A LONELY FIGURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3899, 4 December 1928, Page 23

A LONELY FIGURE.

SHURA CHERKASSKY. YOUNG PIANIST COMPLAINS. SYDNEY, November 21. One of the most remarkable artists to visit Australia in recent years is the young Polish pianist, Shura Cherkassky, who plays like a matured artist, but protests that apart from his music ne is just like other boys of 17 years of age. It is because he cannot convince others of the fact that he is but a boy he is distressed, and he presents a lonely figure. Because he plays Bach and Beethoven with understanding, young people are rather afraid of him, while old people hold the opinion that outside his music he must be young for his years. And so, while other boys keep away from him his elders are apt to be patronising, and he falls, as it were, between the two stools. “ What I do like,” he said in Melbourne, “is the company of young people, bright spirits and plenty of fun. But 1 fear that the young people think I am highbrow and conceited, while I Sm not a bit. I wish that they would make my acquaintance. I like Melbourne very much, but I must confess that I am very lonely. When I am left alone I often do not know what to do with myself. I want friends, but people who I am sure I would like do not come to meet me, and I am left a stranger in a strange city. I know there are people who think that because I play the piano I do nothing else. Well, let me tell them that jazz is my recreation. When 1 go to Paris I will study dancing besides music and the French language. I dance fairly well now, but I want to become an expert dancer. I love dancing, and I like to get partners, and so I think it is a shame that I do not know any.” The young pianist, who likes surfing, gravely pointed out that recreation helped to give him new ideas and made his playing fresher than ever. This youth does not know when lie began to play the piano. But his mother told him that he could strike out a melody at the age of one. When he was two it was discovered that he had a pitch. If he heard a motor horn in the street he would go inside and strike the note of the horn on the piano. His mother has told him that when he did this she was so pleased that she burst into tears. His mother was a professor at the Odessa Conservatorium, and she taught Cherkassky all he knew until he began to learn from Josef Hofmann. He was brought up in an atmosphere of music, and when he was seven he could “ feel deeply for Chopin,” as he put it. He made his debut at Odessa when he was nine, and that was the only time he ever felt nervous when he faced an audience. This remarkable young man might be lonely, but his recitals are wonderfully successful.