Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-12-28
Maud Powell Given
Warm Greeting Here
Noted VioIinist Given Cordial
Appreciation by a Large
Crowd at Opera House

Maud Powell, laden with the high
| est honors of world-appreciation TO
! which musicians may aspire, made
her first appearance before a Homo
I lulu audience last night and found
here in the mid-Pacific warm appre-
citation also. The woman whose
achievements have won her the title
OF "tfie foremost American yielinist''
held the friendly interest and at times
the keen enthusiasm of an audience
that crowded the Hawaiian Opera
House to the doors and filled the gall
lery with people glad to find room
anywhere and at any price.
| Honolulu audiences are notably diff
ficnlt to please and Madame Powell
was received with a cordiality not oft
len seen here. Yet it cannot be said
that the people who heard this mis-
tress of the violin play last night
we're swept from their feet. Madame
Powell's musicianship is flawless, her
brilliancy of technique has never been
equalled here and there were NOM
ents when the divine fire touched
her and the violin became in her
hands almost as a living thing, a
| speaking thing. But there were NON.
ents also when many in the audience
| felt as IL she were driving forward
to her really splendid climaxes rath-
er by force OF will and ability than
by the stirring magic of inspiration
To one who harks back over several
years to another Maud Powell con-
cert, this great American violinist
seems q little weary, a little out OF
tune physically. For under ordinary
circumstances her sweep of genius
cannot be denied Maud Powell has
won her way to the front not only
because of her amazing technique but
because there. Is the brain to under
stand and the heart to vivify the H1u-
sic of the singing strings.
Through and through the concert
In which she appeared in a variety
Of numbers, there ran moments when
the sheer beauty of the theme or
the majesty of exalted thought told
by master musicians rose superb and
seemed to conquer this faint trace of
physical WEAKNESS. And these were
the moments when Maud Powell was
revealed In her true greatness to Ho-
nolulu.
Her methods are exceedingly simple
the simplicity of mastery. She has
refreshing absence of artificiality,
and yet occasionally she flashes to
the audience theatric gesture,
magnificent pose, wholly natural be-
cause II is wholly unconscious and
wholly drawn forth by the spirit of
her playing. In fact it was to be re-
GREETED last night that she did not
more often lose the musician in the
all-forgetting lover of music, in the
all-embracing fiood.tide of glorious
melody
Her stage settings were of the sim
plest. She had no footlights, only
the subdued wing and border-lights
being used. The artist herself wore
striking gown of scarlet, and oppo-
site her on the stage this same glow
ing color burned in the red pet
ais of a great poifsetta plant And
there was much of the outward en-
vironment characteristic of the offer
ings Of the violinist subdued at
times, even, almost colorless at
times, and again a moment later as
strikingly alive with color, as vivid
with the hue of hot life-blood, as the
brilliant stain of the poinsettia flower
against the dusKier background.
OF the numbers in which Madame
Powell appeared last night, the st.
Saens concerto, B minor, was the
most ambitious. The first movement
of this was not notable, except for
her mastery of technical detail. The
melodious andantino was exquisitely
sweet and pure and the finale strong
and stirring. ending with a dramatic
flourish that was magnificent The
next two numbers, beautiful aria
dating from 1000, and Pugnani-
kreisler's Praeludium s., Allegro,
served to show the artiste's versatile
ty- Then followed grouped series
with, however, no connection; includ-
ing an Hungarian dance, Beethoven's
familiar Minuett. the Schubert
Ave Maria and others of as
varied themes. And here again the
vielinist's Inspiration seemed to glow
brightly and grow dim by turns. The
dance, faultlessIy execut.
ed, was done with much grace and at
times the wild freedom of the music,
was reflected in the unconscious bodi-
y movements of the player Yes
there were times when listlessness
again seemed apparent. The Beetho-
ven minuet held rather more of whim-
steal playfulness than of stately dig
nifty, an Interpretation striking the
critic as unusual. The Ave Maria
was gentle and humble, rather than
appealing and strongly +
devotional.
In her final number Madame Powell ;
llayed 'Ziegeunerweisen' by Sara
,ate to one of the most pronounced
riumphs of the evening. She fol- |;
owed this with two of her Victor rec