Lionel Tertis

Presenter0:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:08

mister Terris, whereabouts were you born?

Lionel Tertis0:11

I was born in West Hartlepool in the county of Durham.

Presenter0:14

Yeah.

Lionel Tertis0:15

and I left there when I was three months old.

Lionel Tertis0:18

and didn't return until I was thirty-four years of age in a I was doing a tour with Dame Nillie Milburgh.

Lionel Tertis0:26

We arrived in West Hartlepool in a fog and left in a fog, and that's all I know of my birthplace.

Speaker 20:33

Were your parents musical?

Lionel Tertis0:36

My father

Lionel Tertis0:38

was an awfully good singer.

Speaker 20:40

Mm.

Lionel Tertis0:40

I think I got my music from him.

Presenter0:43

And how old were you when you started taking an active interest?

Lionel Tertis0:46

Well, I was a pianist originally. I was six years old at my first performance in public on the piano. And I remember playing a tarantilla of Stephen Heller at breakneck speed to show off.

Presenter1:00

And what was the next important event?

Lionel Tertis1:03

Leaving home at the age of thirteen with my parents' permission,

Lionel Tertis1:08

to earn the wherewithal

Lionel Tertis1:10

to study the violin, which I'd always hankered after. My parents are very poor.

Presenter1:16

You were a professional musician at the age of thirteen.

Lionel Tertis1:18

I was as a pianist.

Presenter1:20

Yes. Wh which which year was this, if you don't mind bringing years into it?

Lionel Tertis1:26

Eighteen eighty-nine, I suppose.

Presenter1:29

And what was your first professional job?

Lionel Tertis1:31

My first professional job was in Scarborough.

Lionel Tertis1:36

We were a band of musicians supposed to be Hungarians and we were all British and I remember that our costumes made us look more like brigands than the Hungarians.

Speaker 21:46

Hungarians

Lionel Tertis1:47

And I tumbled from one engagement into the other.

Lionel Tertis1:51

And one of the engagements that I remember was a Clatton on C.

Lionel Tertis1:56

The petritor was quite a tolerable violinist.

Lionel Tertis1:59

And we used to play too.

Lionel Tertis2:02

uh about seven or eight hundred children uh who had treats, you know, from their schools. And he was a very portly man.

Lionel Tertis2:13

And whenever he played with me, he had to undo his braces to reach the G string of the violin.

Presenter2:20

Yeah.

Presenter2:21

Yes. And with the money that you were earning by playing professionally you you were using to pay for your status?

Lionel Tertis2:26

I used to have intermittent study at the Trinity College of Music, which is the first institution I entered, and again the same sort of thing at the Royal Academy of Music some three or four years later.

Presenter2:39

Yes. Now your instrument then w was the violin. When did you change to the viola?

Lionel Tertis2:44

Well, that was quite by accident. When I was a student at the academy, there was a fellow student who wanted to play string quartets, and there was no student there at that time who played the viola.

Lionel Tertis2:58

And he asked me if I would do it and I took it up and the first moment that I played on it, I loved it.

Lionel Tertis3:05

And after about three weeks we played a quartet to the late Sir Alexander Mackenzie, who was principal then, and when we finished he came up to me and said, How long have you taken this up for?

Lionel Tertis3:17

I said three weeks, and his reply was, In my opinion, you'll never regret it.

Presenter3:23

Oh truly he spoke. And when you left the Academy, what happened?

Lionel Tertis3:28

Well, I

Lionel Tertis3:29

I joined the Queen's Hall Orchestra as a violinist. I was the last player.

Lionel Tertis3:35

in the second violins.

Presenter3:37

Mm-hmm. That was the Henry Woods official.

Lionel Tertis3:39

That was Sir Henry Wood and when I took up the viola he somehow or other heard me play and immediately made me the principal viola in the viola section.

Presenter3:50

Have you already

Presenter3:51

Yeah.

Lionel Tertis3:52

Remember that?

Presenter3:52

How long did you stay with the Queen's Hall Orchestra?

Lionel Tertis3:55

I think I stayed about six months until there was a rumpus about the deputy system and about forty players left the Queen's Hall.

Lionel Tertis4:06

Sir Henry wanted me to stay on with him and the the the forty players wanted me to stay on with them. But I took the opportunity of

Lionel Tertis4:17

giving up orchestral playing because I didn't like it at all. I wanted to get on with my solo playing.

Presenter4:22

Yes. Now in those days the viola was the the cinderella of the stringed instrument.

Lionel Tertis4:27

Yes, it was really the scullery made of the orcs. It was a despised instrument.

Presenter4:32

and there's very small repertoire for it.

Lionel Tertis4:34

and a very small, in fact no repertoire at all for solo music.

Presenter4:39

Well, you toured the United States and Europe as a soloist for for many years and and really it it's thanks to your efforts that there's a very much larger repertoire now. Who in particular have written solo?

Lionel Tertis4:49

Well, William Walton

Presenter4:52

Mm-hmm.

Lionel Tertis4:52

Reform Williams, Hindermith,

Presenter4:55

And you've made many transcriptions for the instrument yourself.

Lionel Tertis4:57

I made a lot of arrangements and uh

Lionel Tertis5:00

I

Lionel Tertis5:01

used to try and get them published. It was a jolly difficult matter. One had to go cap in hand to the publishers. And if a publisher ever

Lionel Tertis5:10

did print uh work for Solovioli. He was jolly uh quick in reminding me that it was an act of philanthropy.

Presenter5:18

Mm-hmm.

Presenter5:19

And sometimes the critics were rather rim.

Lionel Tertis5:21

Oh my

Presenter5:21

Oh my hat about transcriptions.

Lionel Tertis5:22

But

Lionel Tertis5:24

Prejudice, yes, yes. Uh uh not so very many years ago I arranged the clarinet concerto of Mozart.

Lionel Tertis5:31

and played it at the

Lionel Tertis5:33

Hereford Three Choirs Festival. The next day out came a tirade against me, headed in huge flaming lines, Mozart knew best. Oh dear. About two days after that I met the critic who wrote the article at a press luncheon and he came towards me and said, I suppose you'll have me up for slander. I said, not at all. It was the most wonderful piece of publicity for the viola. In it you mentioned the viola at least 30 times and moreover I don't at all mind being second best to Mozart.

Presenter6:12

A nice reply. You were associated with Sir Thomas Beecham for a long while, weren't you?

Lionel Tertis6:16

Yes, I I knew him when he was playing Mr. Beecham.

Lionel Tertis6:22

And many years afterwards, I think he was at Covent Garden and he asked me to come and listen to the Balance of the Orchestra and edit his parts.

Lionel Tertis6:32

And during that time I remember one day going to him and saying, Sir Thomas,

Lionel Tertis6:37

Your realists section are rather poor in tone quality. Would you mind if I gave them some hints on tone production, providing they're willing?

Lionel Tertis6:48

And he replied, My dear boy,

Lionel Tertis6:51

Boil them if you like.

Presenter6:53

This

Presenter6:53

mister Tertis, it was in nineteen thirty seven, twenty five years ago, that you announced your retirement.

Lionel Tertis6:59

Yes. That was uh

Lionel Tertis7:01

Due to my right arm, I was suffering from fibrositis, and I couldn't really practice what I preached.

Presenter7:08

But really you've never stopped playing.

Lionel Tertis7:10

Really, I'm no, I've never stopped playing.

Presenter7:12

But having ceased to be quite so busy, you set about redesigning the viola.

Lionel Tertis7:17

I did.

Presenter7:17

Uh why did the instrument need redesign?

Lionel Tertis7:19

Well, there were very few instruments of the great masters, and they mostly were very large and cumbersome.

Presenter7:27

Yes, you had a beautiful sixteenth century instrument yourself.

Lionel Tertis7:29

Yes, Montignano, which I gave to my pupil, Bernard Shaw.

Lionel Tertis7:36

But there were

Presenter7:36

Where's

Lionel Tertis7:37

Smaller.

Presenter7:37

O one.

Lionel Tertis7:37

Yeah. There were small ones, but they had no semblance of true viola tone.

Presenter7:42

Yeah.

Lionel Tertis7:42

And I had many theories.

Lionel Tertis7:45

which I said I would put into practice at the first opportunity.

Presenter7:49

You worked with a craftsman.

Lionel Tertis7:50

I worked with Arthur Richardson, a very fine craftsman who lived in Devon, and he produced

Presenter7:56

Yeah.

Lionel Tertis7:58

A view that to my design.

Lionel Tertis8:00

incorporating my theories which has proved quite a success.

Presenter8:05

And now there are terti's model violas being made all over the world.

Lionel Tertis8:09

There are about 500 in existence now.

Presenter8:09

Yeah.

Presenter8:11

Mm.

Presenter8:12

This was a a labour of love. You've never patented your ideas. You've never drawn a royalty.

Lionel Tertis8:15

Oh no, if I if I'd have demanded a royalty from my from the craftsman, they'd never made them.

Presenter8:22

and then you applied your ideas to the cello.

Lionel Tertis8:25

I did. My wife plays the cello.

Lionel Tertis8:27

And she has a very fine testorio, but she's discarded that for the test model of cello.

Presenter8:33

That's a nice compliment to your idea.

Presenter8:36

And now I believe you are working on the violin.

Lionel Tertis8:38

I am. I've got two violins symmetrifact just made and I'm waiting to see how they turn out.

Presenter8:43

There.

Lionel Tertis8:44

Before I give a demonstration in the autumn.

Presenter8:47

And mister Tertis, you always have new projects, you know, travelling and lecturing.

Presenter8:51

Never stop.

Lionel Tertis8:52

Well, as a matter of fact, I went to New York when I was just approaching to be an octogenarian.

Lionel Tertis9:01

And among my activities I gave a lecture recital.

Lionel Tertis9:05

on string quartet playing.

Lionel Tertis9:08

to a vast gathering of amateur chain music players.

Lionel Tertis9:13

After my paper, they plied me with questions for at least half an hour until I wondered whether I could answer another one.

Lionel Tertis9:20

when a man got up at the back of the hall and said, Say, mister Turtis, could you give us the recipe for longevity?

Lionel Tertis9:27

I was completely knocked off my perch, but I managed to reply that

Lionel Tertis9:33

My recipe was that I don't drink and I don't smoke, but I'm not quite a saint.

Presenter9:38

There can be few people in the musical world for many years that you haven't known, who have been the most inspiring musicians you've worked with.

Lionel Tertis9:44

Well, first and foremost, of course, Fritz Chrysler, who's my God.

Presenter9:44

Uh

Presenter9:49

Yes.

Lionel Tertis9:50

I used to follow him about like a dog, you know, at all his concerts and what little I know I've learnt from him, because there was no one to teach the viola in my days.

Lionel Tertis10:00

I remember at the Crystal Palace when he overwhelmed me with his wonderful playing.

Lionel Tertis10:06

When he came out of the arsrum, I went to him. He was with a mutual friend. I said, Mr. Chrysler, would you give me some lessons?

Lionel Tertis10:14

And when he knew my name, he said, What do you want lessons for? Besides, I have no time to give lessons.

Lionel Tertis10:21

The most unbelievable of unbelievable things happened about twenty years later. He'd evidently heard me play, and he invited me to play with him.

Lionel Tertis10:31

in New York, at Carnegie Hall, the Mozart Concertantes Symphony. We did, and we played it at Boston, and then he filled my cup to overflowing by saying, We will play it at the Albert Hall in London.

Presenter10:45

Oh that must have been a wonderful night.

Lionel Tertis10:46

It was a thrilling experience.