TOSCHA SEIDEL

Evening Star, Issue 18052, 21 August 1922, Page 6

TOSCHA SEIDEL

VIOLINIST’S SECOND, RECITAL. Toscha Seidel opened his second concert at His,, Majesty’s on Saturday night with Beethoven’s 4 Kreiitzer ’ sonata, associated with him at the piano being Mr Frank Hutchens. It is rarely that this giant in 'piano and violin literature is heard hero in public. During tho war it was given in the Bums Hall by two Russian artists, but few people then took tho opportunity of hearing it. There was a much bigger audience on Saturday night, and at the conclusion of a very fine performance a number of recalls were insisted on, and it is but fair to assume that the motive was rather to show appreciation than to exact an additional item. That, at any rate, was how the executants construed it. Seidel plays Beethoven beautifully. The declamatory violin opening of the ‘ Kreutzer ’ was taken slowly and quietly, almost pensively, by him ; but it at once riveted attention on what was to follow. And what followed constituted a great treat. Seidel devoted himself to expounding tho beauties of Beethoven as lie had discovered them by intimate and loving study. Such was the impression borne in on the listener. His phrasing was a delight. Those subtle turns which the composer gives to an idea ho is working out, repetitions with slight alterations, presentations of the 'same thing from different points of view, were wonderfully illustrated. Seidel got his punctuation, his emphasis, partly by contrasts in volume and weight, but more 'by variety in the quality of tone, sometimes as piquant and pronounced as though an organist drew out a fresh stop on the solo organ for each fresh phrase. From his Cremona instrument.—a Gnarnierius, if wo are rightly informed —Seidel, when ho wishes, educes that reedy duality of tone so prized in the best of the Stradivarius make, and ho has at command various other nuances of tone too subtle for description. These delights were most noticeable in the placid- but deep andante con variazioni. Of all the four variations, the third was so interpreted as to reveal hitherto undisclosed beauties in the music. It is in tho minor key, “of dark, portentous mood,” the programme stated. But Seidel took his hearers beneath the sombre surface and showed them an undercurrent surcharged with sheer poetry. Mr Hutchens, always a fid us Achates to his jEneas, caught the inspiration exactly, and tho combined result was- a piece of interpretation that defies periphrasis. Tho lively dance rhythm (Tarantellel of the Presto brought a fine performance to a brilliant end. What has been said about Seidel’s refinements and delicacies in the sonata applies in eaual measure to his other programme numbers. This was eminently so in the violin version of Paderewski’s familiar minuet for the pianoforte. Decked out in its new dress, it seemed a new creature. And so did Seidel's own arrangement of Anitra’s dance from Grieg’s ‘ Peer Ghynt ’ suite. Of Schubert’s wellknown ‘Ave Maria’ a very individual and moving performance was given. Two things particularly struck us. The first was the great richness and sonority of Seidel’s G string. The second was the balance of his double stopping. When tho air is repeated in octaves the violinist at first allowed so little of the upper note to sound that the bearer was' inclined to suspect overtones rather than double stopping, until Seidel gradually undeceived him, leading up in this way to the harmonisation. It was extraordinarily deft and telling. Both this and the minuet were repealed, the soloist realising that the audience insistently wanted these again, and nothing else. Thev also wanted Beethoven’s ‘Turkish March’ (from the ‘ Ruins of Athens ’) over again, partly because it sparkled so with priceless harmonics ; but he gave them something else. And just as one was noting that Seidel avoided anything hackneyed 1 , he gave Dvorak’s ’ Humoresnue,’ inimitably, daintily played, in response to a furore caused by bis masterly handling of Sarasato’s diabolically difficult but exhilarating Zapatendo, full of pizzicato work for tho left hand. One of the finest things in the programme was Sindling’s suite in A minor, a real violinist’s composition, hut, unlike some of those works, full of thoroughly good music. The opening presto is particularly engaging, with many octavo passages for tire left hand and sniccato bowing for the right—and not a/ semiquaver’s breathing ’space. Tho final concert will bo given to-night.