A GREAT PIANIST.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20273, 26 June 1931, Page 13

A GREAT PIANIST.

MISCHA LEVITZKL LAST NIGHT'S ACHIEVEMENT. Probably .at no. other age were the pessimists so wrapped in. gloom as in.- ' ours about music. With fill the means . now placed at its disposal, it should attain to an invincible position more, glorious than ever. If music, as we have long believed it to be, is a gift of God, though exacting high .culture to rise to the summit, ways and means will be found, if by different methods, to ; sustain and elevate again the art' to its former and perhaps superior height. If, - on the other hand, it continues-to de« ' generate and is satisfied to produce no / more than shallow Vefihould jbe losing it, altogether,. and npt be losing much. Elements now come in which were never contemplated, and revolutionary measures of' great significance, and perhaps involving years of scheming, will play their parts. That pessimism, as ventilated-in Thb Press interview, serais to .-'have affected~ Mr Mischa' Levitzkl—possibly : j the temporary oncome of heavy 'seas—<• : "j----but is hardly permissible to so,successful an exponent of great music, each ■, great music as -fills' his programmes. As. we enter the Concert- Ball -we are' y j agreeably surprised-by the numbers of eager listeners assembled.; -This/ at a jj»ia moment of depression'all tlijfc worldlo's er, "V is not a convincing proof on decadence. ' ,s«> May not Mr Levitzki postpone Ms mature judgment for g^nera-. tion or two. ~ * ; ■ SOj last l night, at the Concert Hall, we v ;>is faced - again Mischa Xievitzki . after a spell of ten years. The yoniii ,ct 1921 _ > has developed into the man of-31, of pleasant appearance , and dempanour. , From "the list' published• by iMr :Giave- h ' stock 'one is persuaded-that his protege ' * "has been well fed with nutritious -adjectives prior to'reaching Christchurch, and therefore "the -vital question'is what have . ,* the ten years since his* first visit done for him. It is also the question on 'which his audiences will desireio be enlightened. has been since compelled to ■ attend SO or 90 concerts a year and.the difficulty ■- , of recailiiigit6 ; niind the; features , ■■ of a concert are very great Yet.tfa ■.;< attempt must be made. Perhaps the t greatest -dispent -jox? k®'- -/ in references to"thfl*cßpioe"6flieivit»W» ■. j -programmes... But - the . . problem may - well* be' delayed, to a later date. Imthe Reeitaloriast nighfc '• ■ stood out three;great epochs.ln, musical history, Bach,' Beethoven, jmd" Liszt. For eaeh Levitzki brought unta operation, first of all an-enonnouj strength, nothing but a Colussus might have ex- * tracted -more sound from keys' that with a. paltry addition, might easily have been shattered. The clearness in the exposition of the Prekide and Fugue was beyond reproach. vThegrace* ful little movement followuq; in it*. , wake was played with infinity charm, but the "Sonata Appassionato/' the *? magnificent work that ran&a - with flis * greatest, by its very breadth and ■ insinuating themes wiped' away*-almost' l the memory of what one heard "before. , Perhaps the chief fault to be found lay . in tse very power to the bass,'whieh made the high ra&ges sound weak and far of the themes little could be improved. f Chopin occupied a large 'space in the programme, and much refinement dis- , tinguished Levitzki's rending. Nothing .' ? could have surpassed, however, the bril- .... liant Etudes alike for speed delicacy of - ' the alwayß glittering The Scherzo "C Sharp Minor 5 ' Has <claima j on special recognition, but for once the ~ ■ player moved less calmly than 'is his wont. Ravel's "Jeux d*Eau'*~ was - i given with almost contemptuous .ease <; and the Bravuru Bhapsody by Ltezt is also little more than a challenge. A' very pretty Valse •by Levtizki, and in ' the intervals a series of encores filled s very magnificent programme. J Almost every seat of the Concert HaD | was occupied and the audience eould not easily have been more appreciative . , than it showed itself after every sumI ber. Music is yet aiivel To-morrow's Programme. . . Mr Levitzki will give his second recital to-morrdW night, in the Civic Theatre, when the programme will ineludd: Prelude and Fugue in A minor (BachLiszt), Gavotte in A major (from "Alceste") (Gluck-Brahms), Symphonic Studies, op. 13; (Schumann), Nocturne in C minor (Chopin), Etude in. C major, op 10. No 7 (Chopin): Etude in D flat major, op. 25, !No. 10 (cnopin); Makurks 1 in A fiat major (Chopin); Polonaise ia A flat op. 53 ("Heroic") .(Chopin), Arabes- - que (Debussy); Golliwog's f Cik® Walk (Debussy); La Fille aux Cheveurde Lin (Debussy), Arabesques on the Be&utifol Blue Danube Waltz. - ;* Elver). ■ " ! vt V The third concert will bo-given on Tuesday. J ' ■•. L " ,