ZIMBALIST

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 38, 7 May 1927, Page 17

ZIMBALIST

MASTER VIOLINIST

“Two kinds of people will not appreciate Zimbalist,” says an American exchange, “the tone-deaf and the stonedeaf.” Zimbalist’s extraordinary popularity in the United States, where he has resided for the las tten years, is doubtless due principally to his mastery of every phase of violin playing; but some account must be taken of the charm of a personality which wins the hearts of his hearers almost before he has begun to play. On the platform Zimbalist is so obviously and naively anxious to interest his audience in the deeper meaning of the music which he is interpreting that he appears to treat the composer’s ornamentations and florid passages, even those of the most amazing technical difficulty, with something very much like contempt. As a technician he has had few equals in the history of the violin, but technique is with him merely a means to an end. He is always the serious musician, anxious to extract from every phase the maximum of meaning and beauty—within the limits imposed by the artist’s conception of the whole work. Moreover, all his playing is informed by a youthful, cheery optimism, which lends a new interest to even the most hackneyed compositions,, and immediately puts the violinist on the best of terms with his hearers. Zimbalist’s Auckland recitals will be given in the Town Hall on the 17th, 19th and 21st inst. They should provide a musical treat not to be missed by anyone.