Famous English Flautists
Julius in delight exclaimed that he had never before heard that shake properly made, whereupon the entire orchestra burst out laughing. Pratten became suddenly very seriously ill whilst playing the obligato to "O rest in the Lord," in the Elijah at Exeter Hall in November, 1867. He played on to the end of the item, but had then to leave the orchestra, never to play again in public.
Pratten's great English contemporary flautist, Benjamin Wells (1826-99), a pupil of Richardson and Clinton, was at the age of nineteen appointed first flute at the Royal Academy concerts, andWells was congratulated on his performance by the Duke of Wellington, in company with Mendelssohn. He was an intimate friend of Balfe, and played in the orchestra on the first performance of The Bohemian Girl at Drury Lane in 1843. Wells once performed a fresh solo from memory every evening for fifty consecutive nights. He played in Jullien's band, and was for some time president of the London Flute Society, and also Professor at the Academy. He was the representative of the Böhm flute at the great Exhibition of 1851, where Richardson performed on Siccama's model.
"Seventy years a flautist!" Such was the proud boast of old Henry Nicholson (1825-1907), the most prominent figure in the musical world ofHenryNicholson Leicester for over half a century, and probably the last survivor of the orchestra that played at the first performance of the Elijah (1846),
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