study with Leonhard. By the time she was fifteen she was touring Germany. A
successful concert in Frankfurt in 1867 was attended by Carl Tausig who subsequently
gave her tuition. She also studied with Lebert and Bülow. She studied with Liszt from
1869 and Liszt often called her his greatest female pupil. In 1872 she married the cellist
David Popper but was divorced in 1886.
Sophie Menter taught at the St Petersburg Conservatory from 1883 to 1887. She toured
thereafter, and in 1894 in London she was soloist in the first British performance of
Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra. At the same concert she played her
‘Zigeuner-weisen’ for piano and orchestra, orchestrally scored by Tchaikovsky. In the
same visit she gave a performance, with her pupil Vassily Sapellnikov, of Liszt’s
‘Concerto Pathétique’. In 1890 George Bernard Shaw wrote of her effect of
magnificence, producing ‘a perfectly rich, full and even body of sound’. She played
‘with splendid swiftness, yet she never plays faster than the ear can follow; it is the
distinctness of attack and intention that makes her execution so irresistibly impetuous.’
Her pupils included José Vianna da Motta, Alice Ripper, Vassily Sapellnikov and August
Schmid-Lindner.
Sophie Menter did not make any discs but she made Liszt rolls, one of which, ‘On Wings
of Song’ by Liszt after Mendelssohn, is on the CDs.
METRONOME
A metronome is a device that produces a regular audible and/or visual pulse, usually used
to establish a steady beat, or tempo, measured in beats per minute (BPM) for the
performance of musical compositions.
The metronome was invented by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel in Amsterdam in 1812.
Johann Mälzel copied several of Winkel’s construction ideas and obtained the patent for
the portable metronome in 1816. The word ‘metronome’ first appeared in English in
about 1815 and was formed from the Greek words ‘metron’ meaning ‘measure’ and
‘nomos’ meaning ‘regulating’. Beethoven, in 1817, was the first composer to indicate
metronome markings in his music.
Musicians use metronomes when they practise in order to maintain an established tempo.
By adjusting the metronome facility is achieved at varying tempos. Even in pieces that
do not require strict time a metronome is used to give an indication of the general tempo
intended by the composer. Many pieces are provided with a tempo indication at the top
of the manuscript by the composer or in the printed edition at the time of publication.
One common type of metronome is the wind-up metronome which uses as adjustable
weight on the end of a rod to control the tempo. The weight is moved up the rod to
decrease the tempo and down the rod to decrease the tempo. Mechanics inside the
metronome produce a clicking sound on each swing of the rod.