MR SIDNEY WILLIAMSON'S RECITAL.

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

MR SIDNEY WILLIAMSON'S RECITAL.

Mr Sidney Williamson gave a song recital in the Choral Hall last night. He appeared before a tolerably-largo audience, who received with pronounced appreciation his various efforts. Mr Williamson handed out a generous programme. It consisted of five sections, covering no fewer than twenty-five items. To work through such a programmo was a stupendous task for one man to attempt. Mr Williamson, however, achieved it, and although his voice must have been sorely tried, ho showed it no leniency, but kept it working at high pressure right up to the very last. Half of the programme consisted of various numbers by the composer Edward Grieg. These were of many types, and involved a wide varioty of temperamental singing, to accomplish which successfully was in itself no mean task. Representative items in this section wero "Cradle Song," "Solveig's Song," "With a Water Lily." "The Old' Mother," and "Tho Way of the World." The last-named. was a. particularly successful effort, and earned for the vocalist prolonged applause. Of the remaining items the two most noteworthy wero the recitative, "I Rage, I Melt." and the aria, "0 Ruddier than tho Cherry," from Handel's "Acis and Galatea," and the' "Three Serious Songs," by Brahms. The Handel number, especially the aria, was splendidly sung, while in the "Serious. Songs" Mr Williamson brought out the true inwardness of the gloom and hopelessness characteristic of tho passages from Ecclcsiastes upon-which-tno songs were founded. Mr Williamson had in the programme presented ample opportunity to demonstrate his versatility as a vocalist; he had almost equal opportunity to show his acquaintance with foreign tongues, for his contributions included "Le Sais-tu" (Massenet) — French; "Adelaide" (Beethoven)-;-Ger-man; and "A Tanto Amor" (Donizetti) —Italian. Tho accompaniments played by Miss Audrey Gibson were sympathetic, skilful, and enjoyable.