The Week's Music

New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 988, 25 July 1958, Page 24

The Week's Music

---- NATURALLY the supply of virtuoso violinists cannot last for ever, but we have been hearing lately (YC links) from another very talented artist, Beryl Kimber, who is visiting us from Australia. She has a superb technical equipment, as she has shown in her widely varied recitals, and an enviable depth of tone that makes expressive some of the less tractable contemporary music. For instance, the Variations for solo violin by the modern Russian Levitin were deeply felt and melodious, though very complex, and sounded in the direct line of descent from the brilliant Waltz Scherzo of Tchaikovski which figured in the same programme. In the earlier music she played Vitali’s lovely Chaconne with a gracious warmth, and Bach’s great D minor one with fine power and control, both of tone and of the immensely difficult part progressions. She also appeared in a recital by the National Orchestra in which she played Mozart’s A major Concerto, which fitted her style like a glove; some of the solo passages in the finale would have been difficult to imagine played in any other way. It takes a soloist of lofty stature to make a success of the Beethoven or Brahms concerti; but it requires more taste and equal musicianship to perform any Mozart concerto, where the heights of brooding majesty are not assailed but where the perfect precision and galanteries set their own problems at a different level. A little-publicised visitor from England is the pianist Maurice Cole, who has given us some well chosen recitals (YC links), Haydn’s big E flat Sonata was light-fingered, humorous and soulful by turns; a programme of Schumann included the early Abegg Variations and the G minor Sonata, which Mr Cole was able to make interesting. He has a neat manner, not too brassy, and a pleasing lack of exhibitionistic traits of technique; we will be listening to his further recitals, if the present standard is maintained. Miss Anna Russell is wrecking numerous New Zealand microphones again with her shattering songs and unearthy sound effects. She is as funny as ever, but I was disappointed to find so much sameness of material with that of her last tour, ideal for those who missed her before, but a little tiring for us others, especially as there is a good deal of repetition in her present broadcasts. Fortunately there are a few excruciating new items in which she shows herself still the satirical mistress of

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