Sir, – Further to the obituary on Hugh Maguire (July 6th), allow me to add a note regarding the part played by mother, Mrs Ellen Ticher, in his musical development.
In or about 1940, my mother hired an outstanding violin teacher from the Municipal School of Music to teach my sister the violin, having failed to persuade her two sons to make any progress with their piano lessons. Mr Michael McNamara knew that my father was a successful businessman and my mother an early member of the newly formed Dublin Orchestral Players and guessed that they were not short of a bob or two, so he asked her if she could help a promising pupil of his who was very much in need of financial support.
This was Hugh Maguire, and during the next 25 years, my mother devoted some of her substantial resources and interest to befriending Hugh (as we all did) and buying him a good instrument to play on, as well as using her influence to help his career.
When she died in 1985, Hugh rang my brother Thomas to ask our permission for him to organise a memorial concert in the National Concert Hall. Not only was the hall packed, but Hugh had the enterprise to make sure that one of the pieces played by the orchestra was what he knew was my mother's all-time favourite piece, Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik. My whole family was forever grateful to Hugh for this thoughtful recognition. – Yours, etc,
PETER TICHER,
Woodcote Side,
Epsom, Surrey.