MR. HAMILTON HODGES' RECITAL IN AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 1, 5 July 1911, Page 16

MR. HAMILTON HODGES' RECITAL IN AUCKLAND.

After an absence of nearly- two years, Mr. Hamilton Hodges proclaimed his return to the city of his former triumphs by giving a recital at the Choral Hall on Monday night. Auckland must have been suffering a recovery in finance from the visit of the Sheffield Choir, for the audience, whilst highly appreciative, were not struggling for admittance as they might have been. It was a recital of manifold excellence. It is only a singer of Mr. Hodges’ calibre who can hold an audience for over an hour and a-half with a programme of sixteen songs (not including encores), especially when some of them are representative modern works. The complement necessary to the artistic success of a singer with such a programme is, of course, the accompanist. Mr. Cyril Towsey has many gifts in this respect that mark in him the artist. Many students would do well to follow his example, for there is nothing so wretched, and I might add more frequent, than to hear good songs well sung spoilt by indifferent accompanists. With Mr. Towsey to rely oh, Mr. Hodges had nothing to fear, and his freedom of voice and elasticity of rendering revealed it.

-the impress of the old-world art is on the singers voice. He returns to New Zealand with a broader field of light and shade, with more subtlety of expression than when we heard him last. The improvement was noted in the breadth of expression he imparted to such songs as Arthur Foote’s “Requiem”—a magnificent poem in song—to MacDowell’s “The •Swan bent low- to the Lily.” Godard’s Le A oyageur,” and also “ Bedouin Love Song”—not the hoary unspeakable setting most of us know'to our cost, but the modern American version by Chadwick. The latter is a magnificent work, and Mr. Hodges, with his wonderful range and power of expression, did it full poetic justice. The singer is perhaps at his best, and certainly stands alone in his singing “ mezzo voce.” “ L’Oiseau s'envole" was a notable item revealing infinite tenderness and delicacy. In the two classics Beethoven's “ Adelaide” and Schubert’s “ The Wanderer ” exactitude of phrasing, clearness of enunciation, and breadth of interpretation were all conspicuous. Mr. Hodges gave the aduience a vivid reminder of his earlier achievements in New Zealand by his singing of Wallace’s “ Freebooters’ Songs.” The whole cycle, which is remarkable for its vigour and intensity of description, received a very enthusiastic reception from the audience. AH told, it was a recital of a quality seldom heard in New Zealand, and proclaimed Mr. Hodges one of the few voices we have which can be relied upon to adequately interpret and reveal the finer compositions of to-day—and yesterday.

Stray Notes. Providing that suitable dates can be secured, Mr William Anderson will arrange a tour of New Zealand for his juvenile pantomime company with “The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.” The English humorist, Mr. Joseph Blascheck, who, with Miss Mildred Wrighton, is touring Australia under the direction of William Anderson, tells some good tramp stories. One is about a lady who, coming to the door in answer to the knock of a burly tramp, said: “Why are you, a great, hulking man, begging?” “Ab, Madam, it is the only profession in which a gentleman can address a beautiful lady without the formality of an introduction.” The tired sub-editor was nodding the other night over a theatrical notice (says the “Bulletin”) and this was the sentence that woke him up—“ She is no worse than she was 50 years ago.” The sub-editor, who had a heart, reached for his blue pencil. A German publishing firm advertises a musical book by Herman Stephani, called “Das Erhabene insonderheit in der Tonkunst und das Problem der Form im Musikalisch-Schonen und Erhabenen.” The second chapter is said to be just as interesting.