ARTISTIC SINGER

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 131, 30 November 1926, Page 5

ARTISTIC SINGER

NEW ZEALAND MEZZO-SOPRANO.

According to the London critics Miss Milhccnt Knight sang at Wigmore Hali to a well-filled house. The music-lovers there gave encouragement, and subsequently praise, to this young mezzo-so-prano, and she returned to her own people rightly hoping, that they would pay tribute to one of their own who had succeeded where many have failed. Miss Ivmglit, before she departed to finish off her training, was one of the best of the local performers, and iv view of the improvement she was bound to make—and did make—one did not expect that on her return she would give her initial recital to a sparsely filled hall. It must have been a bitter disappointment after all the years of study and after her successful debut in London. However, those who did hear Miss Knight at the Town Hall last night were well rewarded. The mezzo-soprano is the rarest of the : female voices, and it is only in comparatively recent times that it/has found the place on the platform and the stage that it undoubtedly deserves. In music in which the melodic interest dominates and the harmonic schemes are shown of those adventurous embellishments, beloved by the late Italian composers, no organ gives a more perfect form of expression. It imparts a glow into the songs of the okl English composers that the soprano finds it hard to cultivate, and in Gerjnan lieder, as Grenhardt has demonstrated, the mezzo stands alone. Miss Knight in her programme realised the characteristics of her type of voice and submitted a list of songs that was rather unique for a local audience. She gave her hearers four distinct types of song, and with one or two exceptions they were of an age when music was young and fresh, and when music was untrammelled by any conscious effect to produce an artistic result. To all the singer gave adequate expression. Hers is not a voice of rare timbre but is rich and full and has the capacity of portraying every mood and never lacks warmth or colour. Miss Knight's technique is remarkably fine. She moves from one register to another with admirable facility and swift incisiveness, and in her top notes there is no suspicion of the shrillness often a trait in a big voice. The early Italian group, which included "Morir vogl'io" (Astorga), "Gia il sole dal Gange" (Scarlatti), "Ouella fiamma che m'accende" (Marcello), and "Armey-yous dun noble courage," from "Iphigenie en Aulide" (Gluck) were given a suave beauty, and the legato passages, which predominated throughout the bracket, were commendably even in tonequality. The dramatic Gluck aria was made stirring by a powerful crescendo. Simple harmony was again to be found in the French group, "Lamento" (Duparc), "Le Moulin" (Pierne), . "Le Trois Princess" (Vuillermoz), and "Chanson d? Route" (Puged). The last-named number, with its martial trend, was given with power, and the rhythm of the watermill gave "Le Moulin" a fascinating charm. The songs of England were represented on the programme mostly by selections from the renascence period. Here was gaiety and an entire absence of any strong emotional expression, befitting the national character of tTiose days. "Flow Not Fast, Ye Fountaines" (John Dowland), "Sweet Kate" (Robert Jones), "My Sweet Sweeting" (Frederick Keel), and "Dawn" (Gustav Hoist) were made to live. "Bless my brooms," by the English pianist, Harold Craxton, and "The Terrible Robber Men" (Herbert Hughes) were very popular. And finally Miss Knight gave expression to the greatest of all the schools of song-^the German lieder. Schubert's immortal gem, "Dv bist die Ruh" was made | sympathetic and appealing. "Der Schmeid" (Brahms) roused the audience to a high pitch of enthusiasm, and they insisted oti the song being repeated. "Verborgenheit" and "Der Gartner," by Wolf, were also delicious glintings and the singer gave us an encore Ben Johnson's "Drink to Me Only." At the conclusion Miss Knight was recalled- again and again. Assisting the singer was M. Leon de Mauny, the violinist, who is always a welcome performer. His selections included "Sonata" in A Major (Handel), "Chanson Indoue" (Rimsky-Korsakov, arr. Kreisler), and "Tambourin Chinpis" (Kreisler). All were played with patient sincerity and musical instinct. Mr. Harold Whittle was an admirable accompanist, and his sympathy with the singer waß unfailing.