A SUPERB ’CELLIST

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 55, 28 November 1928, Page 6

A SUPERB ’CELLIST

RECITAL BY MR. GEORGE ELLWOOD Although Mr. George Ellwood has been heard in trio and quartet recitals in Wellington in recent years, he has not exercised his amazing talent in personal recitals since he settled in Wellington until last evening. Good ’cellists are as rare as black pearls, and in Mr. Ellwood Wellington possesses an artist who probably has no superior in Australia, and maybe is entitled to inclusion in the virtuoso class, having gone on from boyhood to achieve the highest honour the Liege sConservatoire conld confer, and from that time has neglected no opportunity to perfect his art. It is not alone his superb mastery of the technic of this difficult instrument that gives him this standing, but it is just as much those inner graces of refinement and sympathy, the capacity to colour a tone and shape it, to polish a phrase, to extend a tone to the finest thread of golden sweetness. Such powers are only given to the few, and he is one of them. The programme presented last night was a model one. It opened with the Handel Sonata in G Minor, music of the “grave,” sedate order, melodious and refined, and always beautiful in its sober expression of all that is sweet and good and pure. Mr. Ellwood cast his spell unerringly, making a particular appeal in the softened splendour of the second movement, played with a grace and suavity that won him the plaudits of all present. The “Variations Symphoniques (Boellmann) is a standard work for all ’cellists of advanced culture, and here again Mr. Ellwood displayed his technical mastery in alliance with those wells of sympathy that his facile bow commands. The following bracket included a stately “Adagio” (Tartini), an extremely beautiful "Elegie,” a charming “Sicilienne” by Faure, i.nd a Slavonic “Fantasie” by Dvorak, arranged by Kreisler (perhaps better known to con-cert-goers as the ballad “Songs My Mother Taught Me”). Of these perhaps the solemn sweetness of the ‘Elegie made the strongest appeal to the emotions. An outstanding feature on the programme was the Sonata in A Minor of Greig (with Mr. Gordon Short at the pianoforte). Whilst there is no questioning the charm and witchery ot Grieg’s music, the sonata scarcely displays the ’cello to its fullest advantage, though there are some attractive passages and fragmentary cadences that catch the ear. The pianoforte part, on the other hand, is delightful and was most admirably played by Mr. Short. Mr. Ellwood made a verv deep appeal in his fine reading of the Hebrew lament “Koi Nedrei” (Max Bruch), his sonorous tone and intense feeling realising perfectly the spirit of the lament. There is perhaps no composer who has written so well for the solo ’cello as Popper. and his “Hungarian Rhapsodie is a classic. It hns manv vital moods it extends the soloist physically and mentally, and is a vastly entertaining work Mr. Ellwood played it like an artist. An ovation followed., to which the ’cellist responded with Hui’s “Orwntale,” another characteristic gem. The accompaniments were brilliantly played by Mr. Short.