In the Manner Born

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 341, 4 January 1946, Page 10

In the Manner Born

LP thg often 1YA brings children to the studio to play the piano during the Children’s Hour. With mixed results, of course. Their usual failing is nervousness, which leads them to rush loudly into their pieces and get them over as quickly as possible. One had to use imagination to find any enjoyment in it -to see beyond the actual performance and picture the child playing the same piece quite well by himself at home, not quite so well to his music teacher, a little worse at the annual pupils’ recital, and in a most disappointing fashion when faced with the horrid fact of the microphone. It’s a common enough failing, and age does not necessarily bring any improvement. On a recent afternoon a girl called Wendy played in this session. It was her ninth birthday, we were told. The playing was good, though not prodigiously advanced for nine. What was remarkable was that she played as if she had been born in a broadcasting

studio. One felt that her very best effort of private interpretation was being delivered intact and unwavering to her public. The result was extraordinarily restful to the listener. When a child has this gift, which many older people have never acquired, one hopes that she will put plenty of energy into all the other things that have to be learned about playing the piano, and that she will play music that is worth her effort.