New Britain herald., 1930-03-05
BURNHAM SUITE PLEASING MUSIC
Hartford Composer Avoids Sur-
 priSeS Of Ultra-MOderniStS

The twopiano recital of Christine Burnham of Hartford and Lolia NJ. Littlehales of this city at Camp school auditorium last night had as it's distinguishing feature the first presentation in public of a suite written by Miss Burnham. Two movements of this composition were played on one piano by the com poser, the remaining two movements being given upon two pianos. The title of the suite was Impressions and it closed the program.
 Miss Burnham interjected verbal explanatory notes preceding each movement of her suite, saying how the various titles had been suggest ed to her while viewing scenes in Italy, Switzerland and France, and inspired by these views she wrote music embodying her emotions.
 The suite was easily the most interesting part of last nights per formance, everyone present natural ly being keenly alive to the fact that an opportunity was presenting itself to hear music played for the first time in public.
 Such music lovers present who when confronted by the title I'm pressions," thought of impression istic music in the style of Debussy, Ravel, Resphigi and the other mod erns of the impressionistic school. soon found that the suite was not of this type. It was not moulded in the modernistic idiom, relying almost entirely upon orthodox con- captions of the tone art. There were melodic strains imposed upon at tractive and easily comprehended harmony, interlaced with roulades of arpeggios as elaborate at times as those encountered in Liszt's music.
 This reviewer is not disposed to give an opinion upon the merit of the suite as music, preferring to content himself with a general en- umeration of it's apparent charac- teristics following only one hearing. The tendency of modernistic music is to startle. to shock, to confound the intellects of those nurtured upon more conventional musical fare. The fact that Miss Burnham's suite did none of these things, but rather tended to please an audience at even a first hearing, would indicate, in the opinion of this reviewer, that the music did not pretend to offer competition with the bad boys of the modern music world. But the fact that new music is not conceived in the modernistic idioms does not mean it is inferior in quality; for general consumption and apprecia- tion it may possess advantages over much of what ultra a-moderns pro- duce. Certainly, if really inspired, it is on a more direct road to the hearts of mankind then the other. Whether this music, heard for the first time last night, is of the latter type we decline to venture an opin- ion.
 What we cannot understand in connection With the Impressions suite is why an American composer needs to go to Europe for inspira- ton, seeing that our own country is full of enough scenery to satisfy the most fastidious, and possesses other inpirational attributes which ought to suffice almost anyone. Dvorak, during a comparatively short period of residence in this country. speedily incorporated something of American into his works, doing so most sue cessrully and contributing perma- nently to the archives of the art. The remainder of the program, or that which came before the suite, contained much representative music, including a Mozart sonata and a gem by Arensky. Miss Little hales was a skilled keyboard com- panion. The pianos used were pow erful in tone, evidently being of the type made for concerts in large audi toriums, such as Carnegie hall; and as Camp school auditorium is small genuine pianissimo was rarely heard during the performance, per haps being impossible under the cir | cumstanccS.-G. H.