Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/172



HE greatest of English pianists was born at St. Servan, in Brittany, 1836. At four years old she played at a charitable concert in that town, having to stand on an improvised board, being too diminutive to play from an ordinary seat. After studying under Kalkbrenner in Paris and Thalberg, she appeared at the national concerts in London when fourteen, fairly astonishing the musical world by her extraordinary technical gifts, her exquisite refinement, and a delicacy of phrasing which in later years constituted her one of the most remarkable pianists of the time. When the Monday Popular Concerts were founded in 1859, Madame Goddard was the particular attraction, and to her much of their subsequent success may be ascribed. All the later pianoforte sonatas of Beethoven, hitherto unfamiliar, were introduced by her, and numberless other works of classical importance, both at the Popular concerts and at her Recitals, doubtless advancing musical art in this country by fully twenty years. Since her tour round the world, from 1873 to 1876, she has retired from public playing; but, happily, her valuable advice as a teacher is a thing of the present. Madame Goddard resides at Tunbridge Wells.