THE FOREIGN CULT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 286, 31 October 1934, Page 3

THE FOREIGN CULT.

HOAX ON BRITISH MUSIC LOVERS.

When it comes to a fight, youi Englishman considers himself the equal of six foreigners, but in the spheres of music and art the entne British public suffers from an inherited inferiority complex (writes a Eondon commentator). And thereby hangs a tale. Sir Henry Wood, one of the greatest, and certainly the most popular, orchestral conductor in England today, has been pulljng the leg of the public for five years He is the author of a hoax which took m the professional critics as easily as it deceived the ordinary concert-goer, and London is still laughing over it. Displeased by the carping reception given to British composers and musicians, and realising that a name ending m “oski” or something similar was almost invariably associated with genius, he invented the now-notorious “Paul’Klenovsky.” , „ In October, 1929, at a Queen s Hall concert, there was performed Bach’s organ toccata and fugue in D minor, transcribed for full orchestra by “Paul Klenovsky,” a young man understood to have lived in Moscow. The work was rapturously received, and people inundated Sir Henry with requests to play it again and again. Then, unfortunately, the young genius died, “robbing the world of music of a master.” But who was he? Sir Henry Wood himself did not seem to know much about him. He contented himself by noting on his programmes that: “It is a great pity this young man died. His transcription shows the hand of a master in every bar.” Only the other day was it revealed that Sir Henry and the lamented “Paul Klenovsky” were identical persons,. and that the joke had been, on the great British public for five sidesplitting years. What the critics think of it can be left to the imagination, for they, rather than the uninformed public, were the true victims of the jest. Possibly, in future, they will be more inclined to judge music on its merits —even British music—and attach less importance to “foreign genius.” Who knows? Meanwhile “Paul Klenovsky” joins Mrs .Harris in the immortal company of the might-have-beens, though Sir Henry Wood tells us to expect further productions from his “second self.” He still feels the English consider that “art,” when it comes from abroad, is much more to be appreciated than when it is pronounced the work of a mere Britisher.