EILEEN JOYCE CONCERT

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 26617, 20 June 1958, Page 7

EILEEN JOYCE CONCERT

Playing Keenly Appreciated

Miss Eileen Joyce was again greeted by a very large audience when she gave her second recital in the Civic Theatre last evening. Her playing was keenly appreciated.

This programme, although somewhat unadventurous, was a little further from the well-trodden track than the last one. It contained Beethoven’s Sonata in F sharp major, Op. 78, and Schumann’s Sonata in G minor, Op 22. Both are undeservedly neglected by concert pianists, and it was pleasing to hear them played with such polished grace. Miss Joyce always plays with immaculate clarity. There is never a suspicion of smudging in any figuration or scale passage. Her light touch is extremely beautiful, full of life and colour, and exquisitely shaded. In broad, cantabile passages there are times when there is a surprising holding back of colour. It would be an exaggeration to call such playing as hers unfeeling; but there are times when an expected warmth does not come. An example of this was the performance of the Schumann Romance in F sharp major. In works such as Liszt’s Concert Study in D flat and the Concert Allegro by Granados, Miss Joyce’s clarity and vitality was heard to greatest advantage. He* playing of Faure’s Impromptu in F minor and of “Ondine” by Ravel was completely delightful This was mellow and highly poetical playing. The dappled effects in “Ondine’’ were remarkably dazzling. As a composition Lazar’s Funeral March has nothing much to commend it. Compared with many another —from Handel’s down—it lacks nobility and true expression of grief. Under its rather ornate decoration there seems to be very little. The old Cockney woman’s remark, “We buried ’im wif ’am, dearie,” comes appropriately to mind. The Chopin group, the Nocturne in C rflinor, the Waltz in E minor, and the Fantasy in F minor, were stylishly played. The waltz rippled very beautifully the Nocturne sang tenderly and the varying moods of the Fantasy were clearly portrayed. The programme began with Beethoven’s “For Elise” and ended with “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” played as an encore —C.F.B.