2-888-552 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Miss Goddard, 1850. Portrait of British pianist Arabella Goddard. 'At the age of four years and a half [her] marvellous talent and execution...were exhibited in public for the first time, at a charitable concert...and she played a fantasia on themes from Mozart's "Don Juan"...At eight years of age, Miss Goddard had the honour of performing before her Majesty [Queen Victoria]...Miss Goddard is as yet a mere child, and the witchery her playing exercises over the minds of her auditory is not the result of a marked individuality of style, or of enormous manual power; but it arises from her elegant, graceful facility of execution, her crisp and delicate tone, and the certainty of her passage-playing...She will, of course, acquire more strength in the wrists; and to her present exquisitely cabinet-picture finish, if we may so term it, will, no doubt, be added her only physical defect - that of power'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.