A NEW ZEALAND PIANIST

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2395, 26 February 1915, Page 3

A NEW ZEALAND PIANIST

MR. ARTHUR ALEXANDER. Arthur Alexander is a plain straightforward British name, and at a time like the present that should count for something with' the music-loving public. It is gratifying, too, to_ know that this brilliant pianist, who is giving a recital at the Concert Chamber on Tuesday evening next, is a New Zoalauder, w ' lo ® e training has been received almost wholly 1 in England. Almost wholly,- it is .remarked, for as a youngster Mr.' Alexander was taught '."{J®, five-finger exercise in Dunedin n.T Mrs. Blandford, and ■frhen he became a student at the Wellington _ College he placed himself under the tuition of Mr. Maughan Barnett. "I am afraid I was very-lazy, and Mr. Barnett used to get very exasperated lyith .me because • I would not work. For that reason more than any other," said Mr. Alexander, "I suppose I did not learn really very much- until I went to England. There I studied under Mr. Tobias Matthay, the most eminent teacher of the pianoforte in England. He, as a rule, only takes - a few pupils, and I was lucky enough to. be with him the whole time,and afterwards became one of his preparatory teachers. I went to_ London in 1907, and did not reach recital for® until 1912, when I gave a recital in the Aeolian Hall, and the papers were good enough to find some virtue in my t playing. I also played in Berlin and Vienna. Vienna —what a wonderful place 1 There everyone is saturated' with music, and everyone knows the classical repertoire as one does their ABC. You may meet a charwoman there who will talk quite intelligently about the Wagnerian operas. In that respect Vienna is ever so much ahead of Berlin. That city is, of course, a place where a large number of famous artists congregate, but its people are not nearly so musical as those of Vienna." '

Mr. ■ Alexander studied composition under Frederick Gorder, and has com-, posed a good deal, mostly for orchestra. Strangely enough he admits that he cannot compose for the piano. He has ■written for the organ, and Mr. Page is to play one of his compositions on Saturday evening. Speaking about the cffect of the war on music, Mr. Alexander stated that it meant that in England they were discovering that they have artists, hitherto unrecognised, who "were e/ery bit as good as the best of the foreigners'. It was the same with composers. England had many very gifted composers, but they were not encouraged —publishers would not look at theirstuff. And after all music must be published to become known. However fine a piece might be its performance once or twice at recitals was of little "use to the composer. He had taken manuscripts of English composers to Germany, and amazement had been expressed there at the quality of the music. To quote one or two; Mr. Alexander mentioned Dale and 'Arnold Bax. The works of the latter writer would, he felt sure, receivo due recognition in time—2o or 30 years' time. Bax was really an amazing man. Ho could memorise pages of a _book by reading it over once, and he did not_ think there was any good music ot meritorious book ever written that Bax did not know in'timatoly. His power of oyesight was positively uncanny. 'He could read an ordinary book at a distance of two _or three yards, and was a wonder at taking in minute details at a glance. On the top of these gifts he was a composer of whom the world would know of ■ before very long. Mr. Alexander regards Russia as the hope of the musical world. 'ITicrea composition of merit was published without difficulty. A millionaire timber merchant, M. P. Balaieff, had conceived the idea, that to get the music of tho Russian composers known, it must be published, and there was a committee of composers to whom any work could bo submitted, and if approved it was published by M, Balaieff. Mr. Alexander's programme is admirably arranged. It includes tho BacliBusoni "Chaconne," a Brahms "Rhapsody," Chopin's "Polonaise in A," a Prelude by Scriabine, and the first move: ment of Beethoven's "Emperor Concerto." There are also pieces in a lighten vein that display a versatility in taste.