VISITING ARTISTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22329, 1 August 1934, Page 5

VISITING ARTISTS

A CONTRAST IN PERSONALITIES AN INTERVIEWER’S EXPERIENCE

Artists arc always unusual people. Even an Anglo-Saxon artist, despite the racial stolidity of temperament, is a man apart from the ordinary. And when it comes to a Continental artist, he is an unusual man indeed. The interviewer who goes in search of a “story” from such a one is treading on uncertain ground. His reception is bound to be courteous, but beyond that he is assured of nothing. The visitor may scarcely be able to express himself in English; his interest may be restricted to his own particular sphere, and his attitude to Hie in general may be decidedly unconventional. At least the interviewer’s experience is not likely to be dull. But it is rarely that he meets two such charming artists and two presenting such contrasts in character as Senia Chiostakoff and Paul Vinogradoff, Russian tenor and pianist respectively, who are now in Dunedin.

Yesterday morning, when the Daily Times representative entered the room whefe his interview with the two was to take place, Vinogradoff was already there. A minute later Chiostakoff came through the doorway, and then an absorbing conversation began. Both men were artists in the true sense of the word, but the contrast was marked. Vinogradoff was quiet, smiling, physically solid; Chiostakoff quick, ready with eloquent gestures to help him out when unfamiliar English words failed Him, now quiet, then raising his voice in the excitement of the mood. And what experiences they had had, and how differently they told of them! With changing expression, Chiostakoff related the story of his life with the Cossacks in the Russian revolution and with the Don Cossacks’ choir in the years that followed. The smile never left the face of Vinogradoff, his voice scarcely altered its pitch as he spoke of the days when, in the Japanese earthquake of 1923, he lost “ all but his hands.” At times the singer’s vehemence became amusing- His reminiscences of the Russian revolution provoked a question whether he had ever mot Kerensky, the man who led the Provisional Government in 1017 and who at one stage held the fate of Russia in his hah Is. With a shrug of his shoulders Chiostakoff replied that he had. Evidently Kerensky was no favourite with the exOossack. Later he referred to his encounter with the former Premier in

Prague with considerable vehemence of voice and gesture. A number of the Russian exiles in Prague, he explained, had debated whether or not they should kill Kerensky in revenge for grievances real or imaginary. “ And why did they not?” he asked, gesturing vigorously. “ I tell you. Because he nothing, nothing, nothing.” The interviewer made no further reference to Kerensky. The singer left the room for a few minutes to speak to an admirer outside, and Vinogradoff took up the story. H° was in a tramcar in Yokohama when the earthquake which almost wrecked that city in 1923 occurred. The circumstances were exciting enough, but the pianist never raised his voice. In placid tones with a calm smile he told how tm jumped out of the tram before disaster overtook it, and made his way through tumbling buildings, with death on eveiy hand, to the seashore, where he had to climb down a rope, hand over hand, to reach safety. And VinograudofTs goodhumoured expression never varied as he concluded with a description of how re reached Kobe along with other refugees, clad only “in what you call it? —>1 kimono.”

Chiostakoff came back to fell a story about his difficulties with the English language, and how after five days’ hard study—the time limit allowed him—lv; sang an English song for the manager of a Melbourne theatre. He laughed loudly as he recalled the manager's words at the conclusion, “ Your singing, it is wonderful, but your pronunciation—awful." The two men could probably have kept this sort of thing going for hours, but there is a limit to the time an inti rviewer may trespass on his subject's leisure, and reluctantly he took his leave of two such versatile artists.