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Show 1 A Chtractcr Sketch by Richard Aldrich Apropos of the coming 'visit of Eu- gene "X&ye to Salt Lake Thursday it an article on this violinist and Pritx Kreisler. by Richard Aldrich. In the Outlook., Aldrich tayt,' in part: ifEugene, Teaye : and FriU Kreitler hav so impressed their art upon the musical public In the course of the New York season now drawing to a close as almost to have given It a special cachet of their own. They have made no "sensations." Virtuosos," in the less noble sense, these men are not: and they have made their impression, each ( in his own way, through musicianship untainted with trickery of meretricious effects, or the exploitation of a personality. person-ality. 'Both have exercised the potent spell of great art with the dignity of true artists. Mr. Ysaye reaches in his inspired moments mo-ments to the highest flights of the interpreting in-terpreting musician. His moments are not all inspired, and m other moods he partakes unmistakably of the earthly nature. There is a quality I Mr, Ysaye't performance per-formance that distinguishes it from most other men's performance on the violin a quality that persists in and through even his less artistic moods. It is a quality of deep poetical insight through which he is enabled to pluck the heart out of the mystery of great music. Mr. Ysaye is not always at the height of his powers. He is an extremely extreme-ly uneven performer, and his slncerest admirers are not seldom disconcerted by the faultlness of his playing in his less happy moments. They may hear, then", inaccurate and slovenly technique, tech-nique, false intonation, exaggerated sentiment: but the indestructible qual- itles of great art are never quite absent. ab-sent. - Mr. Arthur Symons has thus spoken of Ysaye's playing, and we may see the face and figure of the artist through his words: v - - "I looked at Ysaye at he stood, an almost shapeless mass of flesh, holding hold-ing the violin between his fat fingers and looking vaguely Into the air. He put the violin to his shoulder. The face had been like a mass of clay waiting the sculptor's thumb. As the music came, an invisible, touch seemed to pass over It r the heavy mouth and chin remained firm, pressed down on the violin, but the eyelids and the eyebrows eye-brows began to move as if the eyes saw the sound and were drawing it in luxuriously, lux-uriously, with a kind of sleepy ecstasy, as -one draws In. perfume out of a flower." Mr. Ysaye has written his name In the musical history of the last thirty years. He is 47 years old. a Belgian, .a pupil of the Conservatory of L4ege. his. birthplace: later of Vleuxtemps at the Conservatory of Brussels. He was Fran Knelsel's predecessor as concert-master concert-master of Benjamin Bilse's famous orchestra or-chestra in Berlin, and he has paid tribute trib-ute to the artist's noblesse oblige by serving as a teacher In the Brussels Conservatory. The substantial quality of bis. musicianship it shown in the merits of the string quartette that he established in Brussels, and in the re-sultahe re-sultahe -achieved as. conductor of the series of orchestral concerts that he founded In the Belgian capital and that are continued under hit name. And the generosity of his nature is recurrently recur-rently manifested In the annual Ysaye prise for composition. As a composer he is little known, and he has never exploited ex-ploited himself in that capacity; yet the tale of his works Includes six concertos for violin, valatlons on a theme by Paganinl, and a number ot smaller pieces. |