RICHARD FARRELL

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25548, 16 July 1948, Page 9

RICHARD FARRELL

s FINE PERFORMANCE OF 7 COPLAND SONATA A large audience in the Civic Theatre j last evening greatly enjoyed a recital _ by the young pianist, Richard Farrell. His great technical powers are due _ principally to three things—rare natu- . ral talent, wnich is his good fortune, Jie very best teaching, which he has . been wise enough to seek, and to pro- • digioUs hard work directed by a dev termination to succeed. He has obviously taken full advantage of the first , two essentials, and by his purposeful , devotion to the third, has now a technical equipment which should carry 1 him to fame. One feels that there are . still many things which experience • alone can bring him, and that a deeper poetic feeling will develop when the ebullience of youth has been fined _ down. However, there is no doubt s that, he has the powers to express whatever a fuller experience of life will bring to him. 6 Mr Farrell altered the first half of _ his programme. Possibly he felt that the piano was not good enough for the Schumann Fantasy in C major. If this is so, he deserves fullest sympathy, although one did want to hear the Fantasy after a surfeit of symphonic studies from most of the other visiting pianists. The first half of the programme consisted of Busoni’s arrange- - ment of Bach’s Chaconne, and the Apn passionata Sonata by Beethoven. - Busoni has made of the Chaconne one e of the cleverest and most convincing of transcriptions. It comes off as a - work that is really pianistic in characr ter. He certainly had a work of proe found conception and of noble propor- - tions to arrange. One has heard better i performances of it—performances which approached more closely to that i refined delicacy of nuance which bet lengs to the original in the hands of - the greatest violinists. The general 5 level of tone was too heavy for the t more subtle beauties to be fully s realised. Something similar may be - said of the F minor Sonata. There ? were times when a harshness Qf tone came as a shock to the ear in a work - which, while it makes the greatest demands in intensity of utterance, - scarcely calls for the angry tone s which was, at times, produced. So that s one may quickly be free from the unf pleasant task of writing about what s appeared to be unconvincing in Mr ! Farrell’s readings, it can also be said i that the Chopin Polonaise in A flat ) suffered in the same way. It expresses, according to the programme notes, ‘‘a picture of armour-clad feudal heroes.” At the furious pace chosen it seemed that the process of “mechanisation” had been carried out rather fully. In Copland’s Sonata, Mr Farrell was heard at his best, and it is a superb best. Copland himself greatly admires Mr Farrell’s playing of his Sonata—and well he might. It is of fiendish difficulty in both a technical and interpretative sense, and it is incredible that so young a player should have such a complete mastery of it. • Unless every note in it had exactly the L right weight and tone colour it would become an absurdity. Mr Farrell's playing could not be faulted. • This Sonata is completely Ameri- - can in atmosphere and utterance, i Not the America—be it well noted —of ) Hollywood or any *other of the bad • advertising mediums of that great ; country. Within this authentic atmosi phere the sonata tells a story which . could be told of any city or country - where the impact of life can, and prob- • ably will, be felt much more hardly i and brutally than is the case in New ? Zealand. It opens with shrieking dis- • sonances followed by a questioning s and beautiful melodic fragment. - They seem to bear no relation one to t the other, almost in the same way in , which two of James Joyce’s sentences ! bear no apparent sequence ot ideas. As with Joyce, the gradual developJ ment unfolds a congruity which is . natural and inevitable. The sonata has i sections rather than “movements.” In I the second section our questioning i little fragment becomes sturdier, takes r on more rhythmic strength. It still t cannot understand why there should I be so much hardness and strife and • cruelty, but it goes on seeking an j answer. In the third section it is more , mature and has gained experience by J its buffetings. This is a lyrical move- ■ ment and chows Copland’s powers of » creating and sustaining an atmosphere with economy of mec it. Much , of it is in only two-part harmony, i After some more bustle and fury there • comes a most exquisite ending. The ■ melody is treated in an ever-widening l fashion, and, although an answer to i its questioning is never given, it fades ■ away, fortified by its experience, but ■ sure that there is an answer and that - the * final answer is not contained in ■ the philosophy which has been shouted at it.

One would have been grateful for an interval after this sonata, mr Farrell played the B minor Scherzo well and produced a beautiful ceho-like tone in the contrasting passage, but a little time in which to assimilate the Cooland would have been appreciated. m the Study Op. 10, No. 3, Mr Farrell chose a slower tempo in the second section than is usual, and - very effective it was. This poor old study has fallen sadly from grace and has suffered much at the hands of the barbarian who turned it into a song. Study No. 8 was played with a good display of technical brilliance. Mr Farrell responded generously to the warmth of the reception given him by the audience at the end of his recital. C.F.B.