From an interview I did with Ms Haendel for What’s On in London, published April 2004:
For Ida Haendel, “life is hectic, turmoil. My life’s affected by what’s going on. Instead of saving mankind, people are killing each other. You only achieve by living.” Ida Haendel’s humane musicianship mirrors such concerns. What was the catalyst? “My father’s ambition was to be a violinist. He wanted this for his children. My older sister was given the violin. I saw children play with dolls; that’s not me: I am the violinist here. My mother told me not to. I said, I’m playing the violin and that’s it. I played. I knew I was a violinist.”
Some dictionaries print Haendel’s birth-year as 1928, others 1923. “No! Oh my God. 1928. What happened was the following. It was 1937. Harold Holt wanted to present me [in London]. The council said no child under 14 is allowed to appear. My father and Mr Holt said I was 14. That is what’s recorded.”
Years later, “it never stops. It’s a discovery every day.” Does Ida Haendel routinely practice? I have a routine – I don’t practice. I’m not being facetious. When young people ask for advice, I say don’t practice. You are born with a gift. If you think practise makes perfect, that’s not always true.” Ida Haendel loves the violin’s “human sound and emotional impact. I am a dramatic person. I can also be very funny. I love jokes – but mostly it’s tragedy and tears. This is what I find in music. The condition of the human being is tragic.”
Very sad. part of this country’s musical life for ever. Go to a Haendel concert and the masterpiece she performed was always immaculate in style and revealing in interpretation. A particular memory was a performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto – superb – and how graciously Simon Rattle treated her afterwards as he presented her with a bouquet – touching to think he was young enough to be her grandson
I may have touched on a nerve when I asked Madam Haendel a few years ago (2008?) if she knew Guila Bustabo.
“She was older than
me” came the immediate reply. Then her heel caught in a gap in the floor of Wimbledon’s oldest house and over she went. Most ladies of her age would have gracefully withdrawn from her master class but up she got with a little assistance of a glass of water and continued. Indeed she picked up her violin after one performance of The Moses Fantasy and promptly played all 20 minutes of it without a score in front of her. The pupil had a score!
“I haven’t played that for 20 years” she said.
What a trooper and a master virtuoso capable of loosing her way in the Elgar at a Prom but reducing us all to tears in the slow movement.
Her Sibelius, acclaimed by the composer, was a calling card. My one regret was her unavailability to play the Six Humoresques by Sibelius in the Tender is the North Barbican Festival in the early 90’s.
I am devastated by this news. I feel I have lost a friend who illuminated some favourite pieces (the Glazunov for instance) throughout my adult life.