New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-07-04

however, that he viii be back here bea
fore long, for he is certainly a most
accomplished singer. Let as hope, too,
that he viii realize when he returns
that our taste is not quite so bad as
some seem to think, and that to mos. of
US 1t IS terrible anti-climax to find a
very interesting program ending with
a group OF ballads of more than doubt
ful musical worth. 1t is a pity that a
tr-g artist, with voice so fine, so we'll
(. iced, and so easily produced, and
with diction and sense Of phrasing
so admirable, should descend to any
thing below the best. Handel's Hear
me, we winds and waves Haydn's She
never told her love and Arne's Blow,
biow, thou winter wind We're all mag
riHcently sung, while the performance
tour de force. His program further
included very entertaining group Of
Ohlnese Mother Goose songs, the fun
Of which he caught to perfection. These
ciever and amusing little songs came
originally from the Orient, but the
words have been very much refurbished
by Isaac Taylor Headland, as has the
music by cambridge Crist Some Of
them might have been a little less
Occldentalized with advantage, but they
are certainly excellent hearing, and Mr..
Werrenrath made great success with
them. Mr.. Percy Kahn was his yerv
clever accompanist"
He was equally warm in his praise
OF MISS Marcia Van Dresser, another
American to appear this season be-
fore London audiences:
Glow precisely ones memory of the
singing of Miss Marcia Van Dresser in
the KING cycles of years ago at Co.
4 1
1t IS not easy to see, if, then; Miss Van
Dresser sang as beautifully as she
sang at her recital in Wigmore Hall
yesterday afternoon. Such voices as
hers and such distinction of style, to
say nothing of rare intimacy, are not
Of the common kind that one easily
forgets Indeed, it is a beautiful voice.
and is used with the utmost ease. so
that when Miss Van Dresser sings she
seems to be addressing any given
member of the audience, while as a fact
she IS addressing all. And as for her
art 1t matters nothing whether the
song is as suaye as Spohr's old, old
Rose, softly blooming or dramatic
as Duparc's La Vie Antrieure'-sung
with a splendid dramatic: emphasis:
Debussy's La Mer est plus Bayye,' or
any given number OF the lovely songs
by poor Erich Wolff, which we were de-
lighted to hear revived. In all phases
of character Miss Van Dresser was
equally the complete artist. and very
decidedly is to be congratulated, as she
sang the German songs in English, in
having discovered in Miss Gertrude
Norman a worthy translator. More
over, Miss Ethel Cave-Cole was most
sympathetic at the pianoforte, so that
the recital was one Of the pleasantes
and Of the most,distinguishe that have
occurred during the whole season"
Strangely, Mss Braslaus singing
apparently aroused less enthusiasm:
Miss Sophie Braslau (principal con-
tralto of the Metropolitan Opera in
New York, said her progrAm) offered
something to suit pretty we'll all
tastes in her recital in Queens Hall
yesterday afternoon. She was almost,
in fact, everything by turns and moth
ing very long, for she began with some
of the old order. Che faro for ex-
ample (Which was described as being
sang Handels The Wind Sweeps at
a terrific pace, and song by Bee
thoven, passed easily to a group of
Russian songs, and on ultimately TO a
series of ballads, which included Cecil
Forsythes fine song Rest To our
thinking Miss Braslau sane the Russian
group, to most advantage. possibly per-
haps because. as we understand, she
was herself Russian. At any rate, at
her hands Moussorgsky's fine ON the
Dnepr' (also misspelt twelve times in
the program) was finely done. and
there was much of the right humor
! in The Classicist,' and again Rach-
maninoff's AS Fair Is She was beauti-
fully and quietly done"