In this article about Mr. Wilhelm Bachaus and Mr. Kugel (no first name given), described as "the genial Viennese concert manager who has engineered Bachaus' European tours for a few years past...", there are two paragraphs that refer to Mr. Lund. "'Sold-out houses the rule' is the heading which one large Australian paper bestows upon a report of his tour. 'To hear Bachaus once is one's undoing, one cannot stay away', is the significant comment of Dr. Lund, critic of the Christchurch Press, who ventured the bold statement that Bachaus' interpretation of Liszt 'compared well with Liszt's own'. His meeting with this eminent critic, Bachaus cherishes among his most precious memories. Dr. Lund, a native of Germany, is now eighty years old and a revered figure in Australia, and Bachaus describes the entrance of this quaint old gentleman into his green room as one of the proudest and most touching moments of his career. Dr. Lund studied with Liszt for many years, knew him well, he heard him play hundreds of times; how valuable must be Dr. Lund's verdict that this pianist's performance of Liszt's music was equal to that of the master himself! Brahms, too, counted among the friends of Dr. Lund's youth, and Bachaus' playing of the Paganini Variations equalled that of the composer, in Dr. Lund's opinion."
Musical Courier, New York, 14 April 1927 Vol. 94, no. 15, p.8
Image: Wilhelm Backhaus 1960s
In fact, the concert attended by H.M. Lund was most likely in New Zealand as H.M. would have traveled little at 80 years old. As well, The Oxford History of New Zealand Music by John Mansfield Thomson (Auckland, New Zealand, Oxford University Press, 1991, p.143) records that: In 1926 Wilhelm Backhaus arrived with his own piano and his famous piano stool, which was fitted with a spirit level to make it adjustable to any stage.
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