New-York tribune., 1921-11-06
String Quartet of
London Delights
Critical Audience
Kenews Acquaintance With
Lovers of Pure Music, Who
Show Appreciation; War
ner Suite Well Received
By II. E. Krehb;el

The lovers of chamber music renewed
a pleasant acquaintanceship when the
London String Quartet gave a concert
IN aeoiian Hall yesterday afternoon.
IL IS seldom that foreign visitors in
troduce themselves with so serious n
message as did the British gentlemen
4 year ago. Though complete stran-
gers to our public, they challenged NOT
curiosity, but attention and interest Of
the hIgnest sort with a proclamation of
the eyangei of Beethoven 1t was an
appeal to the elect instead of to the
great body of seekers after musical en-
tcrtainment-ventur but to their
credit and the honor of their audiences.
successful. They are here again, and
were welcomed yesterday as tried and
proven friends of pure music by an
audience. capable of giving appreciation
and glad to show it.
Premiere of Warner Composition
A Haydn quartet Gin B fat. Oh. Sd,
No. 81 opened their list, and Schubert's
postnumous work in D minor, with its
transhgured variations, closed it, or,
rather. would have closed i5 had their
playing not evoked demonstration OF
delight which led to the introduction
Of novel feature in concerts Of this
character, demand for more. To this
tney responded by playing piece
which sounded like a sequel to the
middle number of the scheme which
had already produced a call for a repe-
tltion. This middle number was q set
Of FIVE short pieces entitled The PiXy-
Ring,.a Fairy Suite" composed by Mr..
the quartet, last summer. which had
its first public bearing on this occa-
sion.
Mr.. Warner seems to have been hob
nobbing with fairy-folk q good deal of
late. for We thought we detected some
of the doings of Clurieaune and She
fros. Robin Goodfellow and the Kor-
rigane in his pianoforte trio, which won
Mrs. Coolidge's prize of $1,000 and was
Der Music Festival. He is obviously
on good terms with the Good People
and does not let "Pcuke nor other evil
sprites" fray him with things that be
not. Fairies are to him the winsome
creatures that they were to Mendels-
sohn and Weber, though they speak
different dialect. In his suite they
dance IN the moonlight, play games
under toadstools with kinsfolk as we'll
as erasshoppers and field mice in the
light emitted by glow worms 20 the :
music of bluebells. Like the Lepre
chaun Of the Emerald Isle they are
not at all averse to a wee nipple them
selves, nor grudgeful of it to a "man
OF middle earth" who chances to fall
into their company. So we judge. at
least from the fourth scene, in which
a human clown sings ditty to them.
to which they give a tricky variant.
which makes him somewhat heavy OF
tongue and slumbrous.
An Alluring Suite
The suite is program music, of course,
but of kind as alluring to the fancy
as it is gratifying to good taste, for
though it is as full OF novel instrument
tai effects as the efforts at descriptive
orchestral music by the young Italians
which we have heard recently, it diff
fers from these efforts by being de-
lightfully idiomatic. clear in structure
and suggestive in its themes No one
familiar with the vioi family could fail
to be charmed by the ingenious man
ner in which harmonics, pizzicati.
muted tones and the device of bowling
near the bridge fsul ponticello) were
combined to give the music elfsh color.
But this was net all. for there was
charm also in the subject matter Of
each of the movements and its har-
monc treatment. No prettier tribute
could have been paid to the work and its
than the audience paid it. by
permitting all the movements to be
played before applauding and then
calling the composer and his compan-
ions to the platform again and again
until an obvious desire was gratiied by
repetition OF the finale. There was
healthy British tang in this fairy dance
and in the folksong-like tune which was
the burden OF the movement ds1inea-
tive of the human being who becomes
''Pixy- laden"
1t was somewhat OF pity, we
thought, though we could not hut sd
mire the frankness Of the confession.
that when the quartet played the sup-
number, which was Spaight's
Puck" it should have disclosed that
there was another Englishman who
handled a palette similar to Mr.. War
ner's.
The precision of the players, their
perfect intellectual and emotional ac-
cord, their mastery of eauable nuance,
were in all the music admirable
Wherein they left some desires unful-
filled was in their tenuity of tone, their
overfondness for mezzo-piano and
want Of warmth, lusciousness and vol
ume as normal outgiving.
ARMY Orders