CONCERT SEASON.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19343, 22 June 1928, Page 10

CONCERT SEASON.

MISS DAWN ASSHETON AND MR LASZLO SCHWARTZ.

OPENING NIGHT,

Last night, the weather was dead against our visitors. Nevertheless a considerable audience had braved the elements. We renewed acquaintance with Mr Laszlo Schwartz, who is remembered as much for his oratorical preludes, as for his violin playing. As usual ho comments on music in general, and on the specific music lie introduces. Miss Dawn Assheton, however, is a new and very charming figure on our concert stage, who soon won enthusiast c plaudits for every song she gave, lhe very first number ivith whicn she opened the programme, a lainous ana irom "La Traviata," alfordod the best opportunity for judging her voice and the merits of her coloratura efliciencj .1 compass is very extensive, her head notes soaring up to tho limit. Ill© brilliant passages are performed with ease and flexibility. And in the various groups of songs that followed Miss Assheton demonstrated her remarkable skill in characterisation, and ner "races, enhanced to some extent perhaps by an. appropriate change of costume. There was on "Oriental group of East Indian, Persian, and Burmese specimens, the last particularly sweet, "Waiata Poi" serving as encore. Ihen "Spanish." and groups, with each song distinct in itself «*na varying in sentiment and more and more as they proceed grows the admiration for her versatility and skilful interpretations. It would be untrue to say that all these songs are beautifulsome are decidedly not —but tliev are all characteristic of their kind. A last group contained Irish and Scottish songs, among them "Caller Herrm sun 2 in a particularly attractive form. Miss Assheton made a complete success, finally in an "Ave Maria'_ by Mascheroni, a laboured composition joined by Mr violin. Mr Schwartz himself is not posing as a violin virtuoso depending unon the utmost brilliancy of execution, but he is a very good and temperamental player and his spirited, expressive performances are eminently worth listening to. Ho is wholly and irretrievably obsessed by "Hungarian" music, his own or otherwise, and by the folk-songs of his country, many of them very striking indeed. In Mr Eric Bell they are assisted by a very able and conscientious accompanist, thoroughly reliable and never obtrusive. The second concert, for which a v.ery interesting programme is promised, will take place to-night at the Caledonian Hall.