CHOPIN MEMORIAL RECITAL

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25936, 17 October 1949, Page 3

CHOPIN MEMORIAL RECITAL

MR HELMANN 4 GREAT INTERPRETER

Frederic Francois Chopin died in Paris on October 17, 1849, at the age of 39 years. Purcell. Mozart and Schubert were three others for whom the trumpets sounded before they, reached the age of 4Q. All four made contributions to the art of music which not only enriched immeasurably its treasury of beauty but profoundly influenced the, course of its history. Chopin, more than any other of his generation, explored and enlarged the possibilities of pianoforte playing and composing. lie did not, as a player, have the great technical gifts of Franz Liszt, but aesthetically Liszt was a man of meaner mould. Chopin’s for this instrument was individual, naa not been heard before, was typical in many respects of his era and of the society in which he moved yet is today still fresh and acceptable to succeeding generations. When his compositions are played by such a pianist as Aleksandr Heimann it becomes obviouj that they still contain unsuspected beauty after their life of 100 years -and whatever length of time the various listeners to Mr Heimann may have in their experience of them. It was pointed out in the review of Mr Heimann’s concert given last Wednesday evening that “Mr Heimann is supremely qualified to play and interpret Chopin.” With this high expression of praise one cordially concurs. Mr Heimann’s recital in the Civic Theatre on Saturday evening gave his listeners one of those rare musical experiences of unalloyed pleasure. The music was of uniformly high standard, and the performer a musician of great technical attainment and of sensitive and experienced insight. The player never allowed his own individual interpretation to distort the music, yet his virtuosity was such that no technical incompetence cast any shadow on it. Mr Heimann showed when on a former occasion he played Mozart’s A major Concerto that he has very highly developed powers of tonal control. These powers were once again shown unmistakably on Saturday evening. Some physicists maintain that it is not possible to produce varying timbres in pianoforte tone; that the only possible differences can be in volume. Mr Heimann’s playing makes it abundantly clear that there are matters where scientific conclusions, based rightly upon measurement, cannot tell the whole story. The programme was splendidly chosen for contrast between the familiar and the unfamiliar, between joy and sorrow. It was also an excellent demonstration of the essential strength of Chopin’s style, for the greater part of it consisted of works which transcended the appeal to the fashionable drawing, room, and displayed the underlying resiliency and vigour of an accomplished swordsman. The Fantasie in F minor set the atmosphere for the whole programme an 1 was an ideal work for the purpose. It was revealed as the intimate musings of a sensitive mind. While it is improvisational in character, and its emotional content varies considerably, there is no lack of formal direction and no need for a “lost chord” to give it harmonic piquancy. Mr Heimann played the Nocturne in D flat Op. 27 No. 2 with nicety of balance between the melody and the accompanying figure. The subtlety of nuance displayed in this figure was as fully impressive as that which enhanced the beauty of the air. The whole performance had the refresh-

ing coolness of a mountain stream. The great work of the evening was the Sonata in B flat minor Op. 35. This is familiar ground to those who hear concert pianists, yet Mr Heimann’s performance (personal, and unusual in many respects, yet logical in presentation if his premises are accepted) was like a picture well remembered whose colours are heightened and whose shadings more refined than the memory has imaged, when it is seen once again on the familiar wall of the great 9 gallery. The first movement came with the fierce urgency of one who rides bearing tidings of tragic import to many. This spirit carried on into the opening of the scherzo and was heightened when the subject returned after the calm of the cantabile section. The famous funeral march fitted in with

this interpretation and brought it to a climax. The subject of death has been treated by many of the greatest musicians. The plainchant of the Dies Irae has never, in one’s opinion, been surpassed for its awesome dig-

nity and inexorable expression of each individual’s personal responsibility to his inescapable fate. Handel, in his

“Dead March” from Saul, has managed to express the depths of sorrow in the surprising key of C major—the brightest key of all. Purcell—in Dido’s Lament—has used the scientific form of the “ground bass,” yet has written one of the most moving and beautiful death scenes .in all operatic literature. Brahms reaches great heights in the “German Requiem,” both in dignity and in consolation, and keeps the matter on an almost abstract plane, while Beethoven

in his Funeral March for the Death of a Hero stirs the emotions with the dignity of grief, but offers no further comment or speculation Bach in the Chorale Preludes, “All Men are Mortal,” and especially “Before Thy Throne I Now Appear” gives the most sublime expression of the • individual soul going to its particular judgment; •and the second part of Elgar’s “Dream of Gerontius” has captured and en-

shrined the teaching of Catholic Theology on the subject, in music o: graphic descriptive power. Chopin ir

this Sonata gives us a funeral march which describes in faithful detail all

the appurtenances of a great public funeral and has also combined with

them a feeling of widespread sorrow; so that although one might be but an onlooker, the grief of so many would also become personal. In addition he has given us a melody which is one of the most tender expressions of condolence in all music. It seems as though he has left, for a while, the

atmosphere of a great occasion and thought of those whose bereavement is closely personal at a time of* na-tion-wide mourning. Having expressed the heights of mass emotion in his march, Chopin brings us back to earth smartly with the funny little last movement. The clacking of tongues releases the feelings, for we cannot always live on the heights. Mr Heimann brought the whole pageant to life on the dreary stage of the theatre—and gave us an unforgettable performance.

The second half of the programme consisted of six of the studies, beautifully contrasted, three Mazurkas and a fierce performance of the Scherzo in B minor. The Study in E major was delicately played and with real singing tone, but the bass part at times could not be heard, and the

harmonies were left without audible means of support. There is a level of resonance below which the tone cannot carry in this building. In the A minor Study Mr Heimann gave marvellous differentiation of tonal colour in the left hand work, and it seemed as though we sometimes had trombones echoed in the next phrase by horns. Meanwhile the right hand* flew through the difficulties of fingering with most enviable facility and felicity. There was gorgeous tonal snading in the melancholy F minor' (posthumous) study, and magical fluttering, sounds in the Op. 25 NoA 2 in the same key. The “Revolutionary came off with surge and menace. There was a large audience, whica was quietly intent upon the music and enthusiastic in its appreciation at the end. Mr Heimann was generous with his encores, although the strain of such a programme must have been heavy, for he does not spare himself. C.F.B.