SHURA CHERKASSKY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 454, 8 September 1928, Page 18

SHURA CHERKASSKY

THE WONDER BOY PIANIST So astounding are the talents of the young Russian boy pianist, Shura, Cherkassky, who is now touring this country, that many writers in America have expressed the opinion that he is a reincarnation of a former giant of the piano. . ~ He could play the piano well at seven years of age, and was appearing in public when he was nine. At 11 he had a repertoire of 200 works, comprising the great classics in pianoforte literature. To-day it numbers nearly 400. Theodore Stearns, the well-knovin American critic, wrote: “Theosophists might call this boy pianist the reincarnation of a Carl Tausig or a Franz Liszt. I call him the greatest child artist I ever met.” Another American critic, reviewing his performances of Chopin’s” Funeral March” Sonata, B Flat Minor, said: “As the sonata unfolded under Shura Cherkassy’s hands, there came a revelation —an inexplicable manifestation of musical feeling and understanding that proved sensational. Utterly unlooked for was the breadth and grasp of spirit, the subtle contrasting, the melodic leading, equally unforseen the superb conception of the Scherzo and the Marche Funebre, the refusal by the youngster to acknowledge applause between movements. Can this boy, then, be the ruling exception, really combining at his years intuitive musical ability, splendid training and an unspoiled nature? A discovered paragon of prodigies, if this be true.” Cherkassky undoubtedly rings sincere in his work. He effects no mannerisms, no acrobatics. He enters the stage for music, and not for by-play.