RENEE NIZAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 143, 20 June 1938, Page 4

RENEE NIZAN

SECOND ORGAN RECITAL Mile. Renee Nizan, the brilliant French organist, again captivated her audience on Saturday at the Town Hall, when she gave her second recital in Wellington. The attendance of the public was much larger than at the first occasion, when Mile. Nizan, by her superb artistry, made a profound impression on all who heard her. Her programme on Saturday was wisely compiled so as to make a particular and general appeal. It was confined to works originally written for the organ and were almost entirely by French composers. The numbers in themselves, as well as their performance, no doubt proved of special interest to the serious musician and student of music to whom much in them would be apparent, that listeners in general would not be able to perceive. Even so, Mile. Nizan's presentation of each piece, no matter how musically abstruse or difficult it might seem to understand on a -first hearing, made it of special and general interest to the audience as a whole. The recital began with the startling final movement from Widor's Seventh Symphony for the organ. The intense chromaticism and the brilliant passages and phrases of his work were magnificently played. In this, as in others of her numbers, Mile. Nizan showed amazing skill in the use of the pedals melodically. In three numbers by Vierne, "Hymn to the Sun," "Com.munion," and tne final movement of this composer's First Symphony, the recitalist had remarkable popular success, so it seemed, in assisting the general ardience (as distinct, from the musically learned) to. discover something ■ worth while in 'the music of our time or age; something that may often demand of the trained musician much arduous study, and the subordination of his emotions to his intellect. Others were left free to take the work as they felt it; and in Mile. Nizan these others found on Saturday night a graceful and highly accomplished ministrant. Her selection from Bach was the Fugue in G Minor, which was magnificently and authoritatively played. It was followed by "Noel" (D'Aquin), which the programme note stated was one of several based on popular themes of Provence. It was a simple melody adorned with harmonic jewels and proved immensely popular. Cesar Franck's deeply religious feeling, outstanding in almost all his work (especially in his symphony for the orchestra), received full recognition from Mile. Nizan when she played his

"Pastorale." The invocation "Stella Matutina" of Dallier followed, and was no exception to the preceding numbers in the programme in its interest and appeal to the audience. It was remarkable, however, for the restrained but eloquent use of the vox humana and the effective, yet unaggressive, use of

the oboe and flute. Incidentally, Mile. Nizan's use of strident or strongly assertive stops in order to make a wide popular appeal was noteworthy for her good taste and artistic judgment. Other numbers played were a delightful gavotte by Martini and the exuberant scherzo of Gigout. Mile. Nizan's second recital was an unqualified and popular success, and many who heard her at these recitals will be interested to learn that she is yet to be heard in Dunedin and Auckland, and is to give a second recital in Christchurch.