CONCERT CHAMBER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 179, 19 October 1927, Page 14

CONCERT CHAMBER

FIVE AUCKLAND ARTISTS

A very pleasant little concert was that given last night, under the auspices of the Ex-Service Women’s Association, by five well-known Auckland artists. The programme was not ambitious, yet it contained several delightful numbers, and it was evidently much liked by the audience. Aliss Alargaret Stoddart and Miss Maida Hooker were associated in the first movement, Allegro con brio, of Grieg’s C minor Sonata for violin and piano. This was an enjoyable performance, though the element of “brio” was rather to seek, and there seemed an inclination to dwell too much upon the reflective passages. Aliss Stoddart played Eric Waters’s Romance in G minor, accompanied by the composer—an interesting and not unenterprising work, far above the average of antipodean music. The popular violinist was heard to advantage also in Ivreisler’s “Pliebesfreud” and an arrangement of the “Londonderry Air.”

An especial feature of the concert was Miss Berta Carr’s singing. It is curious that this admirable mezzosoprano should be heard so seldom in public. Her voice, though it is quite sufficient, is not exceptional in range or volume. But such intelligence, imagination and sense of style will always be rare. Aliss Carr was completely successful in “Tre gionni son ehe Nina” of Pergolesi,” “Apres un reve” of Gabriel Faure, Rachmaninov’s “In the Silent Night” and Elgar’s “Shepherd’s Song”—four pieces of unquestionable, if unequal, merit. Miss Alaida Hooker, changing the order of her programme numbers, played first the Rhapsody in F sharp minor, effective but not important, of Dohnanyi. Later she gave us some real music in the first of Brahms’s three Intermezzi, op. 117 —that very beautiful one which has been described as a “philosophic cradle song.” It was done with excellent taste and musicianship. Aliss Hooker also played fluently the A flat Valse, op. 42, of Chopin. Air. Francis Bate is a good violoncellist, but we shall have to frown if he does not enliven his repertoire. Alany other things might be chosen in preference to a transcription from Mendelssohn’s “Songs Without Words” —and a Burgmuller Nocturne of much less value. The accompaniments were artistically played by Air. Eric Waters. R.J.B.