It was also thanks to her that in 1939 the Accademia Musicale Chigiana (founded by Count Chigi) in Siena presented the first Settimana musicale devoted to Vivaldi, who was then still virtually unknown. Rudge's studies of some 309 unpublished concertos of Vivaldi in Turin, and of others in Dresden, were undoubtedly of great importance at the time. In 1931, at her initiative, she and Pound organised the Concerti Tigulliani at Rapallo at which recently discovered works of Vivaldi were presented, along with the Italian "firsts" of Bartk's magical quartets, and later in the Thirties they organised other concerts in Venice.If Rudge was the fully fledged professional performer and musicologist, Pound must still be reckoned a very knowledgeable and gifted amateur composer and critic They were a wonderful team. According to Pound's biographer Humphrey Carpenter, the birth in 1925 of her daughter by Pound was her own determined initiative and contrary to Pound's wishes.In February 1927 Rudge had an audience with Mussolini, who was himself a competent violinist, and they discussed the differing nature of music for violin and piano. The collaboration of the poet and the musician lasted till the Second World War put a stop to their public activities. Rudge, and her piano accompanist Renata Borgatti, were frequent visitors at the salon of Natalie Barney She played the violin part in Pound's opera Villon in 1921.
Her family was of Irish Catholic descent and she remained a practising Catholic throughout her life. After the First World War she gave a number of concerts in London, one of which Pound reviewed in A.R Orage's the New Age. They met again in 1920 in Paris, when Pound invited the young avant-garde American composer George Antheil to supply "several sonatas for violin" for her. Antheil, after hearing her play Mozart, called her a "consummate violinist" and particularly praised her unique rendering of the low notes. She was born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1895 but educated in England and in Paris. Olga Rudge was a distinguished violinist and later an important musicologist in the domain of baroque instrumental music, but she is remembered now more vividly for her devotion to the great American poet Ezra Pound (1885-1972). The bright star above is Arcturus in the constellation Bootes (the herdsman).Diary (all times BST)1 April: Venus at greatest eastern elongation3-4 April, 11.21pm-1.53am: total eclipse of the Moon 4 1.07am: full Moon11 April, 0.36am: Moon at last quarter17 April, 11.48pm: new Moon21 April: maximum of Lyrid meteors23 April: Mercury at greatest eastern elongation25 April, 9.40pm: Moon at first quarterHyakutake on the Internet, Section Two, page 12.
It is the dazzling object in the west after sunset, some 15 times brighter than the most brilliant star. Low down in the evening twilight, later in April, you may catch a glimpse of the other "evening star", the tiny planet Mercury.Jupiter is rising in the southeast around 2am, while Saturn and Mars are too close to the Sun to be seen this month. Around 21 April we'll be treated to shooting stars radiating outwards from the constellation Lyra. It won't be a meteor storm, though, more a light shower.Leo dominates the southern sky with Virgo to the lower left. Its brightest star, Spica, lies near to the Moon during the lunar eclipse on 3 April.
This dust has settled, so we may see a reddish ghost of the Moon throughout the eclipse.Without comet and eclipse excitement, Venus would be the star of the month. Sometimes, it glows a dull copper even in mid-eclipse, lit by sunlight bent round in the Earth's atmosphere. The amount of illumination depends on the state of the Earth's atmosphere: it must be clear of clouds and dust if sunlight is to reach the Moon.The last two total lunar eclipses in 1992 and 1993 were unusually dark (the Moon seemed to disappear) because the Earth's atmosphere was polluted with ash from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991. The eclipse starts at 11.21pm on 3 April, and the Moon is fully eclipsed by 00.26am (4 April). The Moon starts to reappear at 1.53am, and the eclipse is over by 2.59am.Astronomers can predict the instant the eclipse will occur, but not how it will look During some eclipses, the Moon disappears completely. We are due for the first total eclipse of the Moon to be seen from this country since November 1993, so it'll be worth staying up till half past midnight to watch the full Moon fade from sight as it moves into the Earth's shadow. The brilliant planet and glorious comet will put on a display the like of which has not been seen since Halley's Comet performed a double act with Venus back in 1910.Eclipse: Taking top billing on3-4 April is the Moon.
As it swings towards the Sun, however, the increasing heat on the comet will boil away more of its frozen ices into shining vapour. Moving steadily down towards the north-western skyline, the comet will brighten from Easter onwards. It will grow a narrow tail of shining gases, and probably an even brighter fan-shaped tail of dust particles.The British Astronomical Association calculates the comet will surpass Venus in brightness around 23 April. The full Moon will drown out the comet, but as the Moon enters eclipse (see below), the sky will darken and the comet will seem to appear out of nowhere.Comet fever will abate for a few days, as Hyakutake moves away from the Earth. There may not be much of a tail this week, either, so Hyakutake will look more like a fuzzy ball than most people's idea of a comet. And it is passing so close that its light is spread out into a patch several degrees across. The slightest illumination from streetlamps will drown Hyakutake So make every effort to get to a dark site.