HE LEARNS FROM HIS PUPILS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 726, 12 June 1953, Page 6

HE LEARNS FROM HIS PUPILS

HE sslightly-built man who rose from the studio piano had all the modesty of one who could well afford to be modest. He had been playing a concert paraphrase by L. D. Austin of Poldini’s "The Dancing Doll," and he showed pleased surprise that his hearers had recognised it. After an early-morning tussle with the New Zealand customs, the distinguished Hun-garian-born pianist Louis Kentner had wasted little time in getting down ta work. He broke off, however, to adjust the photographer’s flash for him, and to speak to a representative of The Listener. One of his principal interests, he said, had always been the composer Franz Liszt, and it was true that he was one of the founders of the Liszt Society. "The purpose of the Society," he said, "is to make propaganda for Liszt’s music, which is too little-known in English-speaking countries. We have already published three volumes of otherwise unobtainable piano music, some of which has never been published before. Since the war, of course, it has been most difficult to obtain much of the manuscript music Liszt left behind. It is mostly in Weimar, which is in the Russian Zone. Our secretary did penetrate there once, and he came out with one very interesting work-a piano con-?

certo version of a known work for two pianos." Some of Liszt’s later piano works had _.mot been published because the composer never intended to publish them, -said Mr. Kentner. "But they would -probably interest people today. They ‘were very personal and very strange. They looked very far into the future. Liszt and Berlioz were the revolutionaries of that day, much more so than Wagner or Chopin. Liszt was essentially @ modern composer. Bartok has acknowledged his debt to him." The final remark was probably the best tribute Louis Kentner could bestow. He regards Bartok as the last great-composer for the piano. Among the Liszt works which had been brought to light, Mr. Kentner named a Fantasie on Verdi's littleknown opera Simon Boccanegra, and Harmonies Poétiques et Réligieuses, which he himself had performed for age BBC. Though most of his time is taken up by public performances, .Mr. Kentner still gives a few lessons. The Wellington pianist Ida Carless, who studied under Kentner in London, will be having some lessons while he is here. "I teach mainly for the purpose of learning from my pupils," he said. "I. _ only hope they don’t get wise to my designs and dismiss me one day, saying ‘We can teach you no more.’" On his way to New Zealand the pianist performed in Ceylon, Malaya and Hong Kong. In the last two places | he found his audiences were at least 50 per cent Chinese, the rest European. There were no Malays. "I was | surprised," he said, "at the passionate interest the ChineSe take in Western music. They were mostly young, | and very earnest. Many of them sat with scores and followed the music as | it was played. Considering the immense

difference between their music and ours, the interest was amazing." "In'..New Zealand," said Mr. Kentner, "I shall play a lot of Liszt and Chopin, and several of the big Beethoven sonatas. It is all music that I love and have played all my life. Of course, I have played under Warwick Braithwaite before — many times-and I am_ logking forward-to doing so again." Before leaving, The Listener could not refrain from mentioning a Kentner performance that ‘has been heard many, many times in New Zealand-the Warsaw Concerto. "Yes, I must confess to that," smiled Mr. Kentner. "It was one of the worstkept secrets of the war. I am still trying to live it down."