DAWSON-HAMBOURG

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 7, 8 July 1931, Page 3

DAWSON-HAMBOURG

HIGHLY POPULAR ARTISTS

If any doubt lingered in the mind of the rising,generation as to the popularity of the baritone Peter Dawson and the pianist Mark!Hambpurg; it should have been dispelled last night. Again the Town Hall wag crowded, ■ and; the overflow was accommodated in the choir. '; Both famous a.'t'iats, who have visited New Zealand before, they appeared to' set themselves out last night, to enjoy themselves as well as to minister to the artistic ■ pleasure of their audience. There was nothing stiff, formal, or aloof jn their attitude towards their audience, in fact, they seemed to feel themselves thoroughly at home. They were both . extremely ' liberal in acceding to "requests," ' and gave double measure in the matter of encores. One little way they had was ■of announcing the titles and composers o£ their encores—with one exception/. Peter Dawson's encore item, "The Floral Dance." : ,

The concert was opened by Hambourg with Schubert's "Wanderer" fantasia, the stupendous executive difficulties of which the great 'pianist easily. overcame. There followed a group' of pieces "Arabesques" and "Toccata" of Schumann, Valse A Flat by Rubinstein',- and "Aye Maria," by Henselt. Hambourg is nothing if not an energetic artist, and forthright, and emphatic in his-interpretation o£ the various works he essays. He has his own ideas of their significance, his own opinions as to time, and he certainly, has a way. with his public which' it finds acceptable and receives unquestioningly. He showed hirhself'to be an individualist last night' in his presentation of Liszt's arrangement1 of "La . Carnpanella" and Chopin's.Waltz in A Flat. If some members of his audience preferred his playing of the Schumann* Toccata and the Chopin Nocturne in F Sharp Major to any of the many other.pieces he played, he probably would not resent the partiality. Peter,* Dawsbn's/magnificent singing of "Adelaide" was in its way doing homage to Beethoven. Taken from any. angle, this number ■w4s: easily .the' most artistic of . any: siirig by Mr. -Dawson last night.- It. waa^ sung in German, but sung -with. feeling ,arid a 'deep sense of its beauty. "Speak, Music," from "The Professor," the words by A. C.Benson and the music rby.Elgar,'followed. : It was a striking 'example of • the perfect, union of words and music, and only took second place to the "Adelaide/ With considerable dramatic; feeling and delightful artistry, Mr. Dawson sang the cycle "Maud," by Somervell, ; a chain of songs made from Tennyson's- immortal : (yet ; to-day forgotten) 'poem of that name. With every desire to meet all musical tastes of which liia audience was composed, Mr. Dawson sang "The Song, of the\Flea" (Moussorgsky), "I Travel the Koad," "Boots," "I Shot an Arrow in the Air," "House of Mine" (D. M. Stewart), "A Sea Gipsy" (Michael Head), arid "The Pibroch Man" (Villiers Stanford). He shared with Hambourg the good feeling with which the large and delighted, audience bubbled over —and had its fullest sympathy in his struggles with a refractory collar stud which were, effectively dealt with by Mr. Alan Richardson, who showed himself to beasgood a valet as an accompanist. •The third concert, to be given, to-mor-row, will: include Beethoven's Sonata in C Sharp Minor ("Moonlight") and Chopin numbers, .with "Widmung" (SchumannLiszt), and variations on a theme (Paga-nini-Brahms), by Mark Hambourg; also "Ruddier Than the Cherry," two Brahms lieder, and, among lighter numbers, "Kangaroo 'and Dingo" will be sung by Peter Dawson. '■ . ;