SERIOUS MUSIC

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26473, 29 May 1947, Page 8

SERIOUS MUSIC

KRAUS-PIKLER RECITAL BEETHOVEN SONATAS Continuing their musicianly task of playing, in three recitals, the 10 sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven, Lili Kraus and Robert Pikler claimed the rapt attention of their audience which nearly filled the Concert Chamber last night. Most concert agents seem always to act on the assumption that New Zealand audiences have to be played down-to. In recent months there have been recitals by good artists who have considered it necessary, from the boxoffice angle, to include in their programmes a certain amount of popular music. Such recitals as the KrausPikler Beethoven duos, with their uncompromising seriousness, have contributed something towards exploding the idea that the highbrows and lowbrows should be catered for on the same programme. To single out an item from such a programme it would be necessary to discuss the. music rather than the performance, which was of a very nigh standard throughout. The four sonatas played covered a wide range of thought, and showed the composer in his early, middle, and mature styles. The deservedly popular Spring Sonata, No. 5, belongs to Beethoven’s early maturity, and the performers brought to it a rare understanding of its freshness and vitality. In the slow movements of the Second and Fourth Sonatas the. two players discoursed in quiet meditative mood in a manner wholly satisfying. The Tenth Sonata, Op. 96, makes greater demands on the listener, belonging as it does to a period near the end of the composer’s life when he had completely mastered the technical problems of his art, and was concerned solely with giving expression to the things which concerned him deeply. There were some momentary difficulties in following the changing moods of the poco allegretto in this sonata, mainly due to the brilliant tone of the piano overshadowing the violin. This fault, which could easily have occurred quite frequently, has been conspicuous by its absence dur-' ing the two recitals. Several times during the evening the players were disturbed by a coughing audience. Sound patterns are drawn on a background of silence. The momentary pauses between two phrases or the longer ones between sections and movements are pregnant with the memory of what has just passed and the anticipation of what is to come. Such significant silences are filled with the “ presence of Allah ” as they say in the East. To have them invaded with bouts of coughing by nervous listeners who are afraid of silence is seriously disturbing to the performers and the majority of the audience. The cycle will be. completed at the next recital on June 10. M. M.