MUSIC IN REVIEW

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26627, 25 November 1947, Page 6

MUSIC IN REVIEW

MANY EMINENT ARTISTS FULL YEAR IN DUNEDIN This is the first of two articles in which the Daily Times critic of the musical events provided by visiting, or “-celebrity,” artists discusses the season’s music in Dunedin, For the Daily Times by M, M. During the past year it has been possible to hear a great variety of music in New Zealand. Excluding opera, there has been a fair representation of the main types of programme, vocal, instrumental and orchestral The National Orchestra made its debut on a rising tide of interest; many distinguished artists from overseas -visited us, including Mr Boyd Neel and his string orchestra; all of which combined to make the 1947 musical season of more than passing interest.

Attendances at the major events in Dunedin were remarkably good, our large Town Hall being filled to capacity on many occasions. All the concerts of the National Orchestra, both under Anderson Tyrer and the guest conductor, Warwick Braithwaite, the one Boyd-Neel event, the Choral Society’s porformance of “Elijah,” and John Charles''Thomas’s concert were given to capacity houses. At the height of the season when there were as many as three concerts in one week, the supply greatly in excess of the demand, there were some pathetically poor houses. This is a double disaster, resulting in a loss artistically as well as financially. Rows of empty seats have a depressing effect on both sides of the house, and affect adversely the sympathetic collaboration between interpreter and audience so essential to a good performance. Singers

Of the singers, John Charles Thomas attracted the largest and most expensive audience of the season. True, it was an audience somewhat “ green ” to music, but one which got what it paid for and went home happy. No one would deny Mr Thomas the right to sing what it pays to sing, but his attempt to make the best of both worlds was open to question. His printed programme was musically quite respectable, but so short that it allowed ample time for another programme in the form of brackets of encores of an entirely different type. There were rollicking, desperate, spiritual songs, sentimental ballads and popular hits: and all sung with admirable music-hall technique. As a popular artist it would have been easy to praise him; but since he chose to appear as a serious musician, we must bury him. It is difficult to say why Herta Glaz just missed being a very great singer. She had charm, even glamour, a voice, vivacity, and a rare talent for characterisation. In the rococo setting of the old St. James Theatre her recitals were a pleasant experience. But two and two do not always make four in art. Genius transforms. When we meet it, we are never in doubt. Recognition is immediate. Its method may be disruptive, or even defiant, as when an artist like Chaliapin, with superb theatrical arrogance, decides to hold up the course of a musical phrase. Its ultimate release comes with such force that the purpose of his violence is immediately demonstrated. On the other hand, the method may be quite orthodox, but orthodoxy raised above mere correctness by a high* standard of efficiency, meticulous attention to detail, and the whole illuminated by subtlety and breadth of vision. Such inspired correctness we heard in the performances of the §oyd-Neel String Group. The, studied and serious manner of Rosina Raisbeck had a chilling effect on her audiences, but she is a singer with distinct possibilities. Was it ignorance or prejudice, or both, that was responsible for the exclusion from her three programmes of every English composer from Byrd, Dowland and Purcell down to Parry, Stanford, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Peter Warlock and a dozen other contemporary British song writers?

The visit of Ninon Vallin was illtimed. The idol of French opera had to compete, for an audience with a boxing match, a variety show and a local musical event. But the handful of music lovers who heard this incomparable singer had a unique experience. French art and music are widely different from Teutonic. It can be poignant, but not gloomy, quick-wittted and brilliant, but never heavily intellectual. It has a light touch, an intoxication- with life and a spontaneous gaiety that makes it a thing apqrt. For once, the, publicity jargon of the concert agent was correct. Ninon Vallin’s art could only be described with the highest superlatives and, even, then, much would be left unsaid. Fiddlers It was not hard to decide between the three violinists, Izaac Stern, Robert Pikler and Leo Cherniavsky. Mr Stern’s lovely tone and magnificent technique were displayed in a programme which contained the overworked Mendelssohn Concerto and half a dozen inconsequential show pieces. Robert Pikler, with less but adequate technique and sound musicianship, presented the whole cycle of ten Beethoven Sonatas in three recitals.

More people attended Izaac Stern’s one concert than heard Robert Pikler in three. It is a matter for speculation whether the composer gains or loses by feats of virtuosity that arouse wonder. A musically-educated public could demand that a concert by a virtuoso should be also a musical event.

The third artist in this group, Leo Cherni&vsky, broke no fresh ground nor brought new light to bear on familiar things.