Violinist’s Views On “Modern” Music

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31161, 10 September 1966, Page 19

Violinist’s Views On “Modern” Music

“Modern” music always came to be regarded as “classical”—and the sooner this happened the better, said the distinguished Russianborn violinist, Zvi Zeitlin, who is touring as soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr Zeitlin said he had no special preferences among composers. “I feel quite polytheistic in this way—l believe in many gods.” Nevertheless, he is a convinced advocate of twentieth-century music. “I feel that the public attaches a stigma to the expression ‘modern music,’ ” he said. This was justified only in so far that it was the musician’s job to give new works a chance, and audiences thus heard music which would be discarded, as well as music of lasting value.

“It is the musician who ultimately sifts the wheat from the chaff,” he added. Modem music included some of the most beautiful and inspired works written, which compared with the masterpieces of any period. Of electronic music, he said: “I’ve not detected great genius in what has come to my attention, but I feel it is an added, rich medium for musical expression. “Every great composer, no

matter how familiar to our ears, was a great innovator in his day—Beethoven, Brahms, certainly Stravinsky. If what is innovated is good, it becomes popular.”

Did he feel there was a bigger gap today between contemporary music and popular taste than there was in, say, Beethoven’s time? “Yes, and no,” he replied. “Somehow I feel experiments in music are progressing by leaps and bounds, more so than in the past. But that does not necessarily mean that music itself is progressing.

“I think the public will catch up on modern music by default,” said Mr Zeitlin. Some of the directions in which music was moving could prove to be blind alleys, and audiences could take advantage of the resulting pause in development.

“The fad of today may be the phantom of tomorrow,” he said. In tonight’s concert at the Civic Theatre, Mr Zeitlin will be soloist with the Israel Philharmonic in the Stravinski Violin Concerto. He gave the first performance in Israel of the concerto in 1962, under the baton of the composer, and was soloist in its New York Philharmonic premiere.