THE MAKING OF AN ORGANIST

Radio Record, 24 June 1938, Page 13

THE MAKING OF AN ORGANIST

Renee Nizan Tells How She Became An Organist,

by

EMILE

T° bring things ta_life is the gift of the ar It is what lies behind all that he does, in music, sculpture, writing, painting. Renee Nizen, young French organist, broadcasting for the NBS in her New Zealand tour, has brought organs in this country to life in a manner that has amazed the critics and revealed unsuspected qualities in the instruments.

HE charming young lady from Paris who sat on the piano stool by the radiator in a Wellington home gave me a picture in a few vivid words of broken English. Te weoe SMiffenlt «a

Waasowweow imagine that in her small, slim figure there were powers that had won praise for her all over the world as one of the foremost living organists. Even more pleasing was it to find that one could be a foremost living organist and not have shaggy hair and a pale-dead complexion... but that one could have waved hair, thin-lined eyebrows, colour in the cheeks and a manner at once candid and earnest, yet by no means that of the "blue-stocking." Her Proud Position At times she became iutensely serious, when she spoke in this unfamiliar English tongue of her work, and one could glimpse beneath the manner of the young girl, a little of some indomitable quality of character that had given Mademoiselle Renee Nizan such a proud position in the modern world of music. One saw a flash of that spirit which said, inside her. to every difficulty that she met in her ambition. "I can." And, quite evidently, every time she said "I can," she ultimately did. . THIS was the picture she gave me... : Her father was organist in the church of Notre Dame de Boulogne, on the outskirts of Paris. From the age of four or five years, she had begun to play the piano. "Then, at the age of 18 years and six months," said Mile. Nizan, "my father put me at the organ. I was very short, even smaller then than I am now. He showed me the pedals.

"Do this," he said, "and this... ." "THLE gave me a Fugue of Bach. "You can play it on the piano,’ he said, ‘so you can do it on the organ.’ "‘VYou cam do it

if you want to. If you caw’t do it, you don’t want to.’ Though she had to sit right on the edge of the seat und had the greatest difficulty in keeping her equilibrium, the thirteen-year-old girl did it. One year later, she was giving her first organ recital at the Salle Gaveau in Paris. At fifteen she was giving 4 recital on the organ of La Madeleine Church and soon she was giving many recitals in the concert hall of Paris, the Trocadero. She played with the Symphony Orchestra of Paris. Ahead of her in the future lay tours of America and Canada, performances in London, and’ a world tour in 1938 that would include New Zealand, where she would broadcast some of her recitals for the NBS. ; Still The Youngest T the age of 14 she was the youngest woman organist of rank in the world. To-day she is still the youngest "Some day," she said smilingly last week, "I shall nof be the youngest." HEN her father saw that the 14-year-old girl had it in her to become a famous organist, he took her away from school. "LT stop Iinglish," said Mademoiselle. "I don’t make any more English." ; She stayed at home to practise the organ, and a tutor came to her. She practised seven to eight hours a day. "On the organ.of the church?" "No. At home. My father has two organs and five pianos. {Continued on page 38.)

Making An Organist IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING

(Continued from page 13.) "Tt is important," he thinks, to practise at organ music when you are young. When you are young it is nothing to train the fingers to keep supple. It is like an acrobat, trained from youth. If he is young he can learn to be supple, if he is old, it is impossible. "My father thinks it is better te get the fingers good so he takes me away from school. It is never too late for the mind to learn, but it may be for the body. "ANY people say to me, is it not tiring to play the organ, but I am not tiring. . Only sometimes in the mind I am tired, with concentration. . "With the organ you do..not have touch, as with the piano. The organ speaks or it does not speak. The note is short or Iong. I am never tired in the body, justin the mind-sometimes, when I concentrate to make the public think as I am thinking. __ "That is what you must do to keep the public with you. You’ must maké them think what you do. "QOMETIMES someone plays to ™ people and they say: ‘That is interesting,’ and they think, ‘Oh, I forgot to telephone to so and so.’ Then they say, ‘Oh, there is ‘the music again," and: afterwards’ they think, ‘Yes, to-morrow I must go’ and see so and so" There is something lacking in the playing. so . ’. "When you play, you should keep the people with you all the time, and to do that you must think. "That is why it is more tiring for me to play for the radio than for the people in a concert hall. — "In radio XY do not feel whether _ they are with me or not. It is more difficult to try to make them follow me." oo. ; I ASKED her why'a woman could rank with the world’s best men organists, and yet no woman could rank with the world’s best pianists. She laughed. 7 f "Perhaps I am ranked with them," she said,."because there is no other lady?"’..-. + . ‘ . This, I pointed out,. seemed an in-adequate-answer. -.. . "But it is not modest of.me to say why," she said. "Oh, then, perhaps it is because I play more strong. A } girl must not be weak or feminine.in music, only in the soft passages. She’ must:be masculine in her music. My father says, ‘You are small, but you must not be frail,’ and I thought, muybe I am small but I ean be strong. Look !" She stretched out a slender white arm in which the sinews were taut and decisive. "The sinews are like bone," she said. ON some of the old organs of France she found it hard to get the notes to speak. In some of the old churches, the organists would tell her they were afraid she would not be able to play on the great organ hecause one of the three manuals were too hard. "T ean," said Mademoiselle, always. And she did.