THE MALE VOICE CHOIR

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21247, 20 August 1934, Page 8

THE MALE VOICE CHOIR

I PART SONGS AND GLEES SECOND CONCERT OF SEASON Part of the Christchurch Male Voice Choir's programme heard at the Choral Hall on Saturday night, included music that was new a century ago. The part-songs and glees of Mendelssohn, Cooke, and Stemdale Bennett still ' sound a pleasant, respectable, unadventurous note. The conductor, Dr. J. C Bradshaw, showed that even now they can be made admirably effective when sung with the precision and directness that are among this choir's special qualities. Mendelssohn's "The Hunter's Farewell" is gentle music, "On the Water" is something more, one of the few barcarolles that can suggest the sound of singing on the water. As sung by the choir, it was delightful to hear. In "Strike the Lyre" the choir made the most of the opportunities that Cooke offered them, and in "May Dew" the Cathedral choristers warbled—there is no other! word more suitable—the blandishments of Stemdale Bennett's melody. Those part-songs that were drawn from later composers, Maunder's "Song of the Northmen" and Corbett Sumsion's "The Emigrant" kept also to the spirit of these earlier, tasteful compositions. John Ireland's two-part song, "In Praise of May," liarked back to the freshness of Farmer's madrigal, "Fair Phyllis I Saw." The choristers alone sang the former, and with the choir, the latter, in both every note given just accent and place. National songs, which form so welcome a part of the choir's programme, include "The Londonderry Air," in Grainger's sixpart setting, an Irish melody, "The Fairy Lullaby" (solo, Master Ralph Henry), Fletcher's arrangement of "Sally in Our Alley" and the Welsh air. "All Through the Night." In all these the choir sang with its usual range and command of tone. Mackenzie's humorous part-song, "A Franklyn's Dogge," concluded the programme. The soloist for the evening, Mrs Leslie Aitken, had made a refreshing choice of songs, four lieder, Wolf's "Secrecy," Brahms's "I Said I Will Forget Thee," Schumann's "In the Garden," Franz's "In the Wood." and two modern songs, Bantock's "Evening Song" and Richard Walthew's "Eldorado." Her singing of the lieder was straightforward; there is no affectation in the use made of a line voice. The music could have borne fuller meaning, but that this is attainable Mrs Aitken showed in her singing of the Bantock song, in her placing of a lovely melody above the pianoforte accompaniment. Voice and piano (Miss Aileen Warren) were in full accord; the song could willingly have been listened to again. Mr D. H. Law put a good voice to the service of Verdi's popular "Quests o quella" and Campbell-Tipton's "Spirit Flower." There is no resisting Verdi's lively tune, but Campbell-Tipton's flower should be allowed to wilt in silence. The encore was one of Hermann Lohr's efforts. Mr Frank Olds got to the heart of two ballads, Frederick Kiel's "To-morrow" and, for an encore, somebody-or-other's "Menin Gate, both negligible as music. Miss Aileen Warren was exact and reliable in her accompaniments.