First impressions

You’ll remember that I’m currently writing an article about some Scottish women whom I encountered during the research for my forthcoming book.  (Actually, I have quite a bit more detail, to the extent that it would be a shame not to share it.)

So of course, I can’t share it here, yet. However, I can reveal that one lady in particular worked as an entertainer, in a trio taking Scotland to emigrants in the diaspora.  (I had only traced her on one tour – I didn’t find evidence of her subsequent life – until today. But we’ll come to that in a minute!)

I did NOT expect to find her, as an even younger adult, performing what was then comparatively recent chamber music back home in Scotland.

So I looked for YouTube recordings, just to hear what exactly she had performed.  This was more highbrow, and more ambitious than I had given her credit for!

Anton Rubinstein – Piano Trio no.2, op.15, in G minor (1851)

Henryk Wieniawski – Legende, violin and piano (1860)

Henryk Wieniawski – Scherzo-Tarantelle, op.16, violin and piano (1885)

Today, I also found confirmation that this lady emigrated to Vancouver, got married (over there?) – and was a theatre musician for some years.  Given Vancouver’s penchant for vaudeville, that may have been her work, but this is pure conjecture.

I’m so pleased with these quick glimpses of another side of someone who I had previously imagined just as a purveyor of sentimental Scottish songs.  It doesn’t pay to pigeonhole people!