A MUSICAL TRIUMPH.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 July 1922, Page 5

A MUSICAL TRIUMPH.

PIANOFORTE AND DANCE RECITAL. The charm of good music was shown last night, when Miss Constance Leatham gave a pianoforte recital at the Workers’ Social Hall. The relation, too, of dancing, the poetry of motion, to music, was shown by Miss Mavis Tuke, who contributed to an unusual and high-ly-entertaining programme with a numper of classical solo dances. The compined recital was well attended. Miss Leatham opened the programme •~ith Chopin’s Scherzo in C sharp minor, which gave abundant evidence of the player’s careful preparation and close study. The performance was most interesting, and naturally evoked keen appreciation and the heartiest applause. In response to an unmistakable encore, Chopins Valse in G flat was given, and was delicately presented. Miss Leatham next played a bracketed pair of numbers by Brahms, the first of which, “Rhapsody in E flat,’ nas not in our recollection been heard before here. This, with the Capriccio in Op. 76, No. 2, made a very interesting illustration of the composer’s style of composition, and at the same time was a bold contrast, the poetic Chopin number affording abundant scope for the player’s briliance of execution. In Cyril Scott’s Valse Caprici. Miss Leatham chose a work and composer alike little known in New Plymouth, but the close attention of her audience showed that the peculiar features of the composer and the certainty and finish of the player had taken a firm hold of their imagination. The second part opened with a bracketed pair of MacDowell’s numbers, in which Miss Leatham was quite at home and played with wonderful impetuosity, the .Elfin Dance being particularly captivating. As an encore, “The Pilgrims Chorus,” Wagner-Liszt, from “Tannhauser,” was given, being played with fine expression. In Ravel’s “Waterplay,” the soloist gave a thrilling exhibition of brilliant and fiery impetuosity. To hear for the first time is certainly to be overwhelmed with chords of the ninth and eleventh, with brilliant scale and passage-playing, and with every device of technical difficulty quite bewildering. But this most modern composer has certainly given the executant a work which few could hqpe to play, and Miss Leatham is to 'be highly congratulated on a worthy performance of a work bristling with difficulties. This description in music of the fountains at Versailles in play was admirably interpreted, the pianiste breathing into her rendering a mood which words themselves might easily fail to reveal. Chopin’s Valse in A flat. Op. 62, was bracketed with this, and was well presented. I The last items on the programme were | two Liszt solos. The Polonaise tn E was played at her last concert, but the “Will-o’-the-Wisp’ was new to a New Plymouth audience.

The classical dance numbers by Miss Tuke, which were interspersed with the pianoforte items, very popdlar. The dancer’s perfect grace in motion in the varied renderings she gave entitle her to be ranked as a very finished exponent of her art. The first number was an Eastern dance, followed by a toe solo to the music “April Buds/’ both of which were cleverly and gracefully executed; but perhaps Miss Tuke scored her greatest success in the sprightly Mexican dance, in which she appeared in national dress and was enthusiastically received. How greatly dancing is the poetry of motion was shown in the concluding number, entitled “The Snake Dance,” a most realistic rendering being presented.

Mr. F. E. Gooder, the possessor of a pleasing light baritone voice, sang “She Came to the Village Church” (Sommerville) and “Onaway, Awake. 1 ’ (F. H. Cowen), he being perhaps better suited in the latter piece,. For an encore Mr Gooder sang “To Anthea” (Hatten).

Mr. R. H. Rocket was the announcer. The accompaniments to the dancing were well played by Miss George (piano) and Mr. Rupert George (violin), whilst Mr. Harold Morey played for Mr. Gooder’s vocal numbers.

A further recital with a new programme will be given in the Workers’ Social Hall on Monday evening.