SONG RECITAL

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22338, 28 February 1938, Page 5

SONG RECITAL

MR LEN BARNES GIVES LARGE PROGRAMME ATTRACTIVE , SINGING AND INTERPRETATION It was ■ a : big programme, for. one artist, that Mr Len Barnes presented on Saturday night at-Begg's "Recital Hall. With very little interval between the four sections of: his programme, and with a generous addition of encores, ho sang for nearly two hours, and at the end was in as good voice as at the beginning. Mr Barnes is a baritone singer, his tone being rich and lull, clear, and colourful, true in intonation, and able to be used interestingly whether in soft or in powerful singing. In. addition his musicianship is sound and his interpretations are both clearly icasoned and well felt. The programme was full cf interest, and this was intensified by the skilful arrangement not only of the sections themselves but also of the items within each section. There was a well chosen operative group, a set of six moderns, an imaginative group that included very acceptable musical humour cf the best kind, and a selection of songs by Continental composers, two French, a Russian, and a German. The three operatic songs, Wagners "The King's Prayer" from "Lohengrin," "Bella Miu" of Pergolesi, and Verdi's "Ert Tu," enabled the singer :.t the beginning of the recital to express in turn, reverence, lyrical flow, and dramatic power, and with the encore to this group (Mozart's "When a Maiden Takes Your Fancy" from "II Seraglio") vet another contrasted mood, that of sly humour. The singer's success in •'portraying these opposing characteristics in his first group, favourably prepared the audience for further enjoyment of his interpretative art in his second group. In this section of the programme the singer sensitively conveyed the fresh simplicity of "To Anise" (Armstrong Gibbs), the prose-like movement of the same composer's solider "Maritime Invocation," the folksong-like directness of John Ireland's "I Have Twelve Oxen," the singable tenderness of Michael Diack's rather too. obvious "She is not fair." the evening atmosphere of Carpenter's "Serenade." and the change from drudgery to triumph

in Hageman's setting of Chesterton's "The Donkey." Imagination, charm and humour of many kinds were expressed in the songs of the third group. Those were "My Menagerie" (Fay Foster). "A Belated Violet" (Clayton Johns), "The Wreck of the 'Julie Plante'" (Geoffrey O'Hara), "The Matron Cat's Song" (Michael Head), Prelty Maid Milking Her Cow" (Percy Grainger), and - Vely-Kulchinson's humourously incongruous grafting of dignified, Handel-like music upon the simple words of. the English nursery rhyme "Old Mother Hubbard." The fourth, and final group of this interesting recital, further revealed the interpretative powers and the finely controlled tone-grading of the singer's well-used voice. The songs in this were "Au Pays" (Augusta Holmes) "Marins D'lslande" (Fourdrain), "Autumn Melody" (Korr-p----tchenko), and as a conclusion not only to the group but to the whole programme came the massivelv proportioned, and intensely varied setting by Carl Loewe of the Scottish Ballad "Archibald Douglas," which, m spite of its nature and size was bound into a united whole by the recitalist Mr Len Barnes throughout his tine programme was helped by the sensitive accurate, and colourful pianoforte work of Mrs Francis H. Turner, whose accompanying was an important feature of this enjoyable recital