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Adela Verne, youngest of the Verne sisters, was a tiny child when she played a Bach Invention and Prelude to Clara Schumann, on the great pianist’s last visit to England. Madame Schumann was so thrilled with her that she implored the little girl’s father to allow her to be taken to Frankfurt, where her extraordinary talent could be developed and where she could remain for some time with Clara Schumann’s own family. However, it was felt that the child was too young for such a venture; and so it was that her musical education was undertaken by her sisters, Mathilde and Alice.
At the age of eleven, Adela Verne had in her repertoire all the Beethoven and Mozart Sonatas, three Beethoven concertos, much Bach, all of Chopin’s preludes and waltzes, most of his studies and polonaises and his E minor concerto, as well as many pieces by Schumann and Brahms. At thirteen, she appeared at the Crystal Palace concerts and caused a sensation with her playing of Tchaikovsky’s B flat minor Concerto, conducted by Sir August Manns, so much so that Tchaikovsky himself heard of this astonishing young prodigy and wanted to meet her.
At 14 she was introduced to Paderewski, playing to him a number of pieces which included Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata. He was so impressed that he at once prophesied a great future for her, and when learning that the instrument upon which she had to practice whilst at boarding school was a “horrorâ€, sent a beautiful piano to the school as a replacement. Throughout her extraordinary career she often studied with Paderewski, staying frequently with him and his wife at their villa in Morges in Switzerland.
That Adela Verne fulfilled Paderewski’s prediction in every sense is well known, for she took her place as one of the elect among the great pianists, ranked alongside the male keyboard giants of her time.
Adela Verne was gifted with a phenomenal technique, a remarkably powerful tone equal to any man’s, and with a prodigious memory. A perennial favourite at the Promenade Concerts, Adela Verne assisted Henry Wood in his efforts to start and keep going the Promenade Concerts by appearing for him on many occasions, under ‘special terms’. She was the first British artist to give a solo recital at the Royal Albert Hall; she gave the first performance in Australia of Tchaikovsky’s B flat minor Piano Concerto and of the Saint-Saëns G minor Piano Concerto in 1898; the first Promenade Concerts performance of Brahms’ B flat Concerto, and the first performance in the UK of Cesar Franck’s Symphonic Variations.
During World War II, a severe illness forced her into temporary retirement, during which time she composed a Military March. dedicated to HM Queen Elizabeth (the late Queen Mother), which was published and then quickly recorded by the Band of the Grenadier Guards. Adela Verne made a triumphant return to the concert platform recitals and concerto performances, and she also appeared on that new up and coming medium, television. She gave the first TV performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto for 2 Pianos, with her son John Vallier. At the request of the BBC, in 1952 she broadcast a special programme of works by Paderewski. Her last public appearance was at the special Jubilee Concerts celebrating the Wigmore Hall. She died later that year, and at that time was preparing for her first recital at London’s new Royal Festival Hall.
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