Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-01-24
HEIFETZ TRIUMPHS
WITH THRILLING ART
Superb Young Russian Violin
list Makes Debut Here With
Damrosch Orchestra
RAPTURoUSLY RECEIVED
Tschaikowsky Concerto in d Reveals
Artists Beauty of Tone
and Sincerity

An extraordinarily artistic talent held
vast audience cnthralled in the Acad-
emy Of Music at the New York SYM
phony Orchestral concert yesterday
afternoon. Jascha Heifetz. heralded
throughout this season as the most re.
markablc Of contemporary yiolinists.
startled his hearers into recognition Of
the weakness Of hyperbole and of the
conqueriug sway Of truth.
This youthful Russian virtuoso has
been hailed as the most wondrous Of all
the cXponcnts Of his art. Whether this
is actually so is not easily determined.
Is any ones memory so eSqusitely ac-
curato that Il can perfectly compare
the merits Of Booths Hamlet with
Forbes-Gobertson's? Both were su-
premely eloquent in their particular
invoke the shades Of Sarasate, viii
helmj, Ole Bull Joachim, in rating
Jascha Hcifet2. That he is a master
violinist Of his generation, comparable
monstrably certain. Whether or not his
intellectual intcrpretative sense is as
keen as Eugene Nsayes could not be
discerned in the purely romantic selec'
tion--the Tschaikowsl,y concerto in D.
which was yesterdays offering.
The work invites rapturous beauty OF
! tone, demands magical lingering Is opu'
| lent with chances for displays of melt
/ ing loveliness in vein of sentiment, aud
/ to all these opportunities Mr. Tleifet2
| rose with calm assurance almost q.
astounding as his prndigies Of artistry
The flctional Trilby O'Farrcll disassoC!'
atted in temperament from the pearls oi
song. which the dominating SNengal
summoned from that nawless throat
! which he likened to "t..e dome of tht
Pantheon" furnished no more strikins
contract between artistic achievement
and apparent personality than did this
/ latest metcoric musical star yesterday.
Mr. IleifetZ'S manner was SO calm a
to be almost negative. The affirmation
was exclusively in his playing. Hi'
cantabile tones scared through the audi
torium with the radiance Of human note
from a diva. His muted effects had I'll,
! infntesimal fneness OF Cluny lace. Hi
! ~ pNIONtCllllltS were llOL IlltItlN SllONN hu
they revea'ed attributes of beauty TOT
often absent when the violin is eNhibitnl
, the spectacular side of its neCromancy
Not tricltery alone was evidenced in tn
I difficult ca6enza OF the first movement
, There. as throughout .uc concerto, tn
! ideal of beauty received moving cN
preston
1t was. however. notably in the poeti,
canzonctta. where TschaikowslSy's melo
die instincts are 80 touchlngly tender
t;iat the sheer sweetness of Heifet2 wa
most triumphantly manifested. Unshad
owed by sentlmentality--so commonly :
! weakness of Slavic violinists--were thes
melting strains. Mr.. HeifetZ on th
concert stage Is a boyish figure, but hi
artistic restraint suggests the veteran
virtuoso to whom experience has taugh
the folly of overemphasis and meretri
cious display.
The chronic statistlcian may know
how many times the star was recalled
10 the stage after tho conclusion Of th
concerto. The present writer lost count
Suffice it TO say that the tempest Of ap
plause was unstilled until Walter Dam
rosch rIised a restraining hand, smile
sympathetically at the fervent auditor
I and launched into a rhapsOdic readin
Of the Samson and Delilah" bacchanalC
which completed the program.
The concert had opened with Beetho
ven's Fifth symphony, majcstically an
} improssively played, II. 7, &.