The Week's Music...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 929, 31 May 1957, Page 20

The Week's Music...

by

SEBASTIAN

7s S far as the broadcasting of Local Talent goes, the NZBS usually shows a good judgment, and we are rarely compelled to listen to poor musicians, at least, from the YC stations, though perhaps there is less discrimination as regards vocalists: one can seldom tell in advance whether a song recital is going to be a fugitive from the Festival Hall or from the village concert. This week there have been two recitals of more than ordinary interest, both English and tuneful, and totally different in every other respect. There was a set of Dowland’s last lute songs (The Pilgrime’s Solace), accompanied by Malcolm Latchem’s violin in lieu of viol, and Leslie Atkinson at the harpsichord, doing duty as lute. These were sung (2YC) by the contralto Alice Graham, and if you are not allergic to a little dolefulness in your music, they sounded very nice indeed. The vocal part is the main interest, naturally, but these songs have an independence of accompaniment remarkable for the period, and often the violin seemed to be singing an air of its own. All the songs are’ of the slow sad type, and particularly poignant is one called "From Silent Night," full of sweeping chromatic phrases and a more complex

a form than the other plainer verse settings. In contrast to these is Gerald Finzi’s cycle, Earth, Air and Rain, which is a setting of Thomas Hardy’s words for voice and piano. These short songs were given by Donald Munro, accompanied with. sympathy by Doris Sheppard. Finzi, probably best known for his cantata Dies Natalis, has a real flair in setting words, and unlike so many mocern composers, can paint the lily without damaging its more fragile blooms. In this cycle the only sameness is that of style, linking such. diverse elements as the buoyant "When I Set Out for 'Lyonesse" and the more follklike "The Phantom." Donald Munro handled them energetically, and brought out most of their undoubted charms. The Parrenin Quartet has continued to delight us, and they have showed themselves able to tackle Mozart and Haydn with delicacy and even humour. We also heard them (YC link) in the Lyric Suite by Alban Berg, whom most of us know mainly for his human approach to atonality. This Suite was no exception to his rule, and contained some very lovely passages. I do admire this group’s attempts at educating us.