29
MUSICAL COURIER
March 8, 1923
Toscha Seidel
A Record of Achievements This Season Told by Newspaper Comments From Many Cities—
Seidel, the great virtuoso.—Toronto Globe.
Concert goers should put Toscha Seidel on their list of artists not to be missed.—Toronto Star.
This young artist is, to my thinking, the most gifted and individual of the Auer pupils.—Wilson G. Smith, Cleveland Press.
The brilliance and abandon called forth a storm of long continued applause.—James H. Rogers, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Toscha Seidel must have been kissed by the gods when they came through the clouds.—Cleveland Times and Commercial.
He interpreted the Mendelssohn concerto with a fine intelligence and sense of proportion, with genuine and undistorted feeling, and with complete authority.—Olin Downes, Boston Post.
His performance was one of the popular triumphs of the season.—Boston Advertiser.
He creates and maintains interest from the time he takes his position on the stage.—Boston American.
He used his mastery as a means of revivifying and glorifying. — Boston Globe.
Toscha Seidel played the solo part of Brahms’ concerto for violin, playing the first two movements with a fine singing tone and in a quiet manner, and the last movement with spirit and admirable technical display.—New York Times.
His technique disposed of the complications with due effect, while his tone was pleasing throughout, clear and smooth.—New York Tribune.
There were shimmering surfaces, clarity and poetic beauty.—New York Globe.
His soul is a prism through which shines the genius of a race.—Redfern Mason, San Francisco Examiner.
Toscha Seidel’s genius grips those under spell of his artistry.—San Francisco Journal.
He played with the artlessness of a child and the skill of a virtuoso.—San Francisco Call.
There were moments yesterday in his playing that recalled the voice of Caruso.—Helen M. Bonnet, San Francisco Bulletin.
Mr. Seidel, coming upon the stage and continuing there, is a paragon of poise. Many times recalled, he betrayed not an emotion. Only upon Mr. Burgin, politely proffering the pitch, did he deign to smile. Of this new Seidel is the violinist’s present tone. Threadlike, it undulates upon the air. Light are the inflections he lays upon it. Sunshine and shadow no more than ripple over it. Fine-spun goes transition; a modulation is a mere touch of bow and finger; rhythm stirs rather than beats; arabesques are tracery in gossamer. Even to the pianissimo that is “felt” rather than “heard” (as certain foolish Germans used to say) does Mr. Seidel now attain.
Yet this tone, that would out-Kreisler Kreisler in refinements upon the violin, keeps softly penetrating voice, is exceedingly sensitive to the contours and accents of the music in hand; while to the very foot of the letter in this winter of 1923, it suits the concerto of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Much of his music survives into these days, returns into them with surpassing freshness, by virtue of the workmanship. Mendelssohn in this particular piece, as in many another, may have had little to say. Yet so adept are his means, so ingratiating his manner, that therewith the hearer sits content. The slender body, the fine-drawn line, the limpid progress of the concerto win the ear. The polished surface still catches light and shadow; while at every turn Mendelssohn seems to be making the nicest, the surest choice. Even his tonal fancies catch this fineness, this precision. And yesterday the voices of Seidel and Mendelssohn were as one.—H. T. P., Boston Transcript.
So quickly captured the admiration of his audience that “bravos” began ringing out after the first number.— Ray C. B. Brown, San Francisco Chronicle.
His tones were marvelous; his sympathy, fire and versatility unexcelled.— Portland Oregonian.
One feels that Seidel is a great musician.—Bellingham American.
To hear Seidel play was a privilege. —Phoenix Gazette.
He can make the violin do things it never was intended to do—glitter and sparkle as well as sing.—Kansas City Times.
His playing revealed such a rare command of the most difficult intricacies of violin management as to deter one from naming many men his superior.—Columbus Dispatch.
Seidel was a revelation.—Ohio State Journal.
Seidel brought a new beauty and a new eloquence.—Fargo Forum.
He has never revealed quite so fully his superb promise and entrancing mastery.—Toronto Saturday Night.
He is a great violinist.—Toronto Evening Telegram.
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