IN EXCELLENT VOICE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 6, 29 March 1927, Page 12

IN EXCELLENT VOICE

MISS LETT’S SECOND CONCERT A MUSICAL TREAT Another highly enjoyable concert was given last evening by Miss Phyllis Lett and her associate artists. The contralto was in excellent voice, and sang generally with gratifying freedom and colour. Miss Lett has won much of her fame as an oratorio singer, and her reading of “ He Was Despised ” will be held in memory as a deeply impressive and moving performance. In the Brahms “ Sapphische Ode," one felt, occasionally, that too much vyeight was given to an unimportant word or phrase; but Miss Lett conveyed well the atmosphere of brooding passion that fills this great song. A number of exceptional interest was the setting by “ Poldowski ” (Lady Dean Paul), of Verlaine’s “ L’Heure Exquise”; and there was much to admire in Miss Lett’s interpretation of the tragic “ J’ai pleure en reve,” by Georges Hue, and the “ Lament of Isis,” by Granville Bantock. Miss Lett showed a delightful sense of humour in the old French “ Chanson du Tambourineur,” and the Scottish, “ Leezie Lindsay.” More folk-songs of this jolly type might be added with advantage to her programmes. Miss Margot Mac Gibbon, too, was in excellent form last night, and confirmed one’s impression that she is a young violinist of great promise. The Adagio from Bruch’s G Minor Concerto, however, is sufficiently luscious without any aids from portamento. She plays with warm feeling and good tone the Beethoven-Ivreisler “ Rondino ” (which is now due for a rest) was also well done, with some elegant, if slightly artificial, phrasing. Mr. Norman Bennett was hea_rd to most effect in “Ah! Moon of My Delight,” and in a graceful setting by Mr. Maurice Besly of Shelley’s “ Music When Soft Voices Die.” Mr. Maurice Besly again proved himself an accompanist of the first w r ater and put us further in his debt by playing three of the rarely-heard Scriabin preludes those sphinx-like little pieces, which reveal only part of their mysterious beauties at a first hearing Mr. Besly played also a charming Gavotte from his own suite, “In Kensington Gardens.” Mr. Maughan Barnett supplied valuable organ accompaniments to several of Miss Lett’s songs. —R.J.B.