LUNCH-TIME CONCERT

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31659, 20 April 1968, Page 18

LUNCH-TIME CONCERT

Five senior students of the University Music School gave a recital in the Ngaio Marsh Theatre at Ham on Wednesday afternoon. Miss Suzanne Purnell began wjth a Sonata in D by Haydn, and showed in the first movement that she has splendid technical control of the pianoforte. Her playing was flexible, clean, and clear, well adapted to the happy atmosphere of the music. There was freshness and lightness in the cascading little scale passages, and in the figures which sounded like distant trumpet challenges. The second movement had quiet and ordered dignity, and the last movement, in the form of a minuet, made its points with gentle grace. Miss Purnell then played Preludes 2 and 7, from the second book of Preludes by Debussy. The light fantasy and delicate colouring of the first were conveyed with subtle control of touch, and there were most pleasant sonorities as well as fine shad-

ings in the second. All items were played with awareness of style. Miss Jocelyn Staples, accompanied by Mr Colin Hendry, played Faure’s Fantasie, Op. 79, for flute and piano. She played with agility and with smooth tones, but tne tempo of the second part of the work was possibly too fast and clarity suffered somewhat. Mr Hendry played with good supporting tone that kept proper balance and gave life and vitality. Mr Stephen McCurdy and Mr Guy Donaldson, cellist and pianist, played “My Lord Sandwich’s Dreame” by Herbert Howells, and Beethoven’s Sonatina in D minor. Mr McCurdy produces smooth and mellow tone with good intonation. There was a wispy quality of sound created by both players in the Howells work which built up a most attractive atmosphere. The Beethoven was also played with quiet charm of tone, but the music called for rather more vitality. —C.F.B.