MISS STELLA MURRAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16641, 25 January 1922, Page 9

MISS STELLA MURRAY.

BRILLIANT DEBUT. [From Our Correspondent.] LONDON, December 5. I have attended the debut of many a young singer from down under and known what in the way of musical criticism she may expect to get from a hypercritical London press, and it ,may be put on record that none have made so uniformly a good impression on the serious writers in music as has Mias «Stella Murray. * Tho “ Daily Telegraph ” says of her voice and her use of it:— 11 Her voice has all the richness of tho true con tralto quality without the least suspicion of the heaviness and roughness that spoil so many otherwise excellent voices. It is, moreover 1 , perfectly even in all its registers, and whether the tone be warm and passionate, or hoft and austere, the beauty of its timbre is invariably the same.” The ‘‘Daily Mail” say9:--“ This young siqger has a full, sympathetic voice, and more, she lias a notion of interpretation. For once we had a new singer who was not labouring at the music as at a tough examination paper, but had so far overcome the grammar of the new language that she could convey sense in it, and delightfully. The audience at once responded to this sensitive and vivid singing. Brahm’s ‘ Blacksmith ’ and StanfVurdfs ' Milkmaid Song ’ were encored. Miss Murray had the sense to use English texts for her German songs and the art, tco. of singing comprehensible English.” The “Manchester Guardian” said: —“Most of the. singers who have come to us from the colonies have been more remarkable for exceptional vocal gifts than for temp-erammit or intellectual interpietations. If this first concert is a fair test, Miss Murray appears to combine a very beautiful voice with a very discriminating taste. Smooth and rich,i her voice gave sometimes the impression of a fine instrument played by an expert performer. She sang -mostly music of a serious kind, like the arias of Monteverde, or of a more modern intense type like Tchaikowsky’s ‘ Only a Lonely Heart.’ But even in the three or four songs of a lighter Ann aeter her performance retained a sort of dignified restraint that lifted it far ■ above the average level. One listened I with a new delight to songs which are I now part of the stock in trade of most | singers because the singer was not imitating this or that performance, as , usually happens, but giving ns what | was obviously a sincere and personal ! impression Miss Murray’s most notable performances were those m which the music was of a very exacting nature. Miss Murray sang two arias of Monteverde, Handel’s “Where’er You Walk,” two of Dvorak’s Bible songs, Wolf’s “Secrecy,” Strauss’s “Devotion,” Beethoven’s “ Pleasures of Sadness,” and .Brahm’s “ Blacksmith.” Sir Janies and Lady Allen and Miss Rena Allen were among the many New Zealanders who were pi: sent among the audience and the young artist was the recipient of many beautiful bouquets and received many vociferous recaJla