SONG RECITAL

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 53, 5 March 1925, Page 10

SONG RECITAL

MISS KATHLEEN JANSEN.

Yet another Wellington vocalist has returned to her native city to give musiclove.rs the benefit of her voice. Miss ; Kathleen . Jansen, daughter of Mr. and | Mrs. C. Jansen, of Wellington, who has been studying in England and Australia under well-known masters, gave a recital in the Concert Chamber last night before a crowded audience. It was also a most enthusiastic audience, which demanded many recalls from the talented young songstress, who was in gracious mood and delighted .her hearers with many songs. It was at once realised that the voice had been beautifully trained, for it was revealed as a sweet and true mezzo soprano, with .much power on the top notes, a warm, melodious middle register, and rich low notes. ■ Admirably under control, the singer's voice was weil tested by an ambitious programme, representing Dvorak, Sinding, Tschaikowsky, Puccini, Saint-Saens, Grieg, and Bizet, while Brahms, Gounod, and. Cyril Scott werfe chosen for encore works. The recital showed Miss Jansen as a discriminating singer, thoughtful, rather restrained, but with a keen interpretative sense and a liking for .climaxes. One of her most charming solos last night was "Agnus Dei" (Bizet), with violin obbligato by M. Leon do Mauuy. It was a distinctive and distinguished number in every sense. As a recall for this she sang Gounod's "Aye Maria:" Opening with Sinding's "Sylvclin," Miss Jansen, went on to Dvorak's "Songs My Mother Taught Me," and by this time the audience knew that an artist of promise and achievement stood before it. A bracket of Tschaikowsky numbers followed, and then Mimi's tuneful and pathetic song from Puccini's "La Boheme,"' also an outstanding offering. In ; "La- Cloche" (Saint-Saens, words by Victor Hugo), Miss Jansen caught the meaning of the French chanson, and again in Grieg's The First Primrose" and S'A Swan." i A lullaby about a coon took the fancy of the audience, and the singer to submit to a double encore for 1: this little melody that caught at heart-strings with its simplicity. At the conclusion of her performance, no mean test for a singer making her debut, Miss Jansen was applauded again and again. M. Leon de Mauny, a violinist who has, fortunately for Wellington, settled in the city, gave, excellent assistance with the obbligatos' and solos, among which were Vieuxtemps' "Ballade and Polonaise" ; Wieniawskis "Romance," from his second concerto; Coleridge-Taylor's "Ballade in I C Minor, ' and recall numbers. Mi-. Harold Whittle's accompaniments were a delight. ■ ■ ■