BENNO MOISEIWITSCH

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 384, 19 June 1928, Page 15

BENNO MOISEIWITSCH

FIRST CONCERT TO-NIGHT Messrs. J. and N. Tait are presenting in a programme that will amaze, Benno Moisiewitsch, the brilliant Russian pianist, whose art is world-wide in its vividness, and Benno Moiseiwitsch has superb technical skill, ramarkable interpretive power. He leads his hearers in a whirlwind of notes, or gently conducts them into a fairyland where tinkling symbols titillate ehe ear. He is, in short, a master pianist who has a stupendous repertoire, keen intellect, feeling and sympathy, a beautiful touch, and is. a deep lover of the classics. He also is a romantic player and he attaches importance to .the moderns. Among his more recent acquisitions are two descriptive works by the American, Chesine, who musically records “Rush Hour in HongKong,” and “Flirtations in a Chinese Garden,” both of which Moiseiwitsch interprets with a full knowledge of local colour. To-night’s programme embraces the “Tannhauser” overture, reckoned to be the most difficult piece in all pianoforte literature. Beethoven’s “Sonata Appassionata” is played by Moisei-

witsch with brilliancy; he weaves a gorgeous picture with his nimble fingers. The movements of butterfly wings in ever-changing succession are suggested by Stravinsky’s “Etude in F Sharp.” Moiseiwitsch plays with exquisite grace the Chopin “G Flat Valse”; he plays Debussy’s “La Cathedrale Engloutie” with great imagination, unveiling the mystery of the sunken cathedral. Palmgren’s “Refrain de Berceau” is set down for expression, a languid rhythm, played with a wonderful cantando touch; also Moskowsky’s “La Jongleuse,” Chopin’s “A Flat Major Ballade,” and “F Sharp Major Nocturne”; Scriabine’s nocturne for the left hand (exquisitely beautiful), and Schubert's “Impromptu in A Flat,” a remarkable array. The box plans (for reserved seats at 7s 6d) are at Lewis Eady, Ltd. May McAvoy and Conrad Nagel in a gay satire on modern marriage are certainly interesting people. The story makes excellent comedy. Cynthia is the eldest of three sisters, and the father of the bunch has decreed that the younger ones shall not marry until Cynthia is off the hooks. Goaded by the nagging of her sisters, Cynthia at last pretends that she has married one, “Major Smith,” of Nicaragua, who has gone off to join his regiment. Then she really falls in love with another young man, and has to get rid of her phantom husband, so anounces his death in a Nicaraguan hospital through the Press. Curiously enough, there is a Major Smith there, and after being chivvied about the newspaper paragraphs, he resolves to find his “widow,” does so, and falls in love with her at once, and so poor Cynthia is forced to marry her husband, which is too bad.