MRS FIRTH'S RECITAL.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14835, 28 November 1913, Page 5

MRS FIRTH'S RECITAL.

Mrs Ernest Firth gave a vocal recital at tho Durham street Methodist Church last night, which drew a large audience. Her programme was influenced, no doubt, by its performance in a place of worship, and contained a largo proportion of music from oratorio and other similar stj'les. The two immortal arias from The Messiah, "O, Thou that Tellest Good Tidings" and "Ho was Despised," the aria from Samson, "Return, O God of Hosts," with tho double quartet, well and delicately sung, "The Lord is Mindful," and a "Prayer," by Hiller, yvero all of this type, and* interpreted in the appropriate reverential spirit, congenial to her; at her best perhaps she was in tho aria from Samson. Her voice sounded hardly as full in the church as it did formerly in the concert-room, and for that reason tho secular songs, allowing a wider characterisation in sentiment less dependent upon volume, were more - completely impressive. The voice, sympathetic in itself, with a pronounced tendency towards the 6erious, comes from tho heart, it is under good control, pure in intonation and tho phrasing and enunciation, allowing for a few vowels rather too dark in timbre, very good indeed. Liddle's "I Love Thee, Life," one of his best, the charming cycle "Daybreak, Morning, and Night," by Landon Ronald, with prominence in "Awake, Awake!" and Hullah's "Three Fishers, ,, all were given with taste and true feeling, and the whole recital could but find warm appreciation. Mr Firth played Chopm*s Polonaise m A, one of the most suitable for transcription, the dainty Intermezzo by Hollis, a selection from "The Flyine; Dutchman," Dvorak's "Humoreske," tho stately Prelude in C sharp minor by Rachmaninoff, a pleasing Adantino by Chauvet, and Guilmant's "Grand Chceur in D," and ho never played better than last night, particularly tho Intermezzo and the Prelude. His accompaniments to the vocal numbers were admirable in finish and delicacy.