Audience Of Quality Wanted By Violinist

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31741, 26 July 1968, Page 5

Audience Of Quality Wanted By Violinist

Quality is better than .quantity when it comes to concert audiences in the opinion of the Hungarian violinist Denes Zsigmondy. If the audience is small he does not mind because it usually means that those who have come to hear him are there because they are music lovers and not for social reasons.

“I can tell a good audience.” he said, “by the kind of silence there is while I am playing. A good audience will not cough at a tense moment in the music—only in pauses between pieces. “When the audience is good I get the feeling that it is completely quiet I watch their faces, and when I see their faces change I know that they are enjoying the music,” he said. Mr Zsigmondy says he can tell more about the quality of an audience from its silences than from its noises. But he made no bones about liking a big, enthusi-

astic audience too. “My whole life I have been trying to find out the most true way to give back the intentions of the composer, and I like to do it with the audience. “Even in a bad audience there are some who are in accord with you, and that’s enough.” Mr Zsigmondy lives for his music. “I am very happy to have the feeling that I just must play the violin,” he said. “It is a lot of work, but it is how I enjoy my life. Of course I make holiday sometimes, but a holiday is a terrible time when I am two or three weeks without my violin.”

Mr Zsigmondy and his wife gave a recital in the Civic Theatre last evening for members of the Chamber Music Society.