HEIFETZ COMING!

Evening Star, Issue 19634, 13 August 1927, Page 9

HEIFETZ COMING!

Tho visit to Dunedin of the world-famous violinist, Jascha Heifetz, is creating extraordinary interest locally. Of Heifetz they tell a story: "People say Jascha,” a friend is said to have remarked, “that you never smile when you are on the concert platform. How is that?” “Well,” was the reply, “if they had as many notes to bring out as I have, then they would not smile, I think.” An Australian critic, writing of Heifetz, remarked: “From the platform ho is a Pharaoh. He deigns to incline his head, his lips move as if he were whispering ‘Thank you.’ If lie has the suspicion of a smile, then it is to some intimate friend, but to the audience never. You pay to listen to a genius of the violin, not to become his friend. Logie, after all. There is magic in his left hand, (lie same magic that thrilled us six years ago. As an executant ho can have no equal among modem violinists. lie is the Paganini of the moderns. The left hand rules over a tempest of music. Plucking at pizzicato-', reeling oil tremendous runs, the fingers never lose control, the how never fails, loifotz stands immobile. One thinks of a dynamo. Yet when he comes to play such a wistful, murmuring air as Debussy’s ‘Girl With the Flaxen Hair,’ he cajoles his violin into rich vibrant notes. And delicacy? His Schubert’s ‘ Rondo,’ so simple, so appealing, was a joy to the ear. Yet aloof, always aloof.” Tho box plan opens on Monday.