MUSICAL APPRECIATION

Evening Star, Issue 20129, 20 March 1929, Page 5

MUSICAL APPRECIATION

POSSIBLE IN EVERYONE accomplished musician speaks The lecture-recital by Mr Allred Hirst in the Burns Half last evening should have served to heighten musical appreciation in many ways. Unfortunately the weather conditions prevailing resulted in only a few people being privileged to hear a masterly exposition, both in speech and music, of the works of the great masters. Mr Hirst’s remarks were addressed to the man in the street, the man to whom musical appreciation is a complex and indefinite matter. As a unique educational entertainment his effort deserved better support. He gave an informal ami thoroughly delightful performance. There wore no puzzling complexities or technicalities in his remarks, and he studiously avoided obscurity in expression. Mr Hirst’s conceptions of the lives and individualities of many com posers were at once intimate and authoritative, and he artistically exemplified _ the beauty of many schools of music by sympathetic interpretations at the pianoforte. In his introductory remarks Mr Hirst classified two distinct schools^ —the abstract music, which exists for its beauty of melodic construction and feeling, find the expressive, the more emotional musdc. In the former category he placed preludes by Bach and Handel which incidentally ho played with consummate artistry. The Bach prelude, he said, was a number of colours so grouped that they formed a perfect whole. The spirit of Handel was summed up in a few chords. Then he passed on to Scarlatti, a harpsichord player, who had to depend upon line and rhythm. The development of the simple theme was illustrated in an air from Gluck's 1 Orpheus,’ the minuet from ‘ Don Juan ’ by Mozart, and the waltzes of Schubert and Brahms. Then Mr Hirst went on to the more emoiional music, showing how Beethoven developed the art from the abstract to the innermost feelings of alternate despair, tragedy, and the uplift of the soul. _ Beethoven nut his whole soul into his music, and Ids deafness, the great tragedy of Ins life, was probably rovealecl in the first movement of the ‘Pathetiquc Sonata,’ which depicted the struggle within him, and consisted of long pauses, silences of despair, and the triumphant ending expressing the man’s determination to vanquish Fate. The second movement was an expression of peace and contentment after the braving of the storm. Then Mr Hirst snoke of the poignant tragedy and pathos of the life of Schubert. Paradoxically enough his music was remarkable for its spontaneity and beauty. Chopin, too, suffered mental torture after his arrival in Paris. The varying moods of the two composers were illustrated bv the rdaving of well-known excerpts from their work. Final I v Mr Hirst gave an impressive rendering of Chopin’s ‘Funeral March.’ which he described as one of the most ennobling works in musical literature, and contrasted it with Debussy’s 4 Cathedral Under the Sea.’ of which one eminent musician has said that it was the most profound of all modern compositions. Mr Hirst’s performance at the pianoforte was one of manifest conviction. He is not a. showy player, yet nevertheless succeeds in bringing home the full point of his remarks. Ho played with a delightful touch, rare understanding, and considerable skill.