NEW VIOLIN PRODIGY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20300, 6 July 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

NEW VIOLIN PRODIGY.

REMARKABLE BOY GENIUS.

HEARTY PRAISE IN BERLIN

EXPERIENCES AS A BABY

INCIDENT AT A CONCERT. A new genius has been bailed by a unanimo'is Merman verdict in the person of Jchudi Menuhin, who was aged twelve years last January says a correspondent iu Berlin The events which have led up to this estimate read like a fairy tale. A still very young and modest man relates I he and his wife, struggling students

at San Francisco, wrapped their baby in a big shawl one Sunday afternoon with an extra large bottle of milk, in hopes that he would keep quiet during !i concert.

There was nobody to leave the baby witii at home, and tho parents could afford no help. The father himself cannot play a note, and his wife very little, but they both loved music. Writers of romances are shamed and students of heredity bewildered by the result of that concert. Tho infant Jchudi. aged fourteen months, discarded his shawl and ignored his bottle, sitting bolt upright on his mother's l;nec, watching tho orchestra. It was conducted by Mr. Louis I'erMiiger, who is -veil remembered in Europo as Kapellmeister under Nikisch. At tho ago of three, Jeliudi Menuhin, a persistent attendant of thoso San Francisco Sunday afternoon concerts, demanded a violin liko Mr. Persinger'a. His parents did not dream of spending their hard-earned money on anything of the kind. They bought a toy fiddle instead, which squeaked horribly and was immediately smashed by its new owner. Lt was a kindly grandmother who scraped together tho dollars for a real first-sizo violin.

Einstein's Congratulations. Jcliudi was then four years old. Within two years Mr. I'ersinger declared him to bo miraculous. 'llio test, of tho world is now discovering the samo thing. At twelve tiiis small, fair-haired and still chubby boy has, so his severest critics say, " nothing moro to learn." "it is Dresden which has set tho seal on hepes already awakened in Merlin. Jcliudi Menuhin's playing of the tlireo great violin concertos of the three great B's was tbo challenge to German critics, an invasion of their own ground. After his rendering on one and the samo evening of tho Bath, Beethoven and Brahms Concertos with tho Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, tinder Bruno Walter, it was Einstein himself who came up and said, with tears in his eyes, " My dear little boy, it. is many years since I havn had the privilege of receiving a lesson such as you have taught mo to-night." A few nights later in Dresden, which is always deeply suspicious of taking any puo from Berlin, had suspended a performance at the State Opera House in order to judc l for itself. Mr. Menuhin, the boy's fuller, stated that ho felt the chill of cold hostility in the air. Not so Jeliudi, who is comnletelv unconscious of his surroundings. Tbo boy played, and the house stirred. The remarkable ovation that followed started spontaneously in the orchestra.

Home Life of a Genius. The Menuhins, father and mother, suspicious of American enthusiasm, aro relieved to know that those who urged them to believe in their son's greatness were right. All that other great violin virtuosi havo learned in years of training, the young Jcliudi seems to know by ills' illc-1. Tho peculiarly full rich tones ho produces may bo aided by tho magnificent Stradivarius, on which he plavs—the gift of an American admirer—but his teclniKjUO astonishes in tho samo degree as his emotional powers. It is ;; difficult task to ho parents of a genius in America. Mr. and Mrs. Menuhin relate talcs of efforts to escape publicity and bring their family up in pence and nil humility which illustrate tho Ycwildcringly composite spirit of that nation better than all travellers' reports. Emotional ladies who want to kiss the father of a genius alternate with millionaires who cannot understand people who refuse £IOOO to let their hoy pfay at a party in a private house. Jcliudi is fortunate in his father and mother, at first unbelieving, and now conscious guardians, cherishinc something precious placed in their charge.

No young prince has a moro carefully drawn <1 p plan of lessons and games than (his boy, who has never been to school, but shares a number of private teachers with his little sisters. For, to add to their burden, there is evidence of more talent in the family. Hophzibab, aged eight, chubby, dimpled and bobbed haired —tho children look oddly Herman—displays trifis fnr the piano which aro being carefully restrained. "We keel) her back." says tho father firmly. "Wo do nil wo can to promote games and healthy exercise. Onr oilier little girl has the samo craving to plav." Interest in Politics The firm belief of the Mennliin parents and teachers in fostering a musical education by means of first-class gramophone records will interest many normal families. They have strictly refused to let tho boy accept engagements for a period over two months every year After these German appearances the boy will plav onco in Paris and then study until he plays in London at the Albert Hall in November.

Jehudi reads all the '' T/beral " periodicals his fa'her will let. him havo: ho is an ardent champion of the oppressed, 110 has never owned a pennv of his own as pocket money but he asks for money to give away. He is fond of mathoii Vjcs arid good at languages. He not like the cinema, but he loves Charlie Chaplin in nerson. He is a perfectlv healthy little boy, with a fondness for bis dinner and a passion for ice cream sodas. He practises onlv two hours a dnv, because his teachers have discovered (hat he plays much belter after reading a fine poem or a movinrr story than if he had had hours of prael ico. Pressed to explain the bov if thev can. the parents say thev beb'ev,-. that the religions fervour of Ins ernmlfather, a rabbi •of the sl'iel rhass'dic sect—his Parents wen) to San Francisco from Pale c (in< l — havo been transmitted into musical genius in this, his descendant.