After his death, in 1895, Dr. Richter was, an interregnum passed over, appointed to fill his place.
The long association, musically, of Sir Charles Hallé, and the great violinist, Madame Norman-Neruda (who in after years became his wife) is too well known to need dwelling on. Suffice it to say that their joint recitals became, in course of time, annual features in the musical events of every town of importance throughout the country. Sir Charles Hallé had an absolute genius for organisation, as the many and great undertakings, so successfully carried through, and so permanent in their character, prove. He was not only the moving spirit in them, but, wonderful as it is to think, he attended to the
minutest details of them all, and, in doing so, probably eclipsed the efforts of half-a-dozen ordinary secretaries.
He was a great pianist and a great conductor. His temperament was inclined intellectually, rather than in the direction of emotion. This was, doubtless, the reason that gave rise to the popular impression that he was cold and unsympathetic in disposition.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. That his tastes, so far as music is concerned, were rigidly and unyieldingly classical, there is no room for doubt. His sympathies were not, as regards modern developments, elastic. One great charm of his character was absolute honesty.
For instance, he never believed in an English School of Music.
"Englishmen? Yes," he once said to me, "Great soldiers, great poets, great statesmen, but—musicians, no. You lost all that when Purcell died."
Had he lived till to-day, I have not the slightest doubt that he would have changed his views on the subject; but, after all, he was only voicing a very generally held opinion.
With the extreme developments of modern times he was not altogether in sympathy, and I should think that same conservatism, would fairly express his attitude on the subject of musical progress.
Sir Charles Hallé was a man of superb physique, and his health right up to the end was wonderful, considering the strenuous life he led.