New-York tribune., 1920-06-20
London Successfully Invaded
By American Musicians
Reinald Wcrrenrath and Roland w. Hayes Among
Those Whose Work Wins Praise
i'm London

Reinald Werrenrath's - first recital in
Queens Hall yesterday afternoon. must
have preened their feathers from sheer
, JOY at the rare beauty of his singing
, of much that was entirely worthy of
his great gifts of voice and style; but,
on the other hand, many must have
writhed and ruffed the said feathers
when the same beauty of voice and
sense of style were wasted on num-
ber of quite trumpery ballads of no
artistic value whatever. Ballads as
) such, and however trumpery, are. no
doubt, all right in their lawful place;
in any case, we are not now going to
argue the point. The conventional bal
lad, however, seemed and was inor-
dlnateiy out of place after some lovely
old Italian songs, some exquisite
French songs, and an aria by old Bach
But let us leave this and get on TO
that which was beautiful True. the
Bach went best in the legato passages,
and Mr.. Werrcnrath's voice, which is
almost more bass than barytone in
quality and color, did not take kindly
to the quicker movement, but the whole
was splendidly digniied. The aria was
'Wachet Auf! And, though we do not
like the, to us, new cadence in Le-
grenzl's Che fero costume this song
Caro- mio ben,' Falconieri's 'Occhi-
etti amati,' Pcri's magnificent In
vocasione di Orfeo' and Drink to NJ
Only Gas an encore) showed the sump-
tuous quality of a most sympathetic
voice. Rarely, alas, also is such finely
distinguished diction and such per
Mr.. Werrenrath showed in Poldowskis
exquisite 'L'Attenti' Duparcs lie
Manior de Rosamonde,' or Ravel's
'Sainte' (the phrasing Of which was
very beautifully Then some Salt
Water Ballads by Frederick Keel
also were sung finely. But the singing
was best in the best music, and .hcre
it was beautiful indeed; and while the
name of the ballad singer is more or
less legion. the real artsinger, of whom
Mr.. Werrcnrath undeniably is one, is
; a rarity. Mr.. Percy Kahn was most
sympathetic at the piano"
Hall last Thursday. and in September
he will fill twenty-five concert engage
ments in England.
None the less deserved is the follow
ing tribute paid by the same paper to
Roland w: Hayes, the negro tenor, who
made his first appearance in England at
Aeolian Hall, London, on May 81:
There were two things connected
with the recital Of Roland Hayes,
the negro tenor from the United States.
in Aeolian Hall yesterday afternoon
that stood out with especial sharpness.
Or these one was the particular neat
ness and finish of the accompanying by
Lawrence Brown. who reminded
one of Coleridge Taylor, and the other
the delight caused by Mr. Hayes with
the group of negro spirituals with which
he brought his recital to an end. Long
before he had sung 'Adelaide,' lie
Reve,' from 'Manon'; Duparc's LIn-
vitation au Voyage and lot Of con-
ventional ballads with more or less
|. success and in q voice that was often
, forced Especially was this the case in
the Manon' extract). But he captivated
all by his singing Of a group of spir-
ltuals-songs that can never rightly be
sung by any but negroes to the manner
born True, those he sang were offered
with very sophisticated, but none the
less effective, pianoforte arrangement,
but they were extremely we'll done. 1t
is still to be regretted that our audi
ences persist in treating these lovely
things as comic songs. Perhaps Mr..
Hayes will add more Of them to his
next program, for this is music we
cannot make for ourselves"
"The London Morning Post" said of
Nj. Hayes:
can interested audience listened at
AeoilAn Hall yesterday afternoon to
Roland Hayes, a colored singer,
and quickly found him deserving of re-
| spectful attention. He has tenor
voice capable of sweet or ringing
quality throughout useful range, and
he has been at pains to acquire all the
elements of highly cultured 'vocalism.
He delivered Puccnis Che gelida
mamma in Italian-and Bcethovcn's s
| Adelaide with extreme refinement, anI i
set an example which many English
singers would do we'll to copy by com
: bining clear diction with unbroken
phrasing. He needs, however, to guard
y against generalization of style at the
production. His program included
songs in French and negro 'spirituals
Accompaniments were played by Mr.
l. Lawrence B. Brown"
In u letter to this writer the singer
= says:
"Whcn the matter of my being just
/, arrived, and coming into a community
wholly unknown, is considered, | think
an audience Of 400 persons is not sc
bad for first appearance.
Il have never sung to a more appre.
D ciative and enthusiastic audience. II
made me feel quite at home
II am not sure that I shall give an
other recital this season, but Will prob
j ably wait until the fall. There is quite
7 some talk Of my being engaged to sing
!. 'Hiawatha' with choral society If
Plymouth this season"
Immediately before the London con
certs of the past two weeks the critic
of THE Daily Telegraph" expressed
the reasonable hope that the New York
Symphony Orchestra would give "some-
, thing less hackneycd than Dvorak's
' New World Symphony and the 'Eroica
and Wagner program" and inquired
\ whether America had nothing sym
phcnic worth bringing across the seas
The English newspaper accounts of
the London concerts are not yet al
hand, but from the Offices OF the or
chestra comes the announcement of the
. tours close:
. with a final concert at London in
the Royal Albert Hall, to-day, the New
l.. York Symphony Orchestra, Of which
Walter Damrosch is the conductor
VIII have completed its tour Of Europe
> The last leg Of the journey will be
accomplished on the White Star liner
olympic when she leaves SOUTHAMPTON
for New York June %.
In spite Of the many dificultic.
, these days attendant upon European
! travel, the orchestra, with one exccp.
!. hon, was able to keep all It's engage.
T. ments and has completed what the