MISCHA LEVITZKI (1898 - 1941)

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 82, 17 January 1941, Page 17

MISCHA LEVITZKI (1898 - 1941)

A New Zealand Memory

O be able to combine the perfect technique of the experienced genius with the fire of enthusiastic youth was the happy distinction of Mischa Levitzki, who died of heart failure recently in New York, at the early age of 42. When Levitzki first electrified New Zealand audiences in 1921, he was in his ,early ‘twenties, and his interpretative "gifts seemed so remarkable that they recalled the stories we read of the pre-

cocity of Handel, Mozart, and other masters, and the miraculous results which they obtained from the spinets and harpsichords of their day. Ten years later, he again toured the Dominion, delighting former admirers, and gaining many new ones among younger New Zealanders who were arriving at an age when they could appreciate good piano music brilliantly played. In the course of this tour, Levitzki was given a reception by the Auckland Piano Students’ Association. At this function he was much taken by a song "Eily Aroon," composed by Mary Brett, of Auckland, and sung by Molly Atkinson. He made inquiries about it, and asked to meet the composer. In due course, composer and vocalist went to Hotel Cargen, where Miss Brett was delighted to hear Levitzki play her song from memory. After hearing "Eily Aroon" sung a second time, Levitzki undertook to bring it under the notice of his own publishers, Messrs. Schirmer, of New York, who later accepted and pub-

lished it. So a then little known Auckland composer was introduced to a vast circle of vocalists, including some of the world’s famous artists. Levitzki started to play when he was a mere infant. There was a time in his childhood when he could, in fact, hardly be driven from the keyboard, and his parents, as a result, were greatly worried

about his health. Of course, there came a period when he preferred playing baseball to piano practice, but after a short spell the old passion came back, and he was willing and glad to put in the long hours without which it is impossible to achieve supremacy. Levitzki was, however, spared the confusion of many teachers. Going from one teacher to another in the hope of finding some magical method is a frightful waste of time. His last and greatest teacher was Ernst Dohnanyi, the famous Hungarian, and Wellington readers will be interested to know that during Levitzki’s three years under that master a fellow pupil was Gordon Short.-B.W.