A young Josef Hoffmann

The Polish pianist, Josef Hoffmann may have been a child prodigy. Upon hearing him play, Anton Rubinstein, who typically disliked child prodigies said told his manager, “This prodigy I believe in. Hear him!” (1) Yet in 1908, The Daily Graphic looked back on having seen the young pianist:

When Joseph Hoffmann was an infant prodigy, we saw him hurrying through the Crystal Palace — where he had just appeared at one of the Saturday concerts — armed with a pea-shooter, and this admirable evidence of his humanity convinced us that a great future was in store for him. (2)

(1) David Dubal, “Josef Hofmann: Liszt, Beethoven, Scarlatti & Schumann”, https://web.archive.org/web/20091203100313/http://www.wyastone.co.uk/nrl/gpiano/8818c.html, accessed 5 September 2020.
(2) Scholes, Percy (1947) The Mirror of Music. London: Novello and Company, vol. 1, p.319.

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