BOY VIOLINIST-GENIUS

Evening Star, Issue 23525, 14 March 1940, Page 17

BOY VIOLINIST-GENIUS

ALAN LOVEDAY OF NEW ZEALAND [From Ooe Correspondent] LONDON, February 21. Exceptional tribute is paid by the musical critic of the ‘ Bognor Observer ’ of February 17 to the violin playing of the 11-year-old New Zealand boy Alan Loveday at a concert given by the Bognor Symphony Orchestra. Bognor, as no doubt many New Zealanders well know, is a leading seaside resort in the South of England. The newspaper states the concert “was a triumph for the Bognor Symphony Orchestra, and a tremendous personal one for Alan Loveday, the 11-year-old violinist from New Zealand. Alan Loveday is what we would have referred to in Edwardian days as an infant prodigy, but in these days as a youthful genius; and this is. no overstatement. He played the concerto andante and finale from Mendelssohn in the first half of the programme. and in the .second half, the ‘ Aus Wien ’ (Kreisler), Bazzini’s 1 Dance of the Goblins,’ and he played them without flaw or blemish—-from memory. He gave two encores'in the second part of the programme—the ‘ Mazurka de Concert,’ by Musin, and a medley of _ jigs and hornpipes arranged by himself. The enthusiasm of his audience has seldom been" seen in Bognor. The ' audience felt that they had been listening to one of the world’s leading violinists, and showed their enthusiasm accordingly.” In a letter to the High Commissioner, Mr W. J. Jordan, a musician of high standing who was present at. the concert, said: “ His playing .was marvellous. You could have , heard a pin drop, and when he had finished; boxes, stalls, pit, and gallery shouted and yelled the like I have never heard. The next day I met some professional and amateur musical performers, and they said it was almost uncanny, and no one, unless they had heard him and had seen him play, would have believed it was a boy of only 11 years. Albert Sammons, the great English violinist, is teaching him. and thinks much of him. He is a fine sturdy lad, a real boy. Dr Gray read out the telegram of good wishes from the High Commissioner to the boy at the concert amid loud cheers. I believe he will become the greatest violinist of the age.”