A MUSICAL TREAT

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11418, 15 January 1923, Page 2

A MUSICAL TREAT

WESTMfNSTER GLEE SINGERS THE OPENING CONCERT. For obvious reasons, especially in New Zealand, choral and part-singing has long been held the province of .he amateur. Part songs, madrigals and glees have fallen lo our small choiis and hnrmonio societies: whose performances are all too few. Yet the extraordinary poi ularity of si ch music has always been evident whenever one of these bodies has emerged from its obsecurity and taken the platform, and the failure 1 of the musical entrepreneurs of this country to realise what a good commercial proposition there is in these forms of singing is puzzling. The greatest successes of the ftistine Choir soloists were in their concerted numbers from "Puritani," "Moses iu Egypt,” "Faust” and other operas. But in Mr Branscombe’s Glee Singeis, who commenced their season at the Tov.-n Hall on Saturday, we have something very different. The opening programme was very English, and the styU of singing was essentially of that country. It is a school which it would be 1 ard to better. Mr Branscombe's singers treat their art very seriously and ns worthy of some dignity of approach. They regard tiue intonation as the first essential; of tLat art and convey expression bv tone-colour rather than by the gesticulations of (he continent. Individually there is a keen insistence upon the artistic propriety of all that they sing and do. Though they sometimes fell away from the highest standard of puro singing, their sense of interpretation never faltered. They were of the genre of Gervase Elwes and the greatest of platforqi singers, and behind them is the whole weight and prestige of one of the most truly interpretative schools in the world, a school which regards music as an intellectual exercise and in no way founded upon the emotions.

In their concerted numbers, which form the bulk of their programme, to listen to them is a delight. Each new number is like a fresh and joyous discovery, and includes some old English music of a rare ' and, unforgettable beauty, which makes one wonder what the rongs of England would have been had Mendelssohn never lived. The tenors and basses were above reproach, and the boys, possessing thy beautiful voices of the Engljsh choir-boy, showed stamina and a musicianly spirit. They sing with perfect ease, with well-rounded, flute-like notes delivered with fine control. It would be fulsome praise to describe thc-ir .performance as perfect; the leading boy sobrano was sometimes too promiaent and occasionally uncertain in his entries. But the ensemble was of a lomarkable beauty, the diminuendos of the singers were made with perfect shadings of tone, and their l pianissimo work and balance were good. Each lad seems able to' contribute to the whole in the exact measure necessary, Withal with such perfection of tone, crispness of delivery and beautiful articulations, as to be worth going many miles to hear The singets were at home in a wide variety, of songs from early sixteenth century madrigals to some modern day charming trifles of Sternaale Burnett. Nor were they ,bj any means limited in their expression; they have the ability to suggest moods in an infinitely varying manner, as in the madrigal “I’m Going to my Lonely Bed” (Richard Edwards), the tripping ballet "Now is the Month of Maying" (Thos. Morley) and that other charming madrigal "Let me Careless and Unthoughtful Lying,” which comes to us from the eighteenth century. They can be joyous,, free, humorous, devotional, serene, or subdued iu a murmuring pianissimo at will, or their singing is of that real legato style which is so delightful to the ear. <he quintettes, "Take Thy Banner” (Coward), "Summer Eve" (Hatton), “My True Love hath my Heart” (Smart), and "I Love my Love” (Arne) - were proof of this, while the ■ carol, ‘‘The Angel and the Shepherds," was in the finest spirit of reverence. Interesting were the songs by the boys, the “Four Nurse ly Rhymes” and “Sqngs of Childhood," all by Stetndale Bennett, which they rendered, and the duets 1 of Harry Collier and Albert Cooper ("If I were a Bird” andi "Violets,” one of Sir /Frederick Oowen’s flower songs). Individually, the singers set a high interpretative standard. Mr John Andrews, who possesses a strong and sombre basso-can tan te voice, was very fine in "King Henry’s Song" (Sir Arthur Sullivan) and a traditional air, "Helen of „ Kirconnell.” Mr . Donald Reid, a male alto of great purity, sang. the trifling “Rosebud,” but atoned for it with the "Willow Song” (Sullivan) and the lilting “Come, Join in the Dance.” Such voices ordinarily tend to grow monotonous and have a very limited range of expression, but Mr Reid is surprisingly unusual. Mr Ellis Vizard, a pleasing tenor of artistic perception, with a good style, gave Vaughan Williams’s "Linden Lea" and one of Edward German’s happier moments, ■‘Charming Chloe,” which was charmingly sung. Mr Alfred Cunningham,, whose voice is a baritone of good quality, wellcontrolled, gives the impression that he is an excellent singer when one can hear him. On ' Saturday his words were rather ,lost in the Graham Peel song "In Summertime'on Bredon," though his intonation was good, and he has a fine range, but the whole of the ballad "The Ould Plaid Shawl,” was inaudible. A second concert will he given, and notice of it appears in our advertising columns.