A genial poet of the piano, with a sharply-etched young face crowned by a shock of wavy white hair–this is Ossip Gabrilowitsch, world-famous genius of the keyboard and symphony orchestra maestro, who, after holding 1,800 persons spellbound at the University of Washington, turned from an encircling crowd of music lovers and autograph seekers to answer, in staccato fashion, a rapid fire of questions from the Jewish Daily Bulletin correspondent.
He bubbled, over with praise for Palestine.
He said there is no distinctive Jewish music, outside of the synagogue.
He stamped his foot when he answered the question, “Would you play in Germany under the Hitler regime?” and replied heatedly, “Certainly not!”
Then he smilingly added, “But I hope to bring my music to German audiences soon. The Hitler terrorism cannot last. No reign founded on oppression and persecution can endure.”
NO DEPTH
He said there is no depth to American music. “It’s just a pattern of tones to be heard once or twice and then forgotten; not like Bach and Beethoven which survives because it expresses deep emotions.”
Gabrilowitsch, whose crop of abundant wavy locks makes him look not unlike his father-in-law, Mark Twain, was asked if he had any explanation for the unusually large number of Jewish artists of first rank.
“Is great artistry attributed to Jewishness?” the piano poet repeated the question. “I can’t say. In my own case. I’m not that much of a Jew. I don’t know if one can say Jewishness helps or hinders art. Jews are better interpreters of great music than they are composers. But again I can’t tell you why.”
DISCUSSES “ELI, ELI”
“Eli, Eli,” whose haunting, soul piercing notes have been heard by millions of Jews throughout the world, is “fine for the synagogue, but not great music,” the noted pianist said. The only Jewish music he plays in his concert repertoire, he explained, are the works of Mendelsohn–“music by a Jew, but not ‘Jewish music’.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
