THE BACKHAUS CONCERT

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12528, 18 August 1926, Page 3

THE BACKHAUS CONCERT

MASTER OF THE PIANO A’RECEPTION THAT IS CONVINCING. There is one thing- notable about great pianists. They grip you at the first moment of hearing. You may have formed theories about their methods of getting to their objectives. You may have plumbed the depth between the imaginative and the sympathetic. You may have run through the whole gamut of the criticism that ranges from the highbrow above to the jazz below. But the pianist who is really great leaves all these things behind when he strikes the piano for the first time before you. All theories slip out of the way. All idea of placing your performer in some watertight compartment of practical genius vanishes. The real master grips you. He carries you away on the stream of music, which, seems of bis owh creation. You go with him in intensest pleasure. Where he leads you follow, ana if any sense of superiority- of criticism remains it lies under the feet of the enthusiasm that has taken possession of your soul. For you this master is for the time the only master. Everything said by the critics of tho Highbrow and the Lowbrow —if there, be such thing—vanishes, extinguished by your irresistible absorption in the admiration for the master playing with tho keys of great music before you. Such is the effect on the average mind of the of Herr Backhaus. Turning your back on all theories, all more or loss artificial, because they are attempts to explain Nature according to some human preconception on lines largely fantistic. In Herr Backliaus’s case this is what happened last night at the Town Hall. He gripped the great audience whioh acknowledged itself held. The acknowledgment was even enthusiastic. Tho first condition of the test of greatness was complied with in the highest degree. There may be a reason beyond what has been here said. The Herr stands by the older masters—the interpreters of what has gone before and what is now and what we hope may he despite the apostles of discord, who are tire new school of music, which calls itself scienThe master gripped us at the outset with Beethoven—an excernt from the gigantic “Appassionato.” Glorious phrasing, liquid clearness of subordinate vantion, passion, power, delicacy of the lightest—these held us spellbound. A bracket of four (Schumann’s) followed,

with the calm of a balruy evening, the soaring of poetic inspiration, the tumultuous, insistent “Why and the delightful dream vision. After this th« “Scherzo”—the most intricate rapid number from “The Midsummer Night'* Dream.” And this took us towards the climax of delighted amazement which, came with Brhams’s extraordinary variations—impossible to most pianists—on Paganini’s great “Capriccio.” The rest of the evening wao devoted to Chopin—four of the best of that wayward, passionate genius, sweeping us away with their masteries of tender sentiment and violent- storm, closing with the wonderful martial “A fiat Polonaise/’ with its riot of patriotic enthusiasm and technical almost unimaginable. Throughout the audience listened with something like awe. and when rtjfot the chance burst forth in unbouffaed applause. And this the master acknowledged generously with fresh fepts of his mastery—apparently inexhaustible as well as marvellous. TO-NIGHT’S PROGRAMME Mr E. J. Gravestock announces that the second Backhaus concert vill take place to-night in the Town w>*n another splendid programme will lie given, including the Bach “Chromatic Fantasic and Fugue,” Chopin*» “Funeral March” Sonata; Impromptu opus 142, No. 3, in B flat major; Fourth Sonata in F sharp major, by Sctfiabine: a group of Chopin pieces, including three studies from opus 25: Nocturne fn D flat major; Waltz opus 64, No. 1. it D flat major; and Waltz opus 34, Na. I. in A flat major; Bohemian Dance (fiftiifetannl; Serenade from “Don Juan” (Mozart': “Liebestraum,” “WaidesrauschfiD*” and the “Sceond Hungarian RliapaoGy”—all by The third and final recital will be given on Friday evening. As Mr Backliaus’s stay in New Zealand 1r» fully booked, Mr Gravestock states t&st there is no possibility of tho distinguished pianist giving any extra concerts in Wellington The box plans a*« at the Bristol, and the day sales at tk© Grand Opera House confectionery store. The magnificent Bteinwav Concert Grand Piano used by Backhaus is accompanying him throughout his New Zealand TAror and is a specially manufactured instrument supolied by Messrs Steinway agtd Sons, of London, for whom The Bristol Piano Co., Ltd., are the Sole Agent*. *