Violinist Yehudi Menhin, now dead, is well known. His equally talented sister, pianist Hepzibah, also now dead, less so.
The SMH has a fascinating article "Life in two parts" on the first biography of Hephzibah, due to be published, almost 30 years after her death in 1981:
"She was just eight years old when she first heard the enchanting name: Hephzibah. With its exotic overtones and lingering lyrical vowels, it appealed to Jacqueline Kent so much the primary-school girl would try it on for size.
"I thought it was such a fabulous name. I used to say it over. Hephzibaaaaaah," Kent says.
She had heard her father talk about the musical Menuhin family, of violinist Yehudi, who he had seen perform in Australia, and his pianist sister Hephzibah. But it was the latter's name that resonated with her long before she began working on An Exacting Heart: The Story of Hephzibah Menuhin.
The surprise is that a biography of Hephzibah has taken so long to appear. For the backbone of the story is enticing enough. On the cusp of a stellar musical career, the prodigiously talented US pianist swaps the concert hall stage for the paddocks of rural Victoria and marriage to a wealthy grazier. Years later she ups stumps for Britain with a quixotic, penniless social activist. And there's no shortage of cosmopolitan glamour, drama or passion in a life in which there are walk-on roles from everyone from conductor-composer Bruno Walter, Laurence Olivier and even one of the Kray twins.
But Hephzibah's life is not a black and white tale with a clear trajectory - neither unsung heroine nor dazzling musician who sacrificed all for love. Which is why, Kent suspects, that nearly 30 years after she died in 1981 no biography has appeared."
The SMH has a fascinating article "Life in two parts" on the first biography of Hephzibah, due to be published, almost 30 years after her death in 1981:
"She was just eight years old when she first heard the enchanting name: Hephzibah. With its exotic overtones and lingering lyrical vowels, it appealed to Jacqueline Kent so much the primary-school girl would try it on for size.
"I thought it was such a fabulous name. I used to say it over. Hephzibaaaaaah," Kent says.
She had heard her father talk about the musical Menuhin family, of violinist Yehudi, who he had seen perform in Australia, and his pianist sister Hephzibah. But it was the latter's name that resonated with her long before she began working on An Exacting Heart: The Story of Hephzibah Menuhin.
The surprise is that a biography of Hephzibah has taken so long to appear. For the backbone of the story is enticing enough. On the cusp of a stellar musical career, the prodigiously talented US pianist swaps the concert hall stage for the paddocks of rural Victoria and marriage to a wealthy grazier. Years later she ups stumps for Britain with a quixotic, penniless social activist. And there's no shortage of cosmopolitan glamour, drama or passion in a life in which there are walk-on roles from everyone from conductor-composer Bruno Walter, Laurence Olivier and even one of the Kray twins.
But Hephzibah's life is not a black and white tale with a clear trajectory - neither unsung heroine nor dazzling musician who sacrificed all for love. Which is why, Kent suspects, that nearly 30 years after she died in 1981 no biography has appeared."
Comments
It really is quite a story.
Cheers JK