HENRY KETTEN'S SECOND RECITAL.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2136, 29 December 1880, Page 1

HENRY KETTEN'S SECOND RECITAL.

£7 AS UKPBOFBSSIO3AI, CBITIC. The mass of people are unmusical—that is to Bay, however fond they may be of music, their education has. been unmusical; they have not been trained up to e i en an imperfect knowledge of the art, and. are certainly not competent to critically examine the performances of ruußical artists. I am one of that unmusical mass, but nevertheless I am quite prepared to ventilaio my opinions in an uncritical fashion for the benefit of whom it may concevn. My remarks will have this advantage, that they will be little likely to be abovemy audienee, and may possibly in a homely way give the " gre&i uninitiated " a faireridea of what they may expect if they go tohear Henry Kettert than any amount of technical phraseology. Now, I may begin by laying that, aa a rule, piano recitals are an abomination to rae. They are> monotonous, and I feel generally exceeding glad when all is over, and I join my unmusical friends to vote an evening devoted to the classics an unmitigated bore. On the other hand I am ashamed to say I I heartily enjoy a good wholesome melodrama, a circus, a screaming farce, a polite comedy, nigger minstrels, a three volume love story, or a good conjurer. Against my better judgment, then, I ventured last night into the Oddfellows' Hall, and waited, in not over goad spirit?,, Mr Ketten's appearance. He mfeis, hsj bows to the audience, and feats,

himself at the grand Pleyel. Two morsels by Handel lead off the programme, and then eomes Wagner's Spinnlied, transcribed by Liszt, the "Plying Dutchman; then the " Prnehlingilied," by Mendelssohn, and a Tftlse in A flat by Ghopin. Why, good Heavens, here were all the sensations for which I had sought theatre, circus, novel, and conjurer rolled up into a •mall oompass—beautified, idealised, and empoetised. There was the graoe of the lithe girl in the swinging trapeze in the " Spinnlied," there was the freshness of a story by Madame Gasparin in the " Fmehlingslied," the rattle of the mode a comedy in the " Gastagnetta," the wail of the love story in the valse in A flat, and in the "Elisir D'more." Then there were the negro minstrels to the life given in the Anchor's Valse Nogre (played as an encore) but sublimated into such minstrels as never corked their faces on this earth. And there was the quaint "Serenade Espagnole," and the " Butterfly Chase," where the child could almost be seen hunting its quary among the flowers, and dashing at it at intervals. And in conclusion there was " Auld Rabin Grey," that most pathetic of ballads, and a new caprice composed by the player. And then the performance was over, and wonderful to relate I felt as fresh as paint. Henry Ketten by his magical skill had touohed a gamut of different sensations, had introduced me, as does the typical old gentleman in Dickons' Christmas stories, to scene after scene, all varied and all delightful, and had deposited me untired and unsatisfied at the end of the programme. Yea —unsatisfied. I, who have latterly commenced to yawn towards the end of the melodrama, faroe or comedy, who have often let the novel drop on the floor with a bang that brought me with a start to a full sense of the enormity of my conduct, who have poohpoohed the most amusing tricks of the presdigitateur—l, who in short had began to think myself completely used up by the monotony of ordinary sensations, -whether furnished on the beards and in a book, felt at the eonolußion of Ketten's recital unsatisfied, because there still existed a wish that he would carry us along yot further into the fairy land which his art has constructed. There is a freshness and fire about his playing that renders ennui impossible; it is as crisp and invigorating as the first mouthful of morning air. All this is not at all technical, but it is very true. It is meant for my brethren among the unmusical masses, who, although they do not even know their scales, can be stirred, delighted and strengthened by a true artist.