SONG RECITAL.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18309, 17 February 1925, Page 8

SONG RECITAL.

BY MR SIDNEY WILLIAMSON. It. was recently contended . that a sound understanding of music can be acquired only upoti the basis of a fair acquaintance with its master .works. In the domain of vocal music Mr Sidney Williamson has long and ably laboured witl} the same intent as exponent of model art-songs b$ great writers, who, from Schubert onwards, have vitalised the concert stage. In the highest types of the art-song the fusion of 'poetry and melody is complete,'illustrative of all human emotions,, and winged messengers of great thoughts. But in the way of universal acceptance of for- ■ eign works stand the iniquities of translation, w;hereby many gems of poetry—gems in .the original-r-are conveyed in vapid, or stilted, un-idiomatic language, neutralising their melodic charm'. For Mr Williamson gathers his budgets of song -from many sources, irrespective of birthplace; and upon these lines was constructed again, *on no niggardly scale, the programme of last night's recital at the Choral Hall. ' It reached, with encores, a total'of 27 songs. The preponderance of German authors is excusable from the weight of names, as those of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms, and jjn the strength of uncontested, beauty and eminence.

In Mr Williamson's recitals the .appealing force lies ever in his gifts of interpretation, his temperamental equipment, his unfailing sense for evolving the real atmosphere of. a song, and in the many fine points of his eloquent delivery. At times he reduces his tone almost to a whisper unsuited for a big hall, but he is so .absorbed in drawing the whole picture that he forgets the dimensions. Or he adopts occasionally the opposite extreme —a forced tone. During the first group of songs of the programme his- throat seemed, to- trouble hinij and it was only in the second, with Schubert's •'Ave. Maria," that he was able to bring out his voice with full effect. The contrast bietween impulse and resignation in the stanzas of Schubert's "Death and Maiden": was admirably illustrated* l ' .There wete two lovely songs b'yßrahms, ''.To a "Violet'' and ' ' The Serenade," but they [were almost eclipsed by Mr Williamson's interpretation- of the--French songs, especially Saint-Saens's "Reverie," and Rinaldo Halm's "The Perfect Hour" and ' 1 Could My Songs be Winging,'' both splendid specimens of French art. A. good, breadth of tone was attained with, the one operatic' aria from Donizetti's "La Fayorita." As one of the best and- most expressive readings stood out Elgar's beautiful song "Pleading," followed by Mr Arthur Lilly's thoughtful and piquant "Grief and the Rain." The-recital closed, with three delightful numbers from Richard Strauss's pen, his "Dream in the Twilight," indeed, 'a very' dream of beauty. - Tq Miss Kathrine Lund was entrusted the onerous task of accompanying the many diverse styles incorporated in the elaborate recital. She succeeded ,in keeping in sympathetic accord with the singer's lead, and played with efficiency and taste.