A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Reményi, Eduard

REMENYI, Eduard, a famous violinist, was born in 1830 at Hewes (according to another account at Miskolc) in Hungary, and received his musical education at the Vienna Conservatoire during the years 1843–1845, where his master on the violin was Joseph Böhm, the same who instructed Joachim. In 1848 he took an active part in the insurrection, and became adjutant to the famous general Gorgey, under whom he took part in the campaign against Austria. After the revolution had been crushed he had to fly his country, and went to America, where he resumed his career as a virtuoso. In 1853 he went to Liszt in Weimar, who at once recognised his genius and became his artistic guide and friend. In the following year he came to London and as appointed solo violinist to the Queen. In 1860 he obtained his amnesty and returned to Hungary, where some time afterwards he received from the Emperor of Austria a similar distinction to that granted him in England. After his return home he seems to have retired for a time from public life, living chiefly on an estate he owned in Hungary. In 1865 he appeared for the first time in Paris, where he created a perfect furore in the salons of the aristocracy. Repeated artistic tours in Germany, Holland, and Belgium further tended to spread his fame. In 1875 he settled temporarily in Paris, and in the summer of 1877 came to London, where also he produced a sensational effect in private circles. The season being far advanced he appeared in public only once, at Mr. Mapleson's benefit concert at the Crystal Palace, where he played a fantasia on themes from the 'Huguenots.' In the autumn of 1878 he again visited London, and played at the Promenade Concerts. He was on his way to America, where he has been giving concerts for the last three years and still resides (1881). As an artist M. Reményi combines perfect mastery over the technical difficulties of his instrument with a strongly pronounced poetic individuality. His soul is in his playing, and his impulse carries him away with it as he warms to his task, the impression produced on the audience being accordingly in an ascending scale. He never tires, and one never tires of him. The stormier pieces of Chopin transferred by him from the piano to the violin are given by Reményi with overpowering effect. But tenderer accents are not wanting; the nocturnes of Chopin and Field, arranged in the same way, he gives with the suavest dreaminess, interrupted at intervals only by accents of passion. Another important feature in Reményi's playing is the national element. He strongly maintains against Liszt the genuineness of Hungarian music, and has shown himself thoroughly imbued with that spirit by writing several 'Hungarian melodies,' which have been mistaken for popular tunes and adopted as such by other composers. The same half-Eastern spirit is observable in the strong rhythmical accentuation of Reményi's style, so rarely attained by artists of Teutonic origin. For this and other reasons the arrangements of Chopin's mazurkas and similar pieces are more congenial to him than the classical works of Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, which, as a matter of course, are in his repertoire. Altogether his genius will be most appreciated in a drawing-room, where his marked individuality is felt more immediately than in a large concert-hall. Reményi's fame is accordingly of a somewhat peculiar kind. It resembles that of our non-exhibiting painters. Most English amateurs have heard his name and know that he ranks amongst the leading artists of the day, but few can vouch for the general impression by their personal experience. Moreover, Reményi is of too migratory a nature to follow up his success in any given place. He is the wandering musician par excellence, and at intervals, when the whim takes him, will disappear from public view altogether. But although, somewhat of the nature of a comet, he is undoubtedly a star of the first magnitude in his own sphere. Reményi's compositions are of no importance, being mostly confined to arrangements for his instrument and other pieces written for his own immediate use.