Let’s hear it for the girls

From the start, The Strad treated men and women equally; its pages chronicled the steady rise of female soloists and they were often treated to feature articles or picture profiles. In the first issue, published in May 1890, some 15 women violinists were mentioned including such eminent names as Vilémina Neruda, Maud Powell, Nettie Carpenter and Teresina Tua. In August 1894 came the question: ‘Who was the first female violinist?’ Historic names were mentioned such as Sarah Ottey (playing in public in England by 1721), Schmeling, Sacchi, Gautherot, Paravicini and Milanollo. The ‘moderns’ at that stage were considered to be Neruda, Wietrowetz, Shinner and Scotta.

Of course there was the occasional condescension. In December 1897, under the heading ‘A New Profession For Ladies’, The Strad ran a report from a newspaper in Berlin, where women’s orchestras were popular. One manager had the idea of hiring pretty girls, giving them violins, training them to turn the page at the same time as the real musicians and soaping their bows well so that they could enhance the pulchritude of the orchestra without dragging it down musically. But in general women were treated fairly – The Strad arrived in time to reflect the inexorable rise of women soloists.

But in the wider music world, the ignoring of women soloists by influential opinion-makers, impresarios and record company executives was a self-fulfilling prophecy. These men (for they were all men) did not know of great women violinists and therefore such beings could not exist. The movers and shakers of the musical establishment set male parameters of strength and athleticism, expecting a woman to play like a man. I am sure that when Hans von Bülow flattered Marie Soldat-Roeger (1864–1955) – profiled twice in The Strad, in September 1897 and February 1910 – by calling her ‘Brahms’s understudy’, he was not suggesting she played the Brahms Concerto like her teacher Joachim. But from all accounts her performances of the concerto were beautiful and satisfying – she and her fellow Joachim alumna, Leonora Jackson, did more than anyone to fix the work in the public consciousness.

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