Marie Novello

Her early death cut short a promising career just as she began to record for one of the major English labels, having already amassed a considerable discography for one of its second-rank competitors.

[2] Novello traveled to the United States in late 1921, arriving on 28 December aboard the White Star Line liner RMS Olympic.

[9] On 23 February 1922, she made her New York debut at The Town Hall, where she played a program including works of Chopin, Domenico Scarlatti, Debussy, Selim Palmgren, and Ede Poldini.

[citation needed] In her choice of repertory, Novello showed preference for music of the romantic era and particular affinity for virtuoso works such as Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor.

[2] She did not entirely neglect contemporary works, however; she achieved notice for performing the premiere of the Rhapsody on Tipperary for piano and orchestra by Frank Tapp, a composer well represented in English concert halls at the time but now forgotten.

Her fellow judges included Alfred Kalisch, Percy Scholes, Peter Latham, Alec Robertson, and Francis Brett Young.

Over the course of the evening, the judges and the audience of 400 marked ballots comparing the performance of some 15 different machines divided into two price classes, nearly all bearing names now long forgotten.

[2] Her association with HMV yielded but two issued sides, her sole electrical recordings: a gavotte by Rameau and an Étude de Concert by Arensky.