The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-18
SWEDISH STUDENTS CONCERT.

], Fine Programme at the Hyperion.
 To those who attended the concert
 of the Swedish students at the Hype- rion theater Thursday night it must
 have required very small stretch of
 the imagination to put themselves in 1 theater in Sweden itself. The songs of course were in Swedish, which was an
 attraction to hundreds who had wan
 dered far from the Fatherland; the faces everywhere were of Sweden and the comments one heard were in the tongue of the singers When the con- cert was over Chapel street continued the deception, and one heard greetings, good byes, congratulations and felicta- l tions in the musical language of the north.
 There were many present not of the Swedish race, for the concert had at tracted many people from the city and | from the university. They were inter- ested to hear a chorus of student sing CTS and some of them, at leat, were anxious to note the difference between Swedish and American student sing ing, They found surprising differ ence. The songs of the Swedish stu- dents last night were dignified because they were written by the masters and sung splendidly. It is doubtful if more convincing chorus work was ever done here by any similar band of singers. lThe character of the songs put the songs of the ordinary college glee club to the blush. The individual voices were not better than the individual voices of a good American glee club
 say Yale for instance-ror was the en- semble better, but the accuracy which comes from training, promptness at the beat and general finish of the whole body of singers were all immeasurably lege clubs.
 The Swedish singers who are adver- tised on the programme as belonging to the University of Lund one of the two great Swedish universities, appear
 much older than the college man of this country. It is understood that
 many of these singers are in the post graduate schools of the university and few of them are really undergra duates.
 They have been trained with great care apparently and respond to every
 movement of the leaders baton. The leader is Dr. Alfred Berg, a famous
 composer and conductor of Sweden who directs the music of the University of Lund He conducted last nights con- cert from a small platform and had his men, who numbered about fifty, gath cred closely in front of him-the tenors in the center-in a kind of short eres- cent, the men in the rear being raised 8 trifle on platform.
 The programme. which consisted of eleven numbers, was very closely fol-
 lowed, only two departures being made from it. Several encores were demand
 ed with great enthusiasm and given.
 Indeed, from the very first number en-
 thusiasm ran high and applause was generous. MT John Forsel, baritone
 of the Royal Opera in Stockholm, who
 is the soloist of the Swedish students
 in their trip in this country, was given tremendous round of applause when he finished his first song, and he was obliged to repeat one of the verses. He has fine, ringing baritone voice, which is well trained and under the singers complete control.
 There was some decoration in the
 theater to indicate the character of the concert. American flags were draped from the boxes on each side of the the ater, with the words Vale and ''Lund" on either side; and on the rear of the stage the American and Swedish flags were draped together in a scenic arch.
 The concert was in every way an excellent one and helped draw the bonds between the universities of the two countries closer. Incidentally it was an object lesson in singing to the Yale Glee club.