WOMEN’S CHORAL MUSIC

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27427, 13 August 1954, Page 9

WOMEN’S CHORAL MUSIC

LIEDERKRANZCHEN CONCERT

The Christchurch Liederkranzchen, under its conductor, John Ritchie, gave the second of its subscription concerts last evening in the Canterbury College Hall. An appreciative audience heard works by Vaughan Williams, Le Fleming, and Rowley, and music for two pianos by York Bowen and Grainger. The “Folk Songs of the Four Seasons,” performed last evening, proved once more Vaughan Williams’s genius in this field. The work is divided four sections, each of which contains several folk songs appropriate to the four seasons of the year. The last section, named “Winter,” contains four Christmas carols and ends with a novel and entirely fitting harmonisation of “God Bless the Master of this House.” The discretion and taste exercised by the composer has had the effect of welding 14 individual and varying tunes into a unified and delightful whole. The other two choral works on the programme did not, in this writer’s opinion, measure up to the Vaughan Williams in musical interest. Of the “Three English Lyrics” by Alec Rowley, “Sleep” was the most effective. The choir sang with precision and enthusiasm. The music performed called for a great deal of pianissimo singing, which was excellently done. The climaxes were a little weaker than usual, because of the absence of some singers through illness. In robust passages there was a slight tendency to strain which would probably not occur normally. The unaccompanied passages were very well handled, and the diction was remarkably clear. Miss Jennifer-Barnard, who deputised for the regular accompanist at very short notice, performed her difficult task efficiently. Margaret Neilsen and Bill Hawkey Slayed the two-piano accompaniment in ie Fleming work, and gave a bracket of four compositions by Bowen and Grainger. The latter, especially, received delightfully vigorous and crisp -laying. —P.G.Z.