Fabulous Child

New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 872, 20 April 1956, Page 20

Fabulous Child

N the first of a series of Mozart programmes conducted by Owen Jertsen on YC link, we began very’ properly with Koechel 1; Opus 1 to any other composer, but with Mozart, the initial K is the identifying symbol for his work. Mr. Jensen was, as always, lucid ‘and stimulating, and how admirable is his voice! Warm and intimate,, humorous and intelligent. He has some claims to being considered our best regular broadcaster. Walter Gieseking then played the five first compositions of the fabulous child in a simple direct way

that summoned irresistibly the image of the tiny, grave boy marking out the first steps of his amazing gift. Although naive, the compositions were stylistically perfect, though I could not help wondering whether this sense of style could be absorbed as readily in the mideighteenth century as, say, the principles of the combustion engine can be absorbed by a child now. In a musical household, a sense of style in a period when style was dominant would be part of the family tradition, and little Wolfgang would have absorbed it with his mother’s milk. But what am I saying? Am I trying to explain away this marvellous talent? One tries to find a reason for it, but there is none. Call it a gift from God, and we are in the proper dimension,