A FINE RECITAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 7, 8 July 1938, Page 4

A FINE RECITAL

MADAME BETTS-VINCENT

The . versatility and consummate artistry of Madame E. Betts-Vincent was revealed in a comprehensive concert of pianoforte solos which she presented' in Nimma's Hall last night to an appreciative audience. But it was not by her skill at the piano alone that Madame Betts-Vincent gave her presentations appeal, for a very pleasing feature of the recital was the manner in which she referred, between each bracket of numbers, to the special merits of the forthcoming pieces, and drew the audience's attention to finer points which might otherwise have been overlooked or not appreciated to the full. Revealing little anecdotes about the whims and eccentricities of the various composers were not unwelcome.

Madame Betts-Vincent divided her programme into four parts, the first of which was, taken up with Schumann's familiar "Carnaval." Here the various moods of Schumann were revealed in a series of. musical vignettes aptly named Pierrot, Valse Noble, Papillons, Pantaloon, and Columbine, and many others. It was a fine work finely played. From Schumann Madame Betts-Vin-cent passed to a. bracket of works by the greatest of all composers for the pianoforte. Three of Chopin's choicest pieces were chosen, the first being the brilliant Fantasie in F Minor, with its irresistible appeal. The true beauty of this musical fantasy was fully reproduced in Madame BettsVincent's playing. Light and whimsical, the Scherzo in E was the second Chopin number, and the Etude in A Minor, known to some as the "Winter Wind," with its heavy technical demands and exacting secondary theme, completed the bracket. Rachmaninoff's Prelude in G, a dainty, appealing piece, vastly different from the sombre and powerful Prelude in G Minor by the same composer, formed the first item of the next group, but later in the evening the pianist, p.s a recall, played the G Minor prelude, revealing a different side of the composer's nature. In direct contrast was the somewhat stormy Rhapsody in C, by Dohnanyi, of true Hungarian character, but a less familiar staccato study by Edith Greenop again called for delicate melody. "Colloque au Clair de Lune" and "Danse d'Olaf" (Pick-Mangiagalli) were in more modern manner- Granados's descriptive Spanish piece, "The Girl and the Nightingale," and Albeniz's difficult Triana, also full of rich Spanish colouring, were interesting comparisons. Delibes's "Naila" Valse. with its familiar melody, was the concluding item in an appealing and masterful recital.