Brief Visit by 'Cello Virtuoso

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 776, 4 June 1954, Page 19

Brief Visit by 'Cello Virtuoso

[:DMUND KURTZ. once said that the *cello is only musical instrument tone ig literally perfect for radio and recorded transmission, and that for this reason he had seen it graduate in his‘ lifetime "from a musical Cinderella to a ‘wirtuoso instrument." Kurtz first visited New Zealand when he was a young man in 1936, as a member of the Spivakovsky-Kurtz Trio, and he was recognised then as the greatest ’cellist to come to this country. Now, at 45, he has reached the peak of his mastery of the instrument, and this weekend and next week he is giving four broadcast recitals from the studios of 1YC while he is passing through Auckland. The recitals, in which he will be accompanied at the piano by Dorothy Davies, will also be relayed by wide band line from 2YC, 3YC and 4YC. The first broadcast will be at 8.0 p.m. this Friday, June 4, and the others at 8.0 p.m. this Sunday, June 6, at 7.15 p.m. on Tuesday, June 8, and at 7.15 p.m. on Thursday, June 10. Edmund Kurtz has had a cosmopolitan career. He was born in Leningrad, studied in Berlin, Budapest and Paris (where he was a pupil of Pablo Casals),

and gave his first public recital in Rome at the age of 13. When he was 20, Pavlova heard him play and was so impressed that she bought up all his contracts so that he could play Saint-Saens’ The Swan for her on tour; He toured with Pavlova for two and a half years until her death in 1931. (He will play The Swan here, incidentally, in his fourth recital on Thursday, June 10.) His tours with the Spivakovsky brothers, Jascha, the pianist, and Tossy, the violinist, began in Berlin in 1932, and continued through most of the countries of Europe, where the combination was called "the perfect musical trio." The trio visited Australia a number of times, and during this period Kurtz married a Melbourne girl. Some time after their New Zealand tour the trio broke up, and Edmund Kurtz made his American debut as a cellist in 1944, in a performance of Dvorak’s Concerto with Toscanini conducting. Shortly afterwards he settled in America, and he now lives in Connecticut. In 1948 he again attracted attention by giving the first American performance of Khachaturian’s ’Cello Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1952 he made his debut in Britain with a performance of Dvorak’s Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He also gave a repeat performance in America that year of the Khachaturian Concerto with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, which is conducted by his elder brother Efrem. A third brother, Arved, is head of the New York College of Music. The programmes of Edmund Kurtz’s recitals from the YC stations are more than usually interesting. On Sunday he will play Bach’s Suite in C Minor, No. 5, a Beethoven Sonatina, Delius’s Elegie, and Saint-Saens’ Allegro Appassionata. On Tuesday he will play Song of the Black Swan, by Villa-Lobos, and Tarantella, Op. 43, by Piatti, as well as works by Handel, Pergolesi, Boccherini and Dvorak. On Thursday he _ will : play Hindemith’s Solo Sonata, Op. 25, No. 3, Kabalevsky’s Concerto, Op. 49, as well as works by Graziolo, Cui, Fauré, and The Swan, by Saint-Saens. —