MR. FRANK HUTCHENS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 121, 15 February 1921, Page 6

MR. FRANK HUTCHENS

DELIGHTFUL PIANOFORTE RECITAL. Exceedingly gified as a mere lad, Mr. Frank Hutchens attains brilliance in ma. turity. Piano recitalists differ as widely as singers. Personality, temperament, vision (or the lack of it), environment, training, all help t’o classify the pianists into groups. So we get heavy artillery from Mark Hambourg and dreamy poesij from Leonard Berwick, brilliant pedantry from Harold Bauer, and royal passion and majestic stateliness from Carraiio. Frank Hutchens’s charm lies in lus sprightliness and poetic insight. He is not an emotional player, bull within the compass of his pianistic cqnijnnent there.lies a bright and eager optimism, a vigour and elan, a delicacy and inspiriting verve that interests all the time. There is the elasticity of hope ahead—he radiates clean, wholesome joy, and, like Pachmann, likes to give his audience his understanding of the music, and does it more rationally. His recital at the Concert Chamlier last evening was rather more than enjoyable. lie made it a happy "at home” with the masters, and if recitalists were to borrow his 'ideas interest in music would be wonderfully quickened. Mr. _ Hutthens prefaced each of his groups with a hriet conversational dictionary note of thenaim and character, and such enlightenment' was happily imbibed. The programme opened with Scarlatti’s "Sonata in A Major,” a work which clearly demonstrated the > player’s nimble touch, and swift action—it was an elaborate study in tho exercise of the higher technique and if more than anything, it showed the value of the accent as an illuminant. The Beethoven “Sonata in C Major,” with its strangely cool and beautiful slow movement and the elfin daintiness and fantasy of th e vivace, wa_. played with a rare poetical insight that roused merited enthusiasm. Mr. Hutchens is a delightful exponent of ChopinThe bracket of that composer’s work included the "Waltz in E Minor,” played in faultless rhythm with splendid verve, the soothing Berceuse, and the “Ballad in A Flat Major.” After the interval Mr. Hutchens presented a bracket of interesting "moderns” of the impressionist school. John Ireland was represented by his "Island Spell,” reflecting the quietude and peace of island life as distinct from the whirl of a city; Poldini by “The Clock,” with the “dick-tock” for the right hand, cleverly harmonising with a melodious motif for the left, and concluding with tho hour chimes in high harmonics; Scriabin by his Nocturne for the left hand; Debussy by 'his “Jardins sous la Pluie,” and Raucl by his "Fountains,” in which the hands play in different keys,Finally, Mr. Hutchens played Chopin’s "Largo and Presto” (from his “B Minor Concerto”), a piece of noble contrasts, and Liszt’s popular "Second Rhapsody,” with his wealth of dance themes. His encores were Cyril Scott’s “Water Wagtail” and two Chopin studies. ■ . Mr. Hiitehens was assisted by Miss Ava Symons, the gifted Wellington violinist, whose sonorous Amati was heard in the Saint-Saens "Introduction and Rondo 'Uapriccioso.” .as an encore she played with grace a tuneful Beethoven "Minuet." I nter Miss Symons was 'heard in Wisniewski's melancholy “Romance,” and as an encore she played the "Preludium and Allegro” of Pugnani-Knos-l»r tho first movement of which she robbed of much of its stateliness by takinn- if too quickly. There were compensationo in the tatter half. Mr. Hutchens ptaved -'h? accompaniments. \nofli-r'recital will b? riven by Mr. Hufeheiv and Miss Symons this evening. The programme appears elsewhere.