MUSICIANS AND MUSIC

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1931, Page 5

MUSICIANS AND MUSIC

BRILLIANT INTERPRETATION PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. MR. SYDNEY F. HOREN’S RECITAL. If they have not already done so, Mr. Sydney Francis Hoben’s friends should ask him to give them an evening with Liszt. That is not to say that in his recital in New Plymouth last night he was less brilliant in interpretation of other composers, but one felt that with Liszt he was in real communion of spirit as well as of artistry. Mr. Hoben s opening numbers were a happy choice. The transcription of Schubert’s Hark! Hark! the Lark was followed by that of Mendelssohn’s On Wings of Song. Prefacing them with a brief sketch of the works and the lives of the composers, Mr. Hoben stimulated his audience with the lilt of the “lark” song; He <*aVe it the gaiety of the sunshine and the open field with the songbird’s abandonment to the joy of living. There is nothing new about the Wings of Song. It' is Mendelssohn melody, but how beautiful an old favourite can be in the hands of a master it Mr. Hoben’s happy lot to demonstrate. Brom that he brought his audience, with a jerk, as it were, to the Danse Negre of Cyril Scott, the modernity of whose music was, as Mr. Hoben explained, at one time considered blasphemous by. more orthodox composers/ Dissonance is arresting and discords’“may rush in that harmony may rise.” The item certainly served to show the musician’s range of interpretation and his ..brilliancy of effect. = Moszkowski’s paraphrase of Barcarolle from the Tales of Hoffman wps the next number. The theme had the charm of familiarity and the paraphrase was arresting in its jolly inquisitiveness. Mr. Hoben seemed to enjoy its fatness which came as some relief to the sombre story of Moszkowski’s later days which he had just told. ' ' ' As if to revel in variety, David Guion’s transcription of the “Cowboys’ National, Anthem," to quote Mr. Hoben,' was the. next number chosen. It was called “Turkey in the Straw,” but the mime did not matter. It was a rollicking “.breakdown” that was made for dancing to. Its strong point was not melody, but a great deal of clever execution was essential, and once again one appreciated Mr. Hoben’s versatility. He followed the breakdown with two of Debussy’s humorous pieces, Golliwogs’ Cake-walk and Minstrels. After hearing them it was easy to understand what Mr. Hoben had told of the composer. How, starting as a brilliant but orthodox student at the Paris Conservatoire and winning a- scholarship that gave him study in other lands, he became so heterodox that the compositions he sent to the conservatoire to mark his progress abroad were declined by his old teachers. “Musical fireworks,” one member of the audience . called the pieces afterwards, anil the definition can stand. Mr. Hoben has been fortunate.in meeting many famous musicians in many countries. .When a student in Germany he was, on one or two occasions, admitted to the household of the mighty Wagner, the genius who had to wait so many bitter years for success. His story of the composer requiring a colourschemed room and colour-schemed dress to aid him in composing made Wagner a. good deal, more human than some of the audience had imagined. Carl Reinecke, head of the Leipzig Conservatorium of Music, and Edward'Grieg, .the Norwegian composer, were others of whom Mr. Hoben could give reminiscences.. In later days' he knew musicians and singers so well known as Paul Whiteman, Lawrence Tibbitt, Alfred Cortot and Percy Grainger. His sidelights on these celebrities sometimes before their-fame had grown were interesting and some of them whimsical. Mr. Hoben met Paderewski on many occasions and paid a. tribute to his capability as a man of affairs, as well as an artist. Possibly when Paderewski was chosen to lead his beloved Poland when liberty came back to her his countrymen knew the man better than other lands who. only knew • the-.artist. In the latter capacity Paderewski is no back number. He has just completed a record American tour of 75 concerts, which is not bad for an artist who has been before the public for 40 years. After his pleasant talk Mr. Hoben turned again to Liszt. He gave his 'transcription of the March (from Tannhauser). For brilliancy, for the manner in which the combination of sweetness with Wagner’s sterner stuff was demonstrated, this effort ranked high. It was followed by La Danse d’Olaf (PickMangiagalli) a-piece as sprightly as its title indicated, and interpreted with dainty freshness. The final item was the stately Polonaise of Paderewski. It was a fine completion of a fine entertainment. The Polonaise is not “children’s meat.” It has strength and fervour pulsing through. It has also sweetness and light. Each aspect was, in Mr. Hoben’s interpretation, woven into a perfect whole.