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Description: | Born in Bridgeton, Glasgow, on 28 January 1868, Frederic Archibald Lamond spent his early teenage years on the south side of the city where his brother, David, gave piano lessons. More importantly, David introduced his young protégé to one destined to have a massive influence on his musical life: On the fourth of March 1875 they both attended a piano recital at the city's Trades Hall, a recital given by the legendary German pianist and conductor, Hans von Bülow, featuring works of Beethoven and Liszt.
Years later, Lamond readily recalled the event and every performance given by the maestro during his mercurial direction of the Scottish Orchestra's historic series of concerts from November 1877 to early January 1878, the last to a packed St. Andrew's Hall with hundreds unable to gain entrance. It was immediately after Bülow's departure from the city that the Concert Executive Committee forwarded to him a tangible token of the immense esteem he was held by many throughout the land: the baton featured here.
By this time it had become Lamond's ambition to further his musical studies in Germany and 'with infinite faith and courage' his brother and two sisters moved to Frankfurt, where they kept a boarding house to support the family while he studied at the Raff Conservatoire. His progress was exceptional and within a relatively short space of time he became a pupil not only of Bülow, but of Bülow's teacher, the great Liszt in Weimar.
Subsequent to important recital appearances in Berlin in 1885 and London the following year, Lamond quickly established himself as one of the foremost executants of his day and for more than thirty years lived with his Jewish wife, actress Irene Triesch, in the German capital, latterly in Charlottenburg, Berlin, a wealthy suburb close by the home of Marie von Bülow, the widowed wife of his esteemed mentor.
Some time after Hans von Bülow's death, she arranged a series of concerts in her spacious residence, events regularly advertised in the Berlin press in the 1930's, and because of her standing and influence in musical circles she attracted many distinguished artists to perform there. One such must have been Lamond and given his close ties with her late husband and in recognition of his link with the masters, she almost certainly bequeathed to him at that time and place a priceless artefact: the baton presented to her husband in Scotland.
In addition to the von Bülow baton in the Museum's collection, the University's Special Collections department at the University library holds the papers of the Lamond Collection. | Subjects: | Historical | Source: | Hunterian Museum | Address: | University of Glasgow,
University Avenue,
G12 8QQ | Creator: | Sally-Anne Coupar | Contributor: | Hans von Bulow; Frederic Lamond | Identifier: | C-0024 |
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