At Least One Czech

When handsome young Czech Pianist Rudolf Firkusny took his first crack at the U.S. concert stage in 1938, he thought "big bravura playing" was the way to hammer U.S. critics into submission. But about the highest praise the New York Times could manage was that he "successfully held the attention of the audience." Firkusny, then 25--"much too young," he says now--tried a short U.S. tour without much more luck, then headed for home a little sadder and a great deal wiser.

He did not stay home very long: Hitler and the German army had also headed for Czechoslovakia. Firkusny went to Paris, forgot his successes as a onetime child prodigy, and began to grow up. Through the war he worked and played in benefits for the Czech government-in-exile. In 1941 Manhattan concertgoers heard him again, playing Chopin with the poise and maturity of a master.

Birthday Beethoven. When the war was over, Firkusny began to come into his own. Last year he played in 50 U.S. cities; Carnegie Hall audiences heard him play five times within a month, with three major orchestras: the New York Philharmonic-Symphony, the Boston Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra. Even the Times had decided that slender Rudolf Firkusny was "now an interpretive artist in his own right."

Last week, the New York Philharmonic's CBS Sunday radio audience heard him tackle the Concerto in D Minor of Mozart, a composer whose clear textures give pianists little chance to hide blunders in taste or technique. Pianist Firkusny had nothing to hide: his technique was clean; his style, unlike that of many another Mozart player, was neither cold, coy nor kittenish. At week's end, on his 38th birthday, he showed an audience in Hunter College's recital hall his fluency and force in other styles: Beethoven, Debussy, Czech Composer Jan Dussek, Stravinsky, and the poetic Schumann's C Major Fantasia, which he has made his own (and recorded for Columbia--TIME, Dec. 26).

Not That Nationalistic. "Ruda," a serious but sociable bachelor, is now on his way to becoming a U.S. citizen. He played at the Prague Music Festival in 1946; but since then the Communist government of Czechoslovakia has ousted him from the syndicate of Czech composers and he has not been back. One reason the Communists regard him coldly is his close tie with the Masaryk family: the late President Thomas Masaryk was young Ruda's friend and musical godfather.

Firkusny still remembers his national heritage, seldom fails to include at least one Czech composer on his recital programs. "I'm not nationalistic enough to say Czech music is great music," he says. "But there is much good music." Lately he has also played more than his share of contemporary American music.

Chicago audiences, for one, might see & hear a good deal more of Pianist Firkusny. His childhood friend is 35-year-old Czech Conductor Rafael Kubelik, the Chicago Symphony's new boss.

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