BUSONI IN MONTREAL AROUSES ENTHUSIASM
Pianist Warmly Received at His Recital in Canadian City
He Enjoys Winter Carnival
MONTREAL, Feb. 8 - The BUsoni recital, which took place on Friday night at Windsor Hall before a crowded audience, was a triumph of the most emphatic kind. No pianist who has appeared here since the earliest days of Paderewski has possessed in a greater degree the power of stirring his hearers to deep enthusiasm and emotional excitement by the beauty and amazing variety of his tone. His Beethoven number, the op. 111 Sonata, which was played here with immense effect by Paderewski at his last visit, fell flat; but his Chopin selections, the B Flat Minor Sonata and one of the biggest of the Polonaises, strung the audience to the wildest pitch of enthusiasm. Traditional Montreal reserve was thrown to the winds, and "Bravos" were almost as numerous as hearers, while handclapping was kept up until the verge of exhaustion. That the audience permitted itself to be dismissed after several recalls at the close without an encore was largely due to sympathy for the obvious fatigue of the pianist.
Busoni was accompanied to Montreal by his wife and his manager. He was immensely pleased with the city, which is more like a European city than any he has visited on this continent, and which happened to be in the very middle of the excitement of the Winter carnival, with its parades of snow-shoers, ice palaces, illuminated toboggan slides, and so on. K.
