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Beatrice and the Nightingale
Patricia Newman
Item #:
9781682637272
Price:
$19.99
On May 19, 1924, a duet between a young cellist and a male
nightingale was broadcast across the British Commonwealth as
far away as Canada, India, and Australia to over one million
listeners. It was an unprecedented collective experience made
possible by the invention of the radio and a new microphone
that picked up sounds of nature.
Beatrice Harrison, considered one of the greatest cellists of
the 20th century and a musical prodigy, was that cellist.
At the age of eighteen months, Beatrice attended her first
concert. Catching sight of a cello and hearing it for the first
time, she was bewitched and immediately began asking to play
it. She got her first cello when she was about eight years old.
Later, her parents moved the family to Germany so Beatrice
could study with one of the best cello teachers. There, at age
seventeen, she was awarded a prestigious prize, the youngest
artist and only cellist to win at that time.
Back in the UK, the family moved to Surrey, England and
Beatrice’s career flourished.
One evening while Beatrice was practicing her cello in the
garden, she heard a creature repeating the music she was
playing. It turned out to be a nightingale. She played many
nights with the bird and was completely enthralled. Wanting to
share the experience, she convinced the head of the newly
formed BBC to take a chance on a live broadcast from her
garden. The resulting duet was a smashing success and Beatrice
received more than 50,000 letters in response. Overnight, she
became known as the Lady of the Nightingales and for twelve
years thereafter the cellist and the bird were broadcast
annually to BBC listeners from her garden in Surrey.
Book, 48 pages.
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