SONG RECITAL

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24866, 4 May 1946, Page 2

SONG RECITAL

MARGARET LA MONT In these days when virtuosity is so qfteA Substituted fer music H is gratifying te find an artist who, without fuss and ostentation and needless display of teehnical equipment, can yet hold hey audience for an entire programme. Such was the case on Thursday evening at the Radiant Hall, where Miss Margaret La Mpnt gave a fine recital. She possesses a voiee of exceptional purity, a pleasant stage presence, and sipgs with sincerity and feeling. Her programme opened with “My Heart Ever Faithful” (Bach). There was apparent a certain nervous tension, which quickly disappeared in the two Handel songs, “O Sleep, Why Dost Thou Leave Me” and “Trip, Blithe Streamlet.” Seldom is heard such tonal beauty as in the opening phrase of the former, while the latter revealed heqd notes of fiell-like purity. Then followed a Haydn group. In “Piercing Eyes’’ the diction was not always clear; but the general mood and vibrancy left np doubt as to the meaning. The others, “My Mother Bids” and “The Mermaid’s Song,” were sung with point and charm, but the rather open quality of the ”ay” sounds resulted in a certain vowel impoverishment.

Miss La Mont continued with a Mozprt recitative and aria from “The Marriage of Figaro,” so well sung that the difficulties of breath-control were not apparent. One feels that at the climax, where Mozart tends to free himself from the shackles of the barline, a too literal interpretation of note values results in rhythmic stiffness. She concluded this portion with “Ritorno Vincitor” (Verdi). It says much for Miss La Mont and her accompanist that in Schubert group, in spite of the barriers of language. they created the appropriate mood and emotional atmosphere, Whether it wgs the suggestion Of mocking and pathos in “Spring Dreams,” the feeling of bewilderment in “Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel,” or the disappointment in ”The Post.’’ The recital concluded with a group of contemporary compositions by Elgar, Besley. Hageman, and La Fonge (the latter largely piano rhetoric) The audience demanded several en-

cores, ’‘lmpatience” and ‘‘Whither’’ (Schubert) and three English folk tunes, including a delightful model setting of “Sweet Nigntipgale?’ These were sung with naive charm, mime, and characterisation. Much praise must be given to Miss Althea Harley rSlack for her urv obtrusive yet effective accompanying, resulting in artistic unity.