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MUSICAL COURIER
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A Revelation of Piano Mastery
Josef Lhevinne
IN HIS CARNEGIE HALL RECITAL December 13, 1922
Mr. Lhevinne retains title to his place in the first rank of pianists. He remains an almost incredibly smooth, facile technician, a master on such easy terms with his keyboard that he is destined to be the cynosure of all student eyes and ears. Fine playing, continuously kept on a level of immaculateness, religiously shunning the spectacular, the novel, made it an evening of particular interest. —Gilbert Gabriel in the New York Sun.
It was in Bach and Chopin that Lhevinne is entitled to be placed in the first rank of pianists. His playing of the Bach-d’Albert prelude and Fugue in D minor was a simply astounding achievement. There is no other living pianist who could have done such marvelous stunts in the octave passages of this inconceivably difficult transcription. Lhevinne produced tonal climaxes that were really thrilling. A rare treat also was his playing of two Chopin Etudes. In the first of these were more of those astounding octaves in which this Russian excels all other pianists.—H. T. Finck in New York Post.
Mr. Lhevinne’s performance was indeed spectacular. Whenever rapidity was required he gave speed plus, cadenzas were velvety smooth, and shadings delicate. A large audience showed its admiration for Mr. Lhevinne’s artistry by enthusiastic applause. — Pitts Sanborn in New York Globe.
Josef Lhevinne. The general impression was one of unusual brilliance, especially in the sparkling smoothness of his rapid runs. Brilliance and a clear, revealing manner characterized his performance.— New York Tribune.
One of the outstanding pianists of the present day, Mr. Lhevinne is recognized in this city as an artist who is opulently equipped in technical resources and in musical intelligence and poetic feeling. — New York Herald.
When Lhevinne plays rapid passages he opens a wonderland to the ear. When he produces a cadenza in sixteenths, the result is not a beaded line, but the fiery trail of a meteor across the skies, a nebulous but not a blurred streak.—New York World.
The remarkable art of Josef Lhevinne has grown notably in the years that have elapsed since his first appearance here, not only in the transcendent powers of his technic, but in the ripening of his interpretative powers. His performance leaves the impression on those who hear him that they have been put into close contact with the composers. Mr. Lhevinne’s technical powers have been developed to such a pitch and have been refined and polished to such a degree that no technical difficulty any longer interposes any problem between the music and his performance of it. There is no visible effort in anything he does, and no attempt whatever to divert attention from the music itself to the manner in which it is played. His tone has always been remarkable for its richness, color and delicate gradation, and is remarkable for those qualities now. — Richard Aldrich in New York Times.
Josef Lhevinne, unequaled to my way of thinking as a master of keyboard mechanics, showed last night how technical accomplishments can be carried to a point so near perfection that they cease to amaze any listeners save those who thoroughly understand the secrets of the piano. It was beautiful playing, exquisitely euphonious and limpid, with never a moment of ponderous fortissimos to jar upon the nerves.—Max Smith in New York American.
There have been several experts in high speed among many pianists heard in recent weeks, but most of them were outdone, it seemed, by
Management: LOUDON CHARLTON, Carnegie Hall, New York
STEINWAY PIANO