SUCCESSFUL RECITAL.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17629, 6 February 1929, Page 5

SUCCESSFUL RECITAL.

N.Z SINGER IN LONDON. Sir Phillip Sassoon, Bart., lent his beautiful and specious house, 25 Park Lane, to Miss Thelma Petersen (late of the Wairarapa) for her latest song recital (says a London correspondent). This took place on December 5, when the programme was made up entirely of German liede’r, the composers chosen being Schubert. Brahms, and Hugo Wolf. Miss Petersen has a mezzo-soprano voice which has been well trained, and which is a pleasure to hear. She sings with judgment and wilh ful! responsibility lo the song writers. She is thoroughly unaffected, and is endowed with a natural and dainty voice, as well as with a sympathetic manner. Everything was well received, but perhaps most people liked the Hugo Wolf group best, one of the items —“ In Dem Schatten Meiner Locken ” —being encored. Schubert’s “ Gretchen am Spinnrade ” was sung with great expression. Clear enunciation adds greatly to the singer’s attractiveness. There was a large attendance, and everyone present expressed great pleasure wilh Die performer's programme and her rendering of eacli item. In Miss Etehl Attwood she had a skilled accompanist. The Daily Telegraph's music critic remarked: “A certain air of unaffee.;.edness is not the least engaging of Pie attributes to be found in Miss Petersen’s singing, and Iho simplicity of her style was well suited generally to the intimate surroundings in which she was heard at this recital. It was well suited, moreover, to such songs, to take one or two familiar examples, as Schubert's ‘Wingenlied’ and "Die Forelle.’ Very rarely the singer put too great a strain, either on her pleasant mezzo-soprano voice, or on her powers of expression, and in everything she did there were tokens of intelligence and sympathy. Brahms’s ‘Liebestrau’ and ‘Der Jager’ were among the things which showed her gifts to special advantage.” Since giving her recitals in London last year. Miss Petersen has sung with much success at a number of important orchestral concerts, including Bournemouth, Eastbourne, Hastings, Folketsone, etc. (continues the previous writer). At them all she was very enthusiastically received, scoring double encores and generally creating a most favourable impression by her refined and beautiful singing.