RENEE NIZAN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22430, 17 June 1938, Page 21

RENEE NIZAN

LAST EVENING’S ORGAN RECITAL REFINED, SENSITIVE PLAYING A player with a message so vivid that it can be thought and expressed in a technique that meets the listener’s needs is truly an interpreter. It is something much more than the technique of mere skill that enables one to play with sounds, their intensities, their qualities, and their durations in such a way that the listener receives just what the player means him to get. And in a large, resonant building it is no easy matter for a player to judge how the sounds of an organ are reaching the listener’s ear. Yet in her recital last night in the Christchurch Cathedral, the eminent French organist, Renee Nizan, judged these things to a nicety, so sensitive is her perception of sound-blending and her judgment of duration possibilities. We in Christchurch are used to good organ playing, but we must not overlook the fact that organs can be, and often are, anything but pleasant to listen to. They frequently muddy the sounds into intelligibility. Renee Nizan has a knowledge and taste in organ registration that enables her to obtain a remarkable transparency. One follows the melodic movement of her many interweaving strands with an ease that makes a joy of what is often a task. Nowhere in her recital was this clarity more in evidence than in the “Allegro” from Vierne’s “First Symphony,’’ orchestrated in organ colourings, and in Dallier’s “Stella Matutina,” a composition in Grieg-like mood, played with the subtlest of tintings. Other delicate pieces, played with similar charm were Vierne’s “Berceuse”- and Franck’s “Prelude and Variation,” but the player’s personal freedom with the rhythm of Couperin’s “Soeur Monique” attracted the listener’s attention to the device itself and to that extent took the concentration away from the music. The Bach chorale, “Honour Alone to God on High,” was disappointingly short, and made one wish for at least one more Bach item bracketed with the chorale. The full-toned items on this programme were the opening invocation, “Electa ut Sol” (Dallier), “Toccata” (Gigout), and the final item of the recital the Widor “Toccata” from his Fifth Symphony. These were interesting not only in themselves as music, but also because of the player’s spacing of the successive loud chords in such a way as to make use of the duration added by the resonance of the building. It is in such devices as these, used so naturally and tastefully, that this player charms. It Is a matter for regret that Mile. Nizan is not giving another recital here in Christchurch, but her visit here and her fine, sensitive playing will long be remembered by those fortunate enough to have heard her last night in the Christchurch Cathedral. —(E.J.)