Felix Cherniavsky - Maud Allan Australia Tour 1914

Added 18th Mar 2022 by Beth Dobson (Archives and Programming Assistant, DCD) / Last update 18th Mar 2022

Maud Allan 660a 51 2008-1-35.jpg
Maud Allan 660a 51 2008-1-35.jpg
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Felix Cherniavsky - Maud Allan Australia Tour 1914

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Maud Allan Research Collection
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DU June 15/14 ex I only OX hlbourne THE AGE Monday The AMUSEMENTS Age p.11 MISS MAUD ALLAN'S FIRST APPEARANCE . There are almost as many forms of dane ing as there are of music ; and the history of one art is as old as the other . No one linows when the first , involuntary expres sion of emotion , whether by movements of the body or of the voice , began to be taken in hand , and drilled into shape for the ex press purpose of giving pleasure to others . Whenever the time , it was long prior to the dawn of history . In the world of to day there are many dancers , many musi cians ; but the number of colo dancers of those who stand out from the ruck , and ap peal to the artistic or other sense by their dancing alone is comparatively few . Of this select band Miss Maud Allan is one . She is acknowledged to have a method of her own and a personality of her own . It was curiosity in regard to her that brought & large and very interested audience to the King's Theatre on Saturday night . Miss Allan had only arrived from New Zealand by way of Sydney that afternoon ; but she threw herself into her work with custom ary enthusiasm , danced some eight or nine solo dances to the accompaniment of music , Hlustrated ball a score of different moods of abandonment , and in expreosing many things , expressed nothing quite as well as she did herself . After an overture by the orchestra --- largely augmented and very able chestra - and a trio by the Cherniavsky brothers , the lights were lowered , in anti cipation of Miss Allan . What she would do no one could quite predict . It has been claimed for her that her dancing is “ classic , whatever that may mean in a dancing sense , and it has been claimed also that her art is ennobling , that it expressen by outward symbols the hidden meaning of such things as a Chopin waltz , or a Mendelssohn Spring Song . On the other hand , it has been asserted that her appeal is always to the cruder emotions ; that she cails herself a classicist , while she is really a self - revelationist ; that the string she more particularly plays on is better under stood by votaries of the Greek , Lais and Circe than by devotees of Greek poetry and art . It is no secret that anxious moralists in India and elsewhere have ob jected to some of her interpretations , and against the costume , or lack of costume , in which they are made . Miss Allan had not been on the Melbourne stage five minutes before sbe had made it apparent that she was not likely to offend the susceptibilities of anyone . A modern pantomime or re view has infinitely more to offer to senca tion hunters than tbis exponent of an ancient pastime , judging her by her per formance on Saturday . Sometimes she ap pears with her hair bound , sometimes with it flying loose behind her ; but her cos . tumes , whether she is illustrating a lively theme or a more sombre one , are such as a Covenanter might approve . Miss Allan's first item was entitled Am Meer , which , being interpreted , means By the Sea . The light gradually broke over her as she crouched , with arms over her head , against a dull green , sombre background á background very suitable , in its toneless solemnity , for what the dancer was seeking to convey This first performance did little more than enable Mies Allan to place henzelf on terug with the audience ; it showed her to be a very graceful woman , wich expressive arms , hands and features , and a command of free movement and ges . tures . This Am Meer was the first of her danno poems : the next was illustrative of the Chopin waltz in A minor . This gave the dancer more to do ; ber movements quickened ; she really was , while the music lasted , the embodiment of the aspiring , throbbing , pulsating melody . In much of this Chopin music there is the note of as piration , always ascending , yet never reach ing its goal - always reaching out , but never AUDITORIUM - MISCHA DEMAN . quite clasping , though often seeming to The fourth concert civen by Mischs clasp , its heart's ideal . There is in it , man attracted so larger an audience to too , the sigh of the wave , falbing back de the Anditorium on Saturday night that feated from the sand's edge , " trembling to touch the goal and dying " ; and there is in some hundreds of people were unable to it the note of exultation , ready to change obtain admienion . It is curious to reflect at any moment to the cry of despair . that Melbourne somewhat lethargically Something of all this Miss Allan was able matrical at time - con rise to the occasion to suggest and illustrate as she swayed to when neede be , and support an artist to the subtle meledy , throwing her whole the extent of providing framenee audience form into a series of symbolic movements as she circled about the stage . In hez next four time within the space of eight days . number , the Mendelssohn Spring Song , she Yet it was no mere curiosity that filled quickened the pace still further ; but she every corner of the Auditorium on Satur did nothing that aroused so much enthu - day , but a gemine love of music fact siasm ber rendering of the fourth that was abundantly dear from the enthu of the dance sine aromed by the most camion pro poems , entitled entitled Mo ments Musical movement of real gramme yet played by the famous violinist abandonment , in which she seemed to in Australia fling herself on the theme and be carried of the four concerts as the Beethoven con Artistically the most interesting feature away by it , taking the audience with her certo , for violin and orchestre , played on BA well . Saturday night That Michaelman There were other items in which she ap . could play the higher and more romantia peared during the evening Peer Gynt musle of such componenatalo and suite , with illustrative music by Edvard Technikouky in a manner that placed Grieg , and the Blue Danube Walte , during him in the front ranks of living artiste was which she illustrates , as far as bands and evident from the start but every marafian body can illustrate , the best of music and who cared for the greater that of art the flow of water . She showed herself a was dicas to bear the Russian oinist sincere , graceful and charming in work that would call forth aterner ponent of that which is hard to qualities Thus when Saturday pro express by anything except rarest words gramme included not only the beethoven and symbols . She has not the steps , or the concerto , but Handela Sonata in major technique of a Genee or a Pavlovna , but No. 2 , it was clear that the crucial test of she has beauty of form , sense of the 6t - Mischa Elman'o artan tradis ness of things , and no inconsiderable com We concerned - whedarnaved mand of dance movements , from the light . necemo say that the first est and most rapid , to the most slow and peavoro convincia measured . With the orchestra to complete power in the woman the picture , sbe suoceeds in conveying to think he had play the eye and revealing to the mind an idea of the great deal of what the world's greatest musicians onw and felt ; and if for that reason alone she would be worth going The brothers Cherniavsky ere assisting Miss Allan , and the combination of their musical ability with her dancing symbolism Poll The Age June 15/1914 make the programme one of quite exorp tional merit . The Cherriaveki have grown and developed since they were here five or six years ago . The youngest , Michel , who then a precocious boy cellist , is e young man of twenty or 30 . He plays the cello better one would expect him to do with a better command , a more finished execution , but with hardly more confidence or more absorption in his thome than he showed when in his early teene . He was recalled three times on Saturday for his playing of Boellaann's Variations Sym phonique . The eldest brother , Leo , is the violinist of the trio , and he challenged com parison with an even more famous artist now in Melbourne by playing , with orches tral accompaniment , the first movement of the great Tschaikoweky concerto . He easily surmounted the technical difficulties , and his performance was so much to the taste of the audience that it brought him back half a dozen times . Jan Cherniavsky , who completes the musical trio , played several piano numbers , but did nothing that showed his execution to such advantage as the Lisst Paraphrase on Rigoletto . It was a display of virtuosity astonishing in a youth , and when Jan Cherniavsky can make his imaginative interpretation equal the accomplishment of his finger there is no saying what he may not do : The work of the orchestra was generally of a high standard , and the conductor , Mr. Frank St. Leger - who is first rate pianist as well as conductor contributed very mate rially to the success of the performance . The Chernia valye will change their pro gramme every evening , and Mies Alan will give new numbers twice weekly . Mies Allan's firt change of programme will be made on Wednesday . lito see WS now . Contrned onenhaf Ovor