ORGANIST’S TOUR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 132, 7 June 1938, Page 10

ORGANIST’S TOUR

YOUNG FRENCH LADY MLLE. RENEE NIZAN For the first time in possibly a generation New Zealand has an opportunity to welcome an organist of high repute who has come to th* Dominion simply for the purpose of giving recitals. The visitor is a young French lady, Mlle. Renee Nizan. who arrived at Auckland from Vancouver by the Niagara last week and intends to stay for a month. She will make one appearance in each of the four centres and will then tour the capitals of Australia. In spite of her youth Mlle. Nizan has made a definite place for herself among European organists, and is well known in the United States. She considers that her talent is hereditary, for her father was for many years organist of the Church of Notre Dame de Boulogne, Paris, and her two brothers, one of whom, M, Alain Nizan, accompanies her as manager, are also players of considerable accomplishment. A Child Prodigy She was a pupil of Dallier and of Louis Vierne, who was organist of Notre Dame, and who at his death last year was in the front rank of modern composers for the instrument. At the age of 14 she gave her first public recital in Paris, and at 15 appeared as soloist with the Pasdeloup Symphony Orchestra. In 1931 Mlle. Nizan toured the United States, giving 49 recitals in 50 days and appearing also with many of the leading orchestras. She gave 140 concerts on a coast-to-coast tour in 1934, and paid a third visit at the beginning of this year, appearing in the principal Canadian cities as well. Some years ago she made a series of nearly a dozen appearances in London and her Continental tours have included Belgium and Switzerland. She has also visited the West Indies. Mlle. Nizan brings with her the highest commendation of critics in Europe and America, many of whom have described her as “a modern St. Cecilia” and a virtuoso of the first rank, from the aspects of both technique and interpretation. Her repertoire covers almost the whole range of organ music, from Bach to some of the newest French composers, whose work she rarely plays at public recitals, as she has found them caviare to the average audience.

Arrangements for Tour Her programmes include a judicious selection of Bach and such other names as Cesar Franck, Widor, Dupre, Vierne, Daguin, Gigout and Saint-Martin. She finds that, although many concert-goers are unfamiliar the organ except as incidental to church services, they show genuine pleasure in its music when the latter is chosen and grouped to give the maximum of variety. The first New Zealand recital by Mlle. Nizan will be given upon the Wellington Town Hall organ on Tuesday. The organist of Christchurch Cathedral, Mr. J. Maughan Barnett, is arranging the next, in the cathedral, on a date yet to be fixed, and the third will be in Dunedin Town Hall, with the co-operation of the city organist, Dr. V. E. Galway. MUe. Nizan expects to give her Auckland recital on the Town Hall organ late in June, before she leaves for Australia. She has already tried the instrument, and those who were privileged to hear her were much impressed by her performance.