CHAMBER MUSIC RECITAL

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25243, 23 July 1947, Page 3

CHAMBER MUSIC RECITAL

CIVIC FESTIVAL No civic music festival could be complete without its recital of chamber music (“Room-Music,” as Grainger calls it); for the essential cell of life is the iamily, and musical expression oegins at home. Sir George Dyson has some apposite remarks on this point. “The musical ascendancy of Germany in the nineteenth century,” he writes, “began at home. Nowhere else in the world was the household cultivation of the art so widespread and so fine m its sensitiveness and taste. Sonatas, songs, trios, and quartets poured from .the minds of her composers because thousands of accomplished families were ready to absorb them.” That is true; but it was no less true of England 300 years earlier. Those who work in the cause of instrumental music-making in the schools of New Zealand to-day know from experience that here in our own country this kind of music, in its simpler forms, may create a strong bond tying the young to, and bringing their friends within, the family circle. So little is the prophet known in his own country that it may be news to Christchurch citizens that we are envied in more than one of the other main centres for the number of our musicians who are skilled as chamber music players. Several of these were heard at the third concert in the Christchurch Civic Music Council’s 1947 Festival, given in the hall of Canterbury University College, in the opinion of internationally famous performers the finest acoustically for instrumental music in Australia and New Zealand.

Of Chopin’s Sonata in G minor, Op. 65, for piano and violoncello, some critics, exercising a hasty and superficial judgment, have assumed that, because Chopin is known chiefly by his works for the keyboard instrument, anything else he wrote must be of necessity inferior in musical value. But ’cellists who play this work, listeners who hear it, and students who examine the score will surely arrive at a conclusion quite different. There is here, of course, the delightful piano writing which one would expect; but the ’cello part also is admirably conceived, and the texture holds so well the balance between the two instruments that the work has a most satisfying unity. Perhaps the most effective movements are the short and song-like third and the finale with its close affinity to the Tarantelle. Ernest Jenner and Francis Bate gave the music a very fine performance, full vitality a id satisfying effect. Haydn’s Trio No. 5 in E flat major, written by “the father of modern instrumental music,” is exuberant with life and gaiety, for there was nothing of the pseudo-intellectual about Haydn. True, the ’cello had not yet received its full status of equality with the violin and the piano; but the part is conceived for the instrument as it then was, and with delightful effect. There is the spirit of the schottische in the opening movement, the second has a disarming naivete, and the last sparkles with good humour. The work was admirably played by Maitland McCutcheon, Lloyd Hunter, and James F. Skedden, whose performance happily demonstrated the effectiveness of the piano trio combination. One cannot accuse of rash judgment those who regard Franck’s Sonata in A major for violin and piano as the finest of such works to have been written. Its noble themes and their highly significant use in the closely-knit texture of the various movements, its spirit (now troubled brooding and now free as the lark ascending), its evidence in every bar of the composer’s deep sincerity: these characteristics, amongst others equally important, combine to make it an intense expression of human feeling. As played by Gladys Vincent and Ernest Jenner, it left an indelible impression on the mind, and one recognised in it a work which would present fresh aspects of beauty at every new hearing. Beethoven’s Quartet in E flat major, Op. 16, was in most interesting contrast to the Haydn music heard earlier. It has been written that “probably no other composer has so justly and admirably blended the emotional and intellectual qualities.” This quartet is for the most part in a happy mood; but there are the moments of smouldering intensity so characteristic of its composer. The work was played admirably by Irene Ballantyne, Ronald Moon, Nancy Estall, and Gwen McLeod, musicians who have long shown their understanding of the spirit of chamber music. Particularly delightful were the Andante cantabile and (he final dance-like Rondo. Again there was reason for satisfaction in the knowledge that players of such artistry are amongst us.

Music of the kind heard at this concert is for the intimate circle of the small audience; but our national growth in the appreciation of things of the spirit will be measured ultimately. at least in part, by the extent to which we make our own the heritage which, in chamber music, belongs now to our age. . V.G. To-night the fourth concert of the 1947 Festival will be presented at the Civic Theatre. The concert will include items by the Ashburton Vocal Study Group and the Timaru Choral Society. The latter society will be making its first appearance in Christchurch. The Canterbury University College Orchestra will also be heard.