The Week's Music...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 810, 4 February 1955, Page 10

The Week's Music...

by

SEBASTIAN

OME cynic once remarked that the only good composer was a dead one; | certainly it seems to be true these days that the deader a composer is, the more | respected he becomes, and it also follows that the ops. posth. of a man will re- : ceive more than their due reverence. In this category come notably unfinished works by various people, Beethoven’s last quartets and Schubert’s final adventures in sonata form. We heard one of the latter last week (YC link) with David Galbraith playing it from Auckland. This was the sonata in B flat, arranged in a slightly abbreviated form by Harold Bauer, the intention being (as the announcer said, as though he were personally responsible) to eliminate the repetitions of phrases without manhandling the form in any damaging way. Without wishing to be a purist, I feel that repetitions are an integral part of Schubert’s style; or perhaps I’m just rationalising and justifying my own preference for his happy tautologies. After all, if he can give us a good tune, which he does with amazing frequency, why shouldn’t he let us hear it again, so that it can really sink in? In any case, Mr. Galbraith’s playing of this sonata proved to be a competent and enjoyable effort. The Schubert player needs to have many affinities with the performer of Mozart; they are both simple but deep, like a little tarn placed by a skilled landscape architect; both demand a mode of playing which brings out their strength through naiveté, and delicacy without effeminacy, This per-

formance brought out the point, being clear and light without that tinniness and tinkliness which one is so apt to get. The off-bar rhythms,of the scherzo and surprising changes o, key and mood were handled with great charm, though the last movement seemed a little hamhanded in places-and yet they were just the places that beg for a little ham. I shall look forward to the next sonata in Mr. Galbraith’s series; and I bear Harold Bauer no malice, since I rather think half an hour is long enough for any sonata. While I’m on pianists, I've noticed a lot of Bach-Busoni works in the programmes lately. Unlike so many people, I find myself forced to admire them, for all the lily-gilding, especially in the finer pieces such as the C Major Toccata and the ubiquitous Chaconne; Busoni uses some of Bach’s own routine, making the notes do duty as expression marks as well. He groups his notes so that, even if played at the same tonal level throughout, the work has all the tonal light and shade it needs; in fact, the performer requires little more than technique to overcome the considerable difficulties, to produce a fine rendition. Busoni’s insight is also responsible for the success of those transcriptions where the original is barely recognisable, but whose overall effect is that of transformation rather than spoiling. On the whole, looking back over the past week, I’m forced to the realisation that the programme I enjoyed the most was TIFH; but I’m afraid that is inevitable, and had better be taken as tread in future.