The Week's Music...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 898, 19 October 1956, Page 16

The Week's Music...

by

SEBASTIAN

: : ‘Hs week we have heard two things: some inimitable singing and some illimitable music. The former was by Victoria de los Angeles (YC link), whose smooth tones of honey-coated velvet have spanned the gap from national folk song to the classics in a wonderful series of recitals. With the National Orchestra she sang the motet Exultate Jubilate, in an unusual way to us, who are used to the brittle tones of true coloraturas; this in its individual way was quite as good, with more mellow runs, more powerful attack and an approach to Mozart as sincere and graceful as the music itself. At the other stylistic extreme was Turina’s Canto a_ Sevilla, breathing the air of: Spain and its rhythms with a sunny confidence that | would be disarming even without such | a voice to introduce it. Between the two | extremes lay the contents of the recitals /-gorgeous Spanish songs filling one of | them, and in another an array of song |ranging from Monterverdi,to German ‘lied, with no sense of incongruity in | juxtaposition, since they were blended he the unity of that lovely voice. The other outstanding programme was | the performance (YC link) of the St. | Matthew Passion in its entirety by the

Phoenix Choir and National Orchestra, conducted by James Robertson in a brisk and businesslike way. The galaxy of soloists included the tenor William Herbert in probably his most arduous role as the Evangelist, when he showed himself at his greatest with a fine acute tone and an enviable clarity of diction; he conquered the myriad difficulties with no sign of strain, and retained a most impressive reserve for the climactic earthquake. Keith Falconer made a noble study of the part of Jesus, while Muriel Gale did her best with the contralto parts, despite occasional lack of unanimity with the accompaniment. The remarkable tone of the new harpsichord used as continuo was evident; at times it blended with the strings so as almost to disappear, at others it was piano-like and obviously among the soloists, The choir was very good, as is expected of them, though their words were often lost, either through speed or the sheer mass of sound. The tempo was rather rushed in places, more so in the chorales, but in general the work proceeded at a speaking pace and turned out to be a speaking likeness. I have a feeling that as far as baroque oratorio is concerned, we shall not be able to do better than this.