FRANK COMMENT

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20728, 11 February 1939, Page 17 (Supplement)

FRANK COMMENT

BY LONDON CRITIC The following three most interesting critical paragraphs appeared under the heading “Recitals of the Week” in the London Sunday Times recently. Tuesday. —Wigmore Hall: Miss Ethel Lynn. Seeming confidence brought only fitful success in a discriminating programme because this young singer’s grasp is as yet hazardous upon a first requisite: evenness of tone production. A couple of Cornelius’s “Brautlieder” and one apiece out of Wolf-Ferrari’s “Rispetti” and a group by Roger Quilter (who played herein) happened to lie moderately within her powers. Miss Joan Singleton accompanied. Wednesday. —Aeolian Hall: Miss Lubka Kolessa: The Viennese pianist played Schumann’s “Carnival” and “Etudes Symphoniques” and some Mozart (a Sonata in C. Gluck Varia-

tions, etc.). The English critic would not willingly underrate her verve (the British “dash” is too coarse a translation). All he would humbly remark is that he often hears them played with finer and more accurate finish. Thursday. —Aeolian Hall: Alfred O'Shea. All that a liquid tone and consistently gentle vocal manners could do was done by the Irish-Aus-tralian tenor in songs by Grieg and French composers, and in Irish folksongs. To hear one song was to capitulate to the charm, to hear a handful to realise that this charm was an ebstract, constant quaditv, whereas every song really differs from every other. No accompanist could have been more judicious than Ivor Newton was. What ! No Song ? R.K.O. want to star Eddie Cantor in a straight film, but Cantor feels he's essentially a musical comedy artist and doesn't like the sans-song idea. Hollywood executives base their suggestion on the “down-beat in tilnuisicals right now.” but Cantor has reminded them ( of his 1931 “Whoopee'' for Gcddwyn,' and wants a “cavalcade’' idea film.