My mother's father died a few years ago, and always regretted that he didn't take advantage of the opportunity to go to one of Rachmaninov's last public performances. But there are people around who did get to hear Rachmaninov himself play, or see him. But this isn't just about Rachmaninov.
I was really curious about any deceased composers that might have been seen in person by anyone here; or, if anyone here knows someone that remembers seeing one of the older composers. I'm more thinking about seeing composers or famous performers who died before 1950, or at the least were working as early as the 1890s (say, Sibelius). Florrie Baldwin just died in May of this year, and she laid eyes on Queen Victoria, who was born in 1819... Clara Schumann and Jacques Offenbach were born in 1819, for crying out loud! I don't expect to come across anything that extreme (and I doubt any living supercentenarians ever attended such concerts or musical gettogethers when they were children to be able to see someone such as Reinecke), but still, it'd be nice to learn of someone who might have come into some contact with a Romantic-era composer or performer.
This is kind of fascinating to me, hearing about (or talking to) people who met or saw an important historical figure that passed away quite a while ago. Granted, I don't expect to go back as far as composers such as Camille Saint-Saëns, but I'm a bit curious if anything amazing might crop up.
Quote from: JoshLilly on June 30, 2010, 02:21:15 PM
My mother's father died a few years ago, and always regretted that he didn't take advantage of the opportunity to go to one of Rachmaninov's last public performances. But there are people around who did get to hear Rachmaninov himself play, or see him. But this isn't just about Rachmaninov.
I was really curious about any deceased composers that might have been seen in person by anyone here; or, if anyone here knows someone that remembers seeing one of the older composers. I'm more thinking about seeing composers or famous performers who died before 1950, or at the least were working as early as the 1890s (say, Sibelius). Florrie Baldwin just died in May of this year, and she laid eyes on Queen Victoria, who was born in 1819... Clara Schumann and Jacques Offenbach were born in 1819, for crying out loud! I don't expect to come across anything that extreme (and I doubt any living supercentenarians ever attended such concerts or musical gettogethers when they were children to be able to see someone such as Reinecke), but still, it'd be nice to learn of someone who might have come into some contact with a Romantic-era composer or performer.
This is kind of fascinating to me, hearing about (or talking to) people who met or saw an important historical figure that passed away quite a while ago. Granted, I don't expect to go back as far as composers such as Camille Saint-Saëns, but I'm a bit curious if anything amazing might crop up.
My grandfather was Max Brod's nephew, and through him met Janacek on one occassion (also Kafka, I think). My grandmother, meanwhile, who was related to Berg's paramour Hanna Fuchs Robettin, remembered hiding under a table one day when he came to call. By my calculations she would have been in her teens when this happened, so maybe it wasn't quite as she remembered...though she did have a childish sense of fun all her life, so I'm not entirely disinclined to believe it!
My other grandmother, on my father's side, once had an ABRSM piano exam in which her examiner was John Ireland, though he died in 1962 IIRC, so doesn't quite fit your bill.