Spivakovsky mesmerised British audiences during his return tour in 1920-21 with his "faultless technique" and "overwhelming passion". His magnetic stage presence recalled his musical grandfather Franz Liszt, who had sparked a pandemic of Lisztomania in the 1800s. His London success received press coverage to the farthest reaches of the British Empire, with The Press in New Zealand reprinting this review by a prominent London critic: "Of all the pianists I have heard in recent years, no one seems to have more temperamental affinity with the very greatest than Jascha Spivakovsky. There is in his art something personal and exclusive, rare and imaginative, that cannot be defined in English, liberal as it is in words of fine meaning. I can only sit back after hearing him and badly express my appreciation by calling him a genius."