ZIMBALIST

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 43, 13 May 1927, Page 13

ZIMBALIST

EXTRAORDINARY POPULARITY “Two kinds of people who will not appreciate Zimbalist,” says an American exchange—“the tone-deaf and the stone-deaf.” Zimbalist’s extraordnary popularity in the United Sates, where he has resided for the last ten 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 phrase the maximum of meaning and beauty—within the limits imposed by the artist’s conception ot the whole work. Moreover, all his playing ' is inspired by a youthful, cheery optimism, which lends a new interest ta even the most hackneyed compositions, and immediately puts the violinist on the best of terms wijli his hearers. Zimbalist’s Auckland recitals will be given in the Town Hall on 17th, 19 th and 21st inst. They should provide a musical treat not to be missed by anyone.