THE MALE VOICE CHOIR

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21861, 14 August 1936, Page 8

THE MALE VOICE CHOIR

AN ENJOYABLE CONUERT In the presence of their Excellencies Lord and Lady Galway, the Christchurch Male Voice Choir gave its second concert of the season in the Radiant Hall last night, and presented a finely-selected programme of music, culled largely from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but reaching back to Elizabethan times with Campion's “O, What Unhoped-for Sweet Supply” and Benet’s “All Creatures Now Are Merry Minded,” and forward in the present day with works by K. O Morris, W. G. Whittaker, Armstrong Gibbs Ireland, and Vaughan Williams. Items for the adult choir, other than the madrigals above mentioned, were: Bantock’s “Boot and Saddle, R. O. Morris’s “Hunting ■ Song, Haydn & “Maiden Fair,” and folk-song arrangements by Brahms, Charles Wood, and W G. Whittaker; and, assisted by the Cathedral choristers, they sang Beethoven’s “Creation’s Hymn,” Elgar’s “Evening Scene,” Pearsall’s “Sing We and Chaunt It,” and two arrangements of traditional airs. The choristers, too, were heard alone in Chapman’s twopart treatment of the Welsh melody “Lady Gwenny” and John Ireland's “There is a Garden in Her Face,” another two-part song. Throughout there was the cleanness of attack, the certainty and vigour that one has learnt to expect frem this choir. These qualities were productive of excellent interpretation in Benet’s “All Creatures Now Are, Merry Minded,” in Vaughan Williams’s version of Shield’s “The Arethusa,” and in' Charles Wood’s arrangement of “Hob a Derry Danno,” but were less appropriately used in Elgar’s “Evening Scene.” which consequently lacked the restfulness one expects from a musical picture of a closing summer’s day. It was over-atten-tion to detail in this item that harmed the broad colour of the whole. Unusually fine was the easy treatment which the choir gave to Gerrard Williams’s arrangement of “The Farmer’s Daughters.” Nothing was overdone, yet the whole was full of living inflection. As interpretation, this was the choir’s finest singing of the evening. Much appreciated was the solo work of the choristers, who had an important part in this song. The soloists —Miss - Vera Martin, Mr Ernest Rogers, Mr R. Lake, and Mr Noel Newson—added greatly to the evening’s enjoyment. With easy tenor production and clear diction, Mr Rogers interpreted Massenet's “Invocation” from “Le Cid,” following this with “To EnM” (A. Travers) as his encore. Mr R. Lake gave “By the Window” (Brahms) and “Tom of Bedlam” (Armstrong Gibbs), singing this latter with good swing and vigour. An equally effective iong was his encore number, “The Toll-gate House” (Rowley). Miss Vera Martin, with good vocal quality, sang four contralto songs, “Whither” and “Tears cf Fire” by Schubert. “Like to the Damask Rose” and “The Poet’s Life” by Elgar. In all four ’ songs she had much to express, but too often allowed feeling to impede the flow of her melodies. Her work was much appreciated and for encores she gave “The Lotus Flower” and “Thou art so Like a Flower” (Liszt).,

There was fine virility and good phrase-shaping in Mr Noel Newson’s very musically conceived interpretation of the Brahms “Rhapsody in B Minor.” His agitato work, in both the opening and concluding sections of the piece, was excellent. For encorse he gave the Rachmaninoff G Sharp Minor Prelude.

Other very effective interpretations which Dr. Bradshaw obtained from his choir were those of “The Hunting Song.” of R. O. Morris. “Bobby Shaftoe,” of W. G. Whittaker; “Lady Gwenny” (a highly interesting treatment by E. T. Chapman, of a buoyant We|sh .melody), and “Maiden . Fair” (Haydn), a humorous serenade, this last item bringing the concert to an enjoyable close. —E.J.