MALE VOICE CHOIR

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22707, 11 May 1939, Page 9

MALE VOICE CHOIR

VARIED PROGRAMME FIRST CONCERT OF SEASON There cannot be many types of voyal music that were not included in the programme which the Christchurch, Male Voice Choir presented last night in the Radiant Hall. So representative was their selection that its numerous items almost defeat classification.

There were part songs by Dowland, Handel, and Brahms (“Come Again, Sweet Love,” “O Father Whose Almighty Power,” and “Lullaby and Good-night”); a cantata by Schumann (“The Luck of Edenhall”); two folksong arrangements lor solo-voicc and male chorus (“My Johnny was a Shoemaker,” and "Has Sorrow Thy Young Days Shaded,” arranged by Vaughan Williams and A T. Davison respectively); a cycle of part-songs by Elgar to words from a Greek Anthology; and three very dissimilar part-songs, Maunder’s “Border Ballad,” ColeridgeTaylor's “Oh, Who will Worship,” and one of Herbert Hughes’s humorous, "Simple Simon,” (after-Couperin). The vocal solos, 100, on this programme added further to this miscellany, for they included the well-kown "Onaway Awake” iColeridge-Taylor), a set of five ballads, “Songs of Passion," by Frederick Rosse, and some Norwegian and Russian art-songs by Grieg and Tschaikowsky. The first two items sung by the choir, Handel’s prayerful “O Father, Whose Almighty Power,” and Dowland’s deeply felt "Come Again. Sweet Love,” gave the choir excellent opportunity for some well-blended singing, and they made thereby a musical and an impressive opening. They were next heard in five unaccompanied songs by Elgar. The respective moods of these were cruelly, admiration, refreshment, tenderness, and deep content, and all were interpreted with the closest attention to detail. Well worth hearing was the cantata, “The Luck of Edenhall.” Schumann’s writing. both in the vocal part and in the descriptive pianoforte accompaniment, reflected the changing moods of the poem as they pas-_d from festivity, through gloom, to victory; and these were admirably expressed by choir, by soloists (Messrs E. Rogers, R. Lake, and C. Clarkson), and very eolourfully by the pianist. My Hoel Ncwson. One of the most enjoyable items of the evening was the Irish folk-song. "Has Sorrow Thy Yeung Days Shaded.” There is nothing striking in the setting itself—it is just a solo accompanied by harmonised humming-—but the melody is beautiiul in its simplicity, and all its charm was expressed by the easy, natural interpretation that the soloist (Mr Ernest Rogers) allowed it to have. Mr Rogers, too, sang just as convincingly Coleridge-Taylor’s "Onaway Awake.” a solo that admirably brings out the many excellent qualities of his voice. The soprano soloist of the evening was Mrs W. J. Plowden-Wardlaw. She was very successful in capturing the mood of happy longing in Tschaikowsky’s “Know'st Thou the Land”; and the Eastern beauty of the same composer’s "Canary Bird” too, she fully sensed and appropriately conveyed. Her very enjoyable and successful Tschaikowsky group in the second half of the programme made one realise how much they excelled her Grieg interpretations of the earlier evening. These, for all the feeling and interest that their phrases contained, had not built and unified as the Tschaikowsky songs had done, and it is this unifying principle which constitutes interpretation.

Another set of vocal solos heard were the Frederick Ross 3 "Songs of Passion" sung by Mr Charles Clarkson. The soloist sang in fitting emotional style these ballads expressive of sentiment. passion, fire, trust, death —(heir emotion lying right on the surface in the manner found in all songs of this genre. Thev arc written for effect and they obtained it. For encore Mr Clarkson again reached his audience with his interpretation of Handel’s "Where’er You Walk.”

The programme included also some piano solos played by Mr Peter Cooper, in the first half of the evening he played the C minor "Variations" by Beethoven. These he interpreted with a good sense of pianistic colour-con-trast. and with clarity and directnessqualities that always make for rhythmic intelligibility. Later he played Debussy's "Rellets dans I’eau with an enjoyable suppleness of rhythm, and as a well-chosen fellow picture be gave the Ravel "Toccata," matched yet contrasted, and played with effective brilliance. being brought to a well built climax. Fur encore be played “Les Tourbillons," by Rameau, a harpsichord rondo ornate with shakes and turns, cleanly played. The final items which the conductor ;Dr. J. C. Bradshaw) had selected to round off an enjoyable evening s music were the Herbert Hughes Simple Simon" and Maunder's "Border Ballad,” this last, a stirring march, making an effective concluding item. (E.J.;