GREAT ENTHUSIASM

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 278, 20 August 1938, Page 16

GREAT ENTHUSIASM

Paul Schramm’s Third

Recital

Paul Schramm's third recital at the Concert Chamber of the Wellington ’.town Hall last night, by t.lie high standard of the mimical fare and brilliance willi which it was presented, definitely established this outstanding artist as a pianoforte virtuoso of the first rank. The reception accorded him amounted to a furore, and it was an excited audience that finally left the hall, after having partially. satisfied an insatiable demand for encores. Opening with the 32 aviations in G Minor by Beethoven, Mr. Schramm quickly prepared his audience for the Beethoven Sonata in F Minor (Oppassianata). As the calm opening phrases of the first movement, sounded through the hall, it was apparent to all that here was a new master of Beetjioveu, whose ideas and interpretations surely approached those of the composer himself. The thunderous first movement, the more restful second movement, followed by the rushing third and last movement, were paraded with such majesty and awe that it was a thrilled audience that gradually came back to earth at the cud of the sonata. The insistent demand for an encore brought forth the ■ Variations on the “Turkish March” from Beethoven’s “Ruins of Athens,” a delightful change from the usual version of the march itself.

Chopin’s Sonata in B Flat Minor was next, and rarely a more impressive version of Chopin's “Four Wayward Children,” as the four movements of this work have been termed, can have been beard in Wellington. The third movement (Funeral March), with its death-like pianissimo passages and sepulchral trills in the lower registers of tb e piano, cast a new light on this much-loved work. An encore brought forth the scintillating Etude in A Flat. The Chopin group that followedconsisted of Nocturne in D Flat (Op. 27, 2), Waltz in G Flat, and Ballade in A I'la’t Major (Op. -17), the latter presented in brilliant and authoritative manner. Mr. Schramm gracefully encored with “La Cathedrale Englouite” Debussy), one of numerous request items. Liszt was . represented by “Ricordanza” (“Remembrance”), a little-known work, reminiscent of Liszt’s later style in form and floridness, and the everpopular La Campanella, with its galaxy of trills and sparkling passages. This brought the programme to a finish, but the audience was in no mood to depart. In response to insistent _ applause, Mr. Schramm played the C Minor Nocturne (Chopin), ‘‘Minute” Waltz (presented, as Mr. Schramm amusingly explained, not /in one but a minute and a half), and the paraphrase on the “Blue Danube Waltz” (Johann Strauss), bv Schulz-Evler. By this time Paul Schramm had played himself into the hearts of his audience, which finally left the hall filled with admiration for the man and his art, ,