SONGS OLD AND NEW

Evening Post, Issue 20, 23 July 1935, Page 5

SONGS OLD AND NEW

VOCAL CHAMBER MUSIC

A well-arranged and unusual programme of songs and hymns, ancient and modern, was presented at the "Cork cert Chamber last night by Miss Molly Atkinson (mezzo-soprano) and Roy Hill (tenor). A large and receptive audience was present and followed the various numbers with close attention.. There was. too, an atmosphere of friendliness or even intimacy that should be expected in a chamber concert. The numbers submitted included Elizabethan love songs, sung by Mr. Hill, and some songs and hymns that were composed by musicians of our ■times, yet were as unlike the modern ballad of the concert platform as they were reminiscent of melodies in ancient Jewish music or plain song. Of' such were the hymns for tenor voice (Mr. Hill) and viola and pianoforte (Mrs. Frieda Meier and Mr. Stanley Oliver). "Come Love, Come Lord" and "Evening Hymn," both by Vaughan Williams; also the quaint and haunting song or ballad "Corpus Christi,'.' by Peter Warlock, the young English composer who came to a tragic end while just on the threshold of his artistic career. In this the vocal parts were taken by Miss Atkinson and Mr. Hill, and the instrumental by a string quartette in which Miss Margaret Connell (violin), Mrs. Meier (viola), Mr. Wil-. liam McLean (first violin), and S. McLean ('cello). The number was repeated in order that some in the audience might become more familiar with its idiom on a second hearing than on a single performance; but it required much more than two consecutive renderings to do that. At any "rate, sufficient proof was given by those who took part in the number to convey the idea that in this work as in the selections made from the works of Gustav Hoist, Vaughan Williams, Delius, and Thomas Dunhill that figured in the programme, the more frequently their works are heard the more frequently their beauties become apparent. Miss Atkinson also included a bracket of four songs by Brahms, including "May Night" and "Serenade," to give the songs their English titles, and she also sang songs by Frank Bridge and Armstrong G.ibbs. She sang with sincerity and understanding and a deep sense of the character of her various numbers, their words and musical settings. Every word as well as every note was clear, plainly audible, and eloquently expressed. Mr. Hill was equally successful. His achievement was the more commendable inasmuch as he had no chance of "bringing down the house" with the tricks and stunts that so many concert hall ballads of today provide singer. Sound work was done by the instrumentalists above mentioned. A bright performance of the first and exhilarating movement of Schubert's trio in B Eat for violin, 'cello, and pianoforte was givjen by the Messrs. McLean and Miss Ormi Reid.

The concert can be truthfully described as an artistic success and no doubt most of those present, going by the genuine ring of the applause, hoped that. it or a similar concert may be given at an early date.