Recital By Helen Collier In University Hall

Press, Volume C, Issue 29623, 20 September 1961, Page 17

Recital By Helen Collier In University Hall

In the University Hall last evening Miss Helen Collier played a well-constructed and varied programme and showed the polish and realisation of style in playing which site has gained by intensive study with some of the great pianists of Vienna. She went to the fountainhead and has brought much back erf its clear and lifegiving waters and also the incandescent sparkle which illuminates music-making at its best in that incomparable city.

The programme began with Bach's Chromatic Farrfasie and Fugue. The speed and level of intensity were both a little high for such a resonant hall and to some extent clarity of line was sacrificed to dramatie impact. This playing was of large dimensions and made the fugue massive. Everything in it was clear and the effect was rather overwhelming.

The clear-cut brightness of Miss Collier’s playing was fully appreciated in Mozart’s Sonata in C, K 330. Elegant phrases and finely-pointed

dynamics, rippling legato, and a clear following of a logical plan in her performance made her interpretation convincing and a thorough joy to hear. Her playing has splendidly secure control. Four Bagatelles and a Rumanian Dance by Bartok were played in exciting fashion with mastery of touA producing multi • coloured tonal effects which enhanced the shapeliness and imaginative range of the renderings.

Debussy’s “La Soiree dans Grenade” was played with a finely-timed sense of atmosphere with beautifully evoked expressive toning® and his “Toccata”—too much neglected by concert pianists —was played with joyous verve and brilliant clarity.

The programme ended with Schumann's “Carnival Jests in Vienna.” It was a warmly romantic rendering expressing great happiness, pomp, and enjoyment of good things in the first movement and quiet reflection in the second but with a speedy return to the gaiety of the festival. —C.F.B.