UNIVERSITY RECITAL

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29797, 13 April 1962, Page 13

UNIVERSITY RECITAL

Miss Irene Kohler Miss Irene Kohler again impressed an audience which filled the University Hall yesterday afternoon with the virtuosity of her pianoforte playing. Brilliant tone always under control, expressive nuances giving shapely grace to every phrase, clarity of touch, and a comprehensive exposition cf musical design, all showed her splendid gifts and training.

Miss Kohler’s dexterity is greatly to be admired, and she produces terrific power without any obvious effort. Her tone is never harsh, and her grading of softer tones is alw'ays vital in character. She began her recital with Liszt’s composition, “After Reading Dante.” It is interesting to speculate what Dante might have written after reading Liszt. This work had the usual improvisational rhodomontade —'grand if you like that sort of thing, but a time-wasting bore if you seek more deeply satisfying music and know’ that the performer is so excellently fitted to play those many other works you would have preferred to hear. The playing was splendid. Miss Kohler opened Beethoven's Sonata in E major. Op. 109 in an atmosphere of tranquility and gave a gentle unfolding of the lovely scene. Then came martial strength and a piling of phrase upon phrase with a masterly I uilding up of tone. Throughout the glorious last movement, with its moments of high climax, there was an ineffable peace and healing to the spirit in the metamorphosis of the beautiful theme whose repetition at the end summed up all that had been experienced with magical atmosphere. As an encore Miss Kohler played a charming and interesting Prelude in C by Prokofiev. —C.F.B