The Week's Music...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 920, 29 March 1957, Page 20

The Week's Music...

by

SEBASTIAN

OMPARED with the prodigious quantity of fine music produced by composers of Elizabethan days, modern performances of their work are still lamentably few. Scholars such as Fel. lowes have collected and edited reams of their pieces of all sorts and sizes, mostly in the field of song and madrigal, but only the brave few sing them today; though a certain technique is required, most of this bulk of writing is fairly easy, and only a good musicianship is necessary to make the music live. In this field, then, we heard a selection of pieces, mainly of the lute-song type, sung by the tenor John MacDonald, with Dorothea Franchi at the harp (NZBS). This variety of light tenor is the ideal voice to make something of such songs; and I feel that the additional sonority of the harp gives it many advantages over the lute, even if it does lose a little in authenticity. Only a pedant would quarrel with that, for musically it is more satisfactory. Some of Philip Rossiter’s plaintive airs made an excellent introduction, and Dowland was also well represented; the singer laid himself open to comparisons by essaying the lovely "Willow Song," but as it turned out most of the comparisons would be in his favour, It has been sung by tenors

powerful, reedy, effeminate, counter, and in fact everything short of Neapolitan; and the smooth control of this rendering made it as good as any of them, We can look forward to the rest of this series with a cheerful mind. The National Orchestra’s studio concerts are under way (YC links), with guest conductors and interesting programmes. The Orchestra’s quality does not seem to have been affected muchfor better or worse-by their frequent changes in guidance, but it has continued to give competent and musical performances. Under Willem Komlos, they played the "Surprise" Symphony with verve and a larger-than-life rhythmic bite; and followed this with the well-organised, sympathetic and rather conventional Variations on a Theme of Kuhnau, by Andrissen-a stranger to me, but a welcome one in a quiet way. It said what was necessary, politely and without unseemly excitement, and made a neat exit still smiling pleasantly; quite a nice piece to know, in fact. Wagenar’s boisterous overture "Cyrano de Bergerac" made a colourful end to the programme, the first of the present series. If the standard is maintained, the remainder should be worth listening for.