PIANO AND SONG RECITAL

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28150, 13 December 1956, Page 7

PIANO AND SONG RECITAL

Examiners Appear As Performers A recital given by Dr. Thornton Lofthouse and Mr Keith Falkner in Beggs’ Concert Hall, Christchurch, last evening, was arranged by the Canterbury University College music department. All who heard it will be grateful to Professor Vernon Griffiths for making it possible for these two distinguished visiting examiners to be heard as performers.

This concert will stand out as one of the year’s most pleasant experiences. There was a large, attentive, and appreciative audience, who heard interesting music played and sung with authoritative and erudite artistry.

Dr. Lofthouse, whose knowledge of eighteenth-century keyboard music is respected widely throughout the world, played works by Blow, Purcell. Arne, Handel, and Bach. Nothing could have been a more refreshing tonic to those jaded by the bustle and stress of the end of the year than to hear the lovelniess and graciousness of this music come gloriously alive under his touch. It all rippled evenly and exactly, with spacious moulding of phrases and clear figuration of the many delightful ornamentations. This was authentic style in playing and more valuable to listeners than many lessons or the rading of many treatises on the subject. A period of history was enshrined in sound. Mr Falkner, known to us as one of the greatest baritones England has ever had, is now the profesor of singing in the music department of Cornell University. What he can give to the talented young people of the United States will do them more good than most of the other things that are being quietly filched from England. In his singing, all the essentials of technique can be clearly heard. They seem easy, but are very hard to master. However, if they can be heard all gathered together—clarity of enunciation, purity of vowel differentiation, breathing that supports and is always at one with the voice, a placing that can produce ringing tone and also the pianissimo that has character and will carry, wide range of dramatic colouring and all the rest of it—then the fortunate student can know what is his goal, and can be inspired to go through all the gruelling labour to try to reach it. Mr Falkner sang a programme by British composers from Purcell and Blow to Berkeley and Walton. It was a grand choice, and had great variety of style. Mrs Falkner played the accompaniments with polished technical skill and unfaltering sensibility. In the programme there was one item of outstanding interest. This was a song, written by Vaughan Williams, to a charming poem written by his wife, for Mr and Mrs Falkner. Hearing a new song by Vaughan Williams is enough of itself to mark out an evening

Dr. Lofthouse ended the programme with a group of works by Brahms, Rachmaninov, Chopin, Ireland, and Grainger —C.F.B.