Chamber Music Society’s Concert

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31027, 5 April 1966, Page 18

Chamber Music Society’s Concert

The programme for the first subscription concert of the Chamber Music Society was given in the Civic Theatre last evening by Denes Zsigmondy and Annaliese Nissen, violinist and pianist. Mr Zsigmondy has a technique of remarkable fluency and flexibility; his intonation never could be called in question. and he phrases with polished grace. His interpretations show musicianly insight both in realisation of structural design and also in the emotional message of the music.

The programme began with Brahms’s Sonata No. 3 in D minor, and both players were in splendid accord in all matters relating to precision and to the spirit of the music. It would have been a delightful performance in a small hall or a drawing-room, but Mr Zsigmondv’s tone was rather too light for the Civic Theatre, and a performance in miniature of a major work was the result. It did not lack warmth or elegance or refinement of detail. It was beautifully clear, and it was certainly heart-felt playing: every expected detail was there excent breadth and grandeur. Miss Nissen’s tone had plenty of warmth and carrying quality, and it is interesting that although her work attracted more attention through greater vitality of »onal quality she kept an unfailing balance with her partner

The Mozart Sonata in G major. K. 301, was delightfully nlaved with splendid clarity of line, subtle expression, and refinement of statement. The oiano part is the more nrominent in this work, and Miss Nissen certainly showed herself a pianist of rare accomolishment. Her plaving is beautifully supnle and ri«h in expressive variety. There was a glowing happiness in both movements, the first giving the freedom of a spring breeze in the tree-tops and the second having courtly dignity and chann. While the first half of the programme certainly gave us the quality of music expected at concerts given by the Chamber Music Society, the second half did not It began with Paganini’s “Witches' Dance” and Ravel’s “Tzigane.” a work built with scintillating skill round gipsy dances. Mr Zsigmondy played both with charm of manner and handled all the technical difficulties of double stopping and flights of harmonics with skill and practised ease, but they lacked the necessary fire and brilliant sparkle. The prevailing tone, though beautifully polished, was like that of a singer who rarely ventures beyond half-

voice production, and it seemed that if the witches found it necessar” to turn anyone into a bull-frog they would do it with reluctance and suave politeness, and that the gipsie s would change for dinner and never steal a chicken. Debussy’s “Vision” was played with smoothly singing muted pianissimo tone, and Bartok’s “Rumanian Folk Dances” was sophisticated but somewhat unconvincing. As encores—and some of the material of the second part of the programme was not much above the “encore” type of material, we had a delicate melody by Prokofiev, the Moussorgsky “Gopak,” and a charming scherzo by Stravinsky. —C.F.B.