EMINENT PIANIST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26770, 13 May 1948, Page 8

EMINENT PIANIST

BENNO MOISEIWITSCH ENCOUNTER WITH LOCAL PHENOMENON Musically speaking, Mr Benno Moiseiwitch could hardly have had a more startling reintroduction to Dunedin than that which greeted him on his arrival at the City Hotel yesterday afternoon. It happened to coincide with a visit from the surviving stalwarts of the Capping Band, and Mr Moiseiwitsch was still pondering this phenomenon when a Daily Times reporter called on him later in the evening and reassured him that the city on the morrow would be its customary placid self. . ~ This is the noted pianist’s fifth visit to New Zealand, so that he is no stranger to the country. In view of the comparatively brief period which has elapsed since the end of the war, a South African tour and a transAmerican tour just completed would appear to constitute a more, than adequate coverage of territory, but Mr Moiseiwitsch's cosmopolitan pre-war life would doubtless make the thousands of miles he has travelled in the past two years seem modest by comparison. Born at Odessa, he has been a British subject since 1937. At the age of nine he was awarded the coveted Rubinstein Prize at the Imperial Musical Academy of Russia, and a feuyears later he went to Vienna to study under the eminent teacher, Leschelizky, who was also the teacher of Paderewski. Mr Moiseiwitsch’s work on the concert platforms of Britain during the war was recognised by the award of the C.B.E. Listeners Deceived

, The New Zealand broadcasting service had incurred the wrath of Mr Moiseiwitsch during his.stay in Christchurch, for he had discovered that a programme of his records had been broadcast without the' listeners being told that they were, merely recordings. “It was very misleading, ’ he said. “The public know that I am in the country, and if I were one of the listeners I would resent the deception.” He regarded any form of broadcasting monopoly with suspicion, and he did not see that a public which had no opportunity to state its preferences was receiving anything like value for the annual fee. Bits and pieces of “church services, then children’s education, then a jumble of recordings ” seemed to have little obvious appeal. , .. «What do they do with all the money they receive from fees? ” he asked. “ They want visiting musicians to play for pennies. Now you as a shareholder in the service should inquire how the revenue is spent.” Films, however, were a more remunerative. medium, agreed Mr Moiseiwitsch, although he stressed the fact that he was certainly not advocating that financial considerations should influence art. So far, Mr Moiseiwitsch’s screen appearances have been limited to a British film entitled “The Battle for Music,” which was made during the war, but is only now to be released m New Zealand. Music in Films

“ I would not mind playing the music for films,” he said in reply to a question, “ but I would have to be absolutely satisfied with the script.”* -The majority of the films so far made which had purported to present the lives \of great composers had been musically satisfying, but were biographical travesties and he would not care to have any part in such productions. Some musicians, however, had made the most of Hollywood’s publicity and attractions —Jose Iturbi was the outstanding example. Iturbi had shown equal proficiency at “hoogiewoogie, boogie-boogie or whatever it is called" and had consequently attracted to his audiences people who would normally never dream of attending one of his recitals. Mr Moiseiwitsch said that he had kept an open mind on music but had found little virtue in most modern music. Stowkowski, Stravinsky, and other noted figures in the contemporary musical world who had expressed themselves as being in favour of modern music were, he felt, more interested in the publicity value of such statements. His encounter with the capping band and dissonances which Stravinsky would never have imagined did not appear to have given Mr Moiseiwitsch any cause to altey his opinions, but his search for an explanation of yesterday’s incident had at least provided corroboration for the explanation which had been given to him of another incident which had occurred during one of his recitals in Sydney some years ago. In the middle of the recital a group of men singing lustily had tramped through the doors, down the aisles, around the hall and out again. Subsequent inquiries had revealed that they were students in the midst of some seasonal revelry. It was, however, the sort of occurrence which lingered harassingly in the memory.