 4 Tertis’s BBC Appearances
- Appendix 5 Tertis’s Honours
- Appendix 6 Music with Tertis Connections
- Appendix 7 The Tertis Bequest
- Appendix 8 The Tertis Legacy
- Discography
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
South Africa – Elgar birthplace – Rubinstein – Primrose – 96th birthday – My Viola and I – death
In 1967 Lillian and Lionel Tertis went to South Africa to take a holiday and to promote the Tertis Model. In a letter dated 17 October from Radnor Hotel, Green Point, Cape Town, to Bernard Shore and his wife, they described their outward journey:
This boat is very fine and modern in every way and we have a delightful cabin, but the people on board make us think what it must be like at a Butlin's Holiday Camp! and there are over 700 of them, not including ourselves. The food is less than mediocre although they produce a magnificently long menu which takes a . hour to peruse. We shall certainly try to get another shipping line coming home or shall fly back with our orchestra of ‘Tertis Model’ instruments.
In Cape Town they were again guests of the Kreitzers. Among the gifts Tertis brought his friends was a copy of the BBC tribute marking his ninetieth birthday and the newly issued long-playing record from EMI, including a selection of his recordings made after the First World War. One side of the record was taken up by the Mozart Sinfonia concertante, with Sammons and Tertis as soloists. After supper one evening they were all listening to the slow movement when the Kreitzers’ youngest daughter suddenly left the room crying; her mother immediately went after her to find out what the problem was. The girl finally explained to her mother that she found it unbearably moving to see the expression on Tertis's face as he listened to himself playing many decades earlier.
The Kreitzers organized a party in their music room on the occasion of Lionel's ninety-first birthday on 29 December 1967, and the toast was proposed by the musical director of the Cape Town Orchestra, Derek Hudson.
Tertis was very keen that a South African craftsman should make Tertis Model violas. He was astounded that there was not one professional maker in Cape Town, and wrote a letter on the subject to the Cape Times, which appeared on 24 November 1967:
Fiddle-maker needed
From Mr Lionel Tertis (Humewood Hotel, Green Point)
I am enjoying a happy holiday in Cape Town.
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- Lionel TertisThe First Great Virtuoso of the Viola, pp. 284 - 302Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2006