New-York tribune., 1922-10-29
Heifetz Recital
Shows Mastery
Of Art at Best
Technique, Always Brilliant,
Once More Linked With
True Creative Spirit i'm
First Concert of Year
Crowd Packs Aeolian Hall
Mozart and Beethoven Num-
bers Varied by Program
of Scinfillant Show Pieces
BY II. r. krehbiel

Jascha Heifetz has. played so often
in the cities Of America since he first
came to us five years ago that he has
about exhausted the laudatory vocabu-
larry of AL reviewers except those en-
viable ones whose command Of the
purple phrase is inexhaustibie. They,
and they only, can continue out of
words, words, words to weave pat
terms Ca pretty metaphor which we
think we noted fifteen or twenty times
recently in one book of criticisms
almost as ingeniously as Mr.. Heifetz
can apply his fingers or draw. his b9. b9w
across the strings. A description OF
the incidents attendant on his first
recital for this season in Carnegie Hall
last night, if attempted, would be a
mere duplication OF what has gone be-
fore dozen times or more. 1t would
tell of an audience which filled all the
practicable spaces of the hall-includ-
ing the stage, we are sorry to say, for
listeners on the stage are a disturbing
element ever when, like those Of yes
terday, they are well behaved--of great
enthusiasm justified by noble playing,
but also Of an exhibition Of taste
which craved display of the least
admirable, though not the least strik-
ing, of Mr.. Heifetz's qualities as an
artist--his technical equipment. To
dispose of this at once let us say, as
every educated musical reviewer has
said scores Of times since our country
was inundated by concert-givers, local
period of technique, that is of highly
developed technical skill in all the
arts; and that, perhaps for that very
reason, it is q period in which creation
(re-creation in the case of interpreta-
tive artists) is at low ebb. We know
so we'll how to copy that we have for
gotten how to invent.
To come to the case in point Mr..
Heifetz began his concert with con-
certo Tin E minor) by Nardini. His
playing of it recalled the enthusiasm
with which we greeted him at his first
recital in 1917 and led US to hail him
as successor Of the great violinists
who have come into our ken-Vieux-
temps, Wieniawski, Wilhelm5, Sarasate,
Ysaye,. Kreisler--every one distinct
individuality, but each bearing the
stamp of the truly creative interpret
OF tone, the fiawless intonation, the
absence of effort in the overcoming of
technical difficulties, the preservation
Of symmetry Of phrase and period
alone, but the feeling of repose
awakened by all these things which
compelled our admiration. He had
much Of the classic style in the music
which 'exacted that quality. 1t was not
present in the large degree possessed
by his great predecessors, but it was
unmistakable in his playing. SO we
acclaimed the musician as much as we
did the virtuoso.
There came moment Of disap-
pointment, when, in October, 1913, he
played Mozart concerto Tin D., so
prettily that it was not beautiful Yes
terday he made atonement by play
ing another concerto by the same COM
poser--the one in A. He played it
with the purity Of line, the ingenious
grace, the unaffected directness, the
genial warmth which are Mozart. 1t
was enough. The artist musician. of
whose playing we had been privileged
to hear little in the interim (being as
unable as the Viennese banker to be
in two places at the same time), was
returned. For the rest, after enjoy
ing Beethoven's Romance in F, we
could revel with the multitude in the
scintillant display pieces - Auer's
transcription Of the chorus of