A Liedertafel “men’s night”

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33003, 24 August 1972, Page 14

A Liedertafel “men’s night”

The Liedertafel is one of our “traditional” choral groups: traditional in its structure and traditional in its customs — such as its regularly held “Men’s Nights,” one of which took place last evening in the Caledonian Hall.

In general, male voice choirs are also traditionally robust and hearty, lacking in musical discrimination at times, and often looked on as the country cousin of the mixed-voice, large-scale choral societies. Possibly the image is of their own making but last evening’s concert showed that in performance, at least, the local group by no means conforms to this picture. The Liedertafel was in fine voice, its freely produced, flowing tone and sonorous blend of voices soon apparent in the opening bracket of five part-songs by Elgar. It was a pleasure to see these on the programme and the choir worked well at them, especially “Feasting, I watch,” in which the air of dramatic pageantry was admirably brought out through expressive use of the choir’s wide range of tone colour.

Stanford’s “Song of the Sea,” in which the soloist was Jack Mason, was also welcome. Mr Mason, a stalwart of the choir, sang styl-

ishly, and Alex Robson, the Liedertafel’s acting-conduc-tor, secured a thoroughly artistic performance. The other concerted pieces provided less substantial fare, a group of three dramatic part-songs in the first half and, after the Interval, a frankly boring “Hymn” by Schubert, notable only for its jog-trot rhythm and squareness of phrasing, two light-hearted part-songs by John Ritchie, a “Maori Lullaby” by Martin, and an arrangement of “Dry Bones.” All these were most competently sung and each highlighted some particular quality of the choir, such as clarity in diction, or securely controlled dynamic gradations. None, however added any distinction to the programme. Two members contributed solos: tenor Rod McKenzie was more at home in Schubert’s “Serenade” than the extract from Flotow’s “Marta.” Graham • Clothier, baritone, sang songs by Tchaikowsky and Schumann. The guest soloists, who presented their assorted pieces most skilfully, were Robert Stafford, harmonica, and J. E. McMillan and L. C. Brown, euphonium duet. Hubert Filer accompanied throughout the evening in a most secure and sympathetic manner. —B.W.PJ