In May, 1869, Madame Norman-Neruda--as she had become known through her marriage with the Swedish composer--visited London again, and the event proved to be decisive, little as she thought it, as to her future career. She came to play at a Philharmonic concert, but was prevailed upon to stay through the summer, so that she should inaugurate, in the autumn, a new era in the history of the "Popular Concerts"--an institution that had been established ten years previously by the eminent firm of Chappell and Co., with the late Mr. Arthur Chappell as director. The main feature was the performance of classical chamber music.
The event may be justly described as historic. Her success was absolute and convincing. The fact that a woman was seen "leading" a quartet of performers that embraced the greatest players that Europe could produce, was one of intense significance.
One great result was not long in showing itself. The violin soon became fashionable in a girl's hands, and from a fashion it has degenerated into a rage.
To her lasting fame, Wilma Neruda was the first to demonstrate, under conditions that were often discouraging and sometimes forbidding, that a woman could, in this form of art, hold her own with the greatest of male exponents.
Madame Norman-Neruda was a woman of extraordinary strength of character. Austere in manner and of cold demeanour, as she undoubtedly was, in any direction that her sane judgment pointed out as worthy, she was capable of generosity that was, at once, spontaneous and noble.
Her most prominent characteristic was, I think, intellectuality. She could not, it must be admitted, "suffer fools gladly."
Had she desired a motto, a very appropriate one would have been "Odi profanum vulgus."[32]
From that eventful year of her life, 1869, Madame Norman-Neruda spent the greater part of her time in England, devoting the spring and winter to the Chappell, Hallé, Philharmonic and other important concerts, with occasional visits to the Continent to play at functions of exceptional interest.
Her career in England is so well known that it is not necessary to dwell at any length on it here. Suffice it to say that her work was incessant, and that hers was, soon, a familiar figure on every concert platform throughout the length and breadth of the country. It is not difficult to imagine that the constant travelling would provide occasional and novel experiences; one of them Lady Hallé related to me.