by ISOLDE MENGES
A NATIVE of Hove, Brighton, Isoldo Menges studied first with her father and mother, both distinguished teachers. At the age of sixteen she went to St. Petersburg, as a pupil of Leopold Auer , and in 1913 made her first appearances in London. At three orchestral concerts —Mengelberg conducted one of them—she played the Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Wieniavski, and Glazounov Concertos ; she gave, besides, two recitals with pianoforte. Within a year she was engaged by practically all the loading concert organizations in Britain, playing to the conducting of Steinbach, Balling, Sir Frederic Cowen , Sir Henry Wood , and Sir Landon
Ronald, and appearing with Tetrazzini, Frieda Hempel , and many other great artists. In her first season, too, she gave four orchestral concerts in Berlin, and Safonoff, who conducted one of them, booked her forthwith for concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The War upset these plans, however, and in 1915 she went to America, playing in all the chief cities of Canada and the States.