THE ENGLISH SINGERS

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26528, 17 September 1951, Page 3

THE ENGLISH SINGERS

WELLINGTON CHOIR’S CONCERT

A highly enjoyable recital wai given in the Canterbury University College Hall on Saturday evening by the English Singers, conducted by Mr Malcolm Rickard. This Wellington choir is composed of nine women who have been very carefully selected for the quality of their voices and in accordance with severe tests of musical ability. Therefore they sing with excellent blending -of tone, flexibility of nuance, and perfect balance. They are, in effect, a vocal chamber-music group with all the finesse of performance which that implies. Such a group is ideal for singing work written for women’s voices for, with such a medium, massive effects are not required and a large group cannot generally be arranged on a stage so that all singers can already hear exactly what quality and weight of tone are coming from the various voice parts. In addition to the ability of each member of this choir, there has been a solid training in choral team work, given by Mr Rickard. The choir responded with perfect unanimity to his directions. In the finer points of singing this recital was one of the best we have had this year. Madrigals by Dowland and Morley set the right atmosphere for the concert and were sung with lovely tone, perfect blending ana clear outlining of the contrapuntal strands. These were followed by two part-songs by Schubert—" The Lord is My Shepherd*' and “Coronach.” They were interpreted with a pretty sense of phrasing. There was a bright vitality in the singing of "lrish idylls.” In these the words were not always clear but that was the only time when this was the case. Together with Armstrong Gibbs’ “The New Jerusalem” these works provided the best singing of the evening. Their strong harmonic foundation and the dexterity of the part writing give such compositions a really admirable texture. By comparison Alexander BrentSmith's “Songs of Paradise” seemed rather patchy. There are passages full of interest and beauty but the work is not so well Integrated. Alec Rowley's settings of Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” were charming in themselves and in their performance. Alice Graham, whose recital earlier this year is remembered with much pleasure, sang five songs by Adolf Jensen. She has a voice of tnie contralto quality and uses it with fine imagination and good technical control. For this programme a better choice of music could have been made. Miss Dulcie Keall. who sang the solos in the Stanford Idylls, has a clear soprano voice which she uses effectively. One very pleasing thing about this choir is that there is never a suspicion of wobble in any voice. Miss Bessie Pollard was the accompanist and her thorough musicianship must be a great help to this very fine choir. C.F.B.