MISS DAISY KENNEDY

Evening Star, Issue 17284, 24 February 1920, Page 4

MISS DAISY KENNEDY

AGAIN ENRAPTURES HEARERS,

Last night's programme at the Burns Hal] "was quite-diii'ereut in character from Saturday'?. There was, for instance, no Bach number: but music lovers should note that his famous air for the G string is set down for Wednesday. The older classical school was represented by Handel's Sonata in 1) Major; then come four bracketed numbers of. the- romantic school —Mendelssohn, Schubert, Beethoven, and •Solium.-.mi being the composers..and double stopping being"a, ie-.iture in all;- then Paganini's Concerto in 1) Major as a tost piece in virtuosity; lastly ;i succession of half a dozen modem compositions, mostly in dance, form, and so cunningly arranged as to present a series of delightful contrasts. Monotony is a- word for -which Miss Daisy Kennedy" has no use, and those absentees who imagine that no one-person recital can steer clear of it are making the mistake- of their lives. Remember Dolores. Vitality pulses just as much tiiiough Miss Kennedy's work. Even a stone-deaf man, watcliiug the ilexions of that incomparable bow arm, could declare tliat delicacy, vivacity, and emotional power must Oc the response of the Amati to such handling. Take, for example, the Handel Sonata. Some might say—before hearing- it—",-m excellent study for practice before breakfast, but out of place after y p.m. in public!" .Miss Kennedy proved that perfection of technique, plus' the per-ioi-mer's personal belief in the music, can throw freak and vivid light on it and make tho most formal-looking passage as absolutely dazzling as anythnig in 20th century musical literature. These old pieces take playing;- but how they sparkle up on those too few occasions when thev get it: One anions many reasons is that 'such a player as Miss Kennedy makes legato passages pour in one continuous stream of melody; while in staccato work the notes are bitten out with the clean-cut ineisivonoss of a sharp axe cleaving nswlv-felled elm branches on a chopping "block." Iwo of last night's items we remember to have heard Kubelik play in the Garrison Hall. One was Pa.ganiui's Concerto iu * ln s° v - If wo wished to compare the two renderings, we. could not. Tho memory of the one is frosh, of the other necessarily faded, since Paganini's compositions are short-term tenants to most ears. Iu this conee.-to there is no dearth of melody. There is one fundamental subject of great beauty, anrmoue.eed on the <-« string and afterwards repeated in harmonics on the ]•} string. But from these sobrieties Paganini must fly of! at a tangent to the most bewildering pyrotechnics —or it would not be Pagaejni—much as a schoolboy must diversify "every few vards of progress along a road with" some "hand springs or a jump across and back the side ditch. Miss Kennedy was much more than equal to this diabolically exacting music. Some rapid bouncing bow passage's were in particular unique, and for a climax *he chase the Sauret Cadenza, iu which ihe perfection of those difficult octaves emphasised flip, fact, if that were needed, that her octave playing is always true to n hair. The other number in 'which w t > had also heard Kubelik was Beethoven's Romance in G. It is a memorable aiv, familiarised by having been set to the hymn_ "In the Cross"'of Christ T glory, cowering o'er the wrecks of time." ° The feature of Kubelik';; rendering wa« the. mathematical precision and balance of tho two-part playing in which the theme is announced. Miss Kennedy's double-stop-ping- was equally good, but different in kind. While Kuhelik's intention seemed to he entirely concentrated on claritv, Miss Kennedy superimposed tenderness" Nor did she lose in clarity. Where the lower part breaks into a two-b?at-to-one accompaniment to the air, giving virtually the effect of three-part harmony, her Amati articulated so lucidly and so'swcct'v as to make one catch one's breath. This performance alone would clinch anv argument as to Miss Kennedy's high place among the world's solo violinists. Of the other numbers in the double-stopping group Kreisler's setting of Schubert's Moment Musicals' trinped li-httv as a feather in its quick-step rhvlhm", and Schumann s 'Fountain' was 'as realistic a piece of nature study as can he cajoled irom the violin, supreme amon-.r instruments for mimicry, as Miss Kennedy fur. ther showed by including as one. encore number the 'Dragonfly' which had taken so weH on Saturday. Mendelssohn's 'Gondola Song" was overshadowed bv the«e other three neighbors :u the bracket. I" the half dozen, dance numbers an enraptured audience singled out Kreisler's Maltz and Znrzycki's Mazurka. Yet the most intriguing item hi the group was pemaps Csesar Cui's ' Orientale.'" The vioin part begins pizzicato, followed by a bowed note rhythmically repeated—a most quaint figure, developer! jointly bv violin and and tossed to and fro between thcin witn inimitable deftness. C'vril Scott's negro air and dance was typically modern, and was played iu a way that suggested that, if the whim took her. Miss Kennedy could jazz with the best of I hem. Zimbalist's Hebrew song and dance was equally typical, and intrinsically better music, its more sombre moods takin.' on the semblance of ». lament; 'Rachel mourning for her children, mavbo.' India's Souvenir and a repetition" of another success of Saturday night Parti's Minuet) complete tho list of this most charming violinist's offerings. It has been shown t.iat'they were many nnFT varied, and that all_ tastes were catered for. Rut cold print is quite an inefficient medium for conveying m any but the most inadequate fashion the nature and extent of the musical least provided by Miss Kennedy and her gifted accompanist. Miss Topsio Doenau.

On Wednesday evening Miss Kennedy makes her last appearance at the Burns Hall, and we reiterate -with all possible emphasis that it is a chance not to be missed. Besides the already-mentioned bach air for the G string there are quite a number of those, fascinating 17th and lath century compositions which this gifted player contrive- to present -with the bloom and freshness of youth on thorn Tn Mendelssohn's Concerto "in R Minor, a favorite standard work wiiTT all areit violinists, there will probably be only a . small percentage m the audience who'will fail to at once recognise, in the tuneful andante an old familiar friend whose charm never declines on renewal of acquaintance iiie remainder of the prop-ram me presents wqnderml variety, a. list of sK- W-ncr* Pllr } ing with AYioniawski's brillj. . \ • '-'ntvenir do Moscow.'