MUSIC IN REVIEW

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26628, 26 November 1947, Page 2

MUSIC IN REVIEW

EMINENT VISITORS END-OF-YEAR RETROSPECT In this second, and concluding, article, the Daily Times critic continues an examination of the work of the visiting artists who in the past year have contributed to a very full season of music in Dunedin, For the Daily Times By M. M. Pianists The pianist is the most popular figure of the concert stage for reasons which are not hard to discover. He comes on a solitary figure, sits down to the largest instrument yet invented, and has at his command a great variety of tone and expression which can rival the brilliance and agility of the flute in its highest register, the tender singing tone of the human voice in its middle range, the sonorous tread of ’cellos and basses in the lower octaves, and a thousand other possibilities of tone and colour peculiar to the instrument itself. More important still is the great repertoire of music for the piano, which has been built up by nearly every composer of importance over a period of 300 years. Lili Kraus played Mozart with grace and sensibility, and in the “Wanderer” Fantasy of Schubert gave an impassioned but completely controlled performance of this wild, tempestuous music. It was a pleasant change to hear piano recitals which gave only passing notice to Chopin. Madame Kraus prefers Mozart and Schubert to Beethoven, but, for me, her playing reached its highest level in the Waldr stein Sonata and in hex collaboration with Robert Pikler in the Beethoven cycle. In both of Colin Horsley’s appearances here he seemed to be wrestling with great odds in the shape of unsuitable pianos. In his recital, the disordered Bluthner defeated his musical ends, and hard words were exchanged between them. As soloist in the Schumann Concerto with the National Orchestra, where the piano had better, but inadequate, tone, the orchestra won, especially in the last movement, where the riotous mood of the music offers the orchestra a chance to over-ride the soloist. Mr Mierowski was a somewhat variable performer, but gave notable performances of the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue of Bach and Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes. Pianists are attracted to the music of Chopin as moths to a candle. In the pure flame of ballades, impromptus, and polonaises there is no danger in such an attraction, but in the pale glow of waltzes, nocturnes, and other sentimental trifles musical wings are singed and intelligent audiences alienated.

Mr Mierowski had a poor opinion of a city which builds a concert hall where a chiming clock can act as a vandal in over-riding the composer’s intentions at 15-minute intervals. Music and the Film

Generally speaking one does not go to the cinema to hear music; but William Walton’s music for Laurence Olivier’s “Henry V” was of special interest. Music for the film cannot be regarded per se. It should identify itself so closely with the dramatic context that it is not noticed for its own sake but as part of an impression which is simultaneously aural and visual. The fact that it has value in its own right is irrelevant. When the relation between the action and music reaches a high level, as it did in “Henry V," we accept the dual sense—impression without any desire to isolate the elements.

Walton’s music was admirably suited to the magnificent pageantry of the film and contributed a great deal to the successful recreation of the atmosphere of Tudor England. The vocal writing was traditionally correct in the austere style of the period and appearances were kept up in the style and playing of trumpets and drums, but the balance and quality of instrumental tone used as a background was glamorised to suit twentieth century ears. To the purist this admixture of archaic and modern might be offensive, theoretically at least. A more faithful presentation of the music of the period might have ruined the production. There has been an epidemic of a certain type of film in which a composer or virtuoso plays the leading role. Themes from Concertos have been wrenched from their contexts and vulgarised by association with ludicrous dramatic situations. Such films, which have not been of a very high order, may have brought music to the masses, but some of the greatest composers, Tchaikowsky, Rachmaninoff and Grieg, have suffered in the process. A film like “Henry V,” where music is important but not dominant, -is infinitely preferable. The possibilities of adapting opera to film presentation have yet to be explored; and to one with little knowledge of the difficulties involved, it seems a profitable field for speculation and experiment.