WORLD-FAMOUS ARTISTS

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1931, Page 5

WORLD-FAMOUS ARTISTS

HUGE FEES FOR CONCERTS. WONDERFUL BOY VIOLINISTS. •Many, of the world-famous artists whom Mr. Hugo Larsen has met in various parts of the world were discussed by the Australian entrepreneur, who has arrived in Auckland to make arrangements for the forthcoming Peter DawsonMark Hambourg season. “I consider that Martinelli is the logical successor to Caruso,” said Mr. Larsen. “The Americans call him the ‘Millionaire Tenor.’ I have seen him sign a contract which has brought him i&QjOOO. He is engaged for life’ by the New York Metropolitan Opera House, and each year, when his season of seven months is concluded, he has the choice of many contracts for concert tours. Another high-paid artist is the conductor of the Philadelphia Symphony Opchestra, Stokowski, who receives £14,000 a year, with a gratuity of £2OOO a year from the Chamber of Commerce. “The highest-paid artist in the world, however, is not a man, but a"boy, Yehudi Menuhin, violinist. In my opinion he is equal to Kreisler and Heifetz combined. I heard him play in Paris to a house worth nearly 250,000 francs. His father will not let him play for less than £lOOO a epneort and invariably he receives more. In a letter to me his father said he permitted Yehudi to give only-25 concerts a year. I have made overtures for a tour of Australia and New Zealand, but the boy is booked up to the end of 1933. He may consider a tour of this part of the world in 1934. “There is a child violinist, Ruggieri Ricci, aged 9 years, who promises to be even greater than Menuhin. He was born in the poorest quarter of San Francisco and ‘discovered’ and adopted by Louis Persinger, who taught Menuhin. I have seen Ricci playing with his toys half an hour before appearing with one of America’s greatest orchestras. He had not a care in the world, and nervousness seemed unknown to him,” Mr. Larsen said he considered that Pablo Casals was the greatest musician in the world. Hp had already returned to the platform as the result of the unrest in Spain, Cortot is classed by Mr. Larsen as one of the greatest pianists in the world today, while the best of the younger, school, he says, is Vladimir Horowitz, who recently signed a contract for 80 concerts, some at £4OO each, Another promising young man is Jose Itijrbi, a Spaniard, who was overlooked until he wont to the United States.

In conclusion, Mr. Larsen said that it seemed to him that the day of oneartist concert programmes was passing and the public was entitled to better value for its money than it had been receiving in the past few years. In his opinion, the attentuated one-man programmes of the last few years had tended to drive people away from the concert hall, and it was his desire to break away from the one-artist tradition.