Evening star., 1936-01-09
Two Artists
Reveal Rich
Vocal Gifts
Masterpieces w 1t h
Popular Music on
Jepson-Crooks List.
BY ALICE EvERSMAN.

TWO artists, -eminently fitted to
give pleasure to their audience py
their rich vocal gifts, presented tne
program at the second OF Mrs. Law
renee Townseuds Wednesday morning
nusicales. which took place yesterday
at the Mayfiower Hotel. Helen Jep-
son. the delightful soprano Of the
METROPOLITAN, who has won increasing
success since her debut with that Or
ranization, and Richard Crooks, tenor,
already firmly intrenched in the es-
TEEN of the musical public, gave the
Interesting program designed to please
every taste.
When artists include such generally
popular numbers as Then You'll
Remember Me-" from Balfe's "Bo-
hemian Girl"; Metcalf's Absence" ;"
Amy Worth's Midsummer and
Horace Johnson's "The Rose and the
Gardener" in a program, they are
doing a service to both the COM
posers and the public in reviVing
the beauty of these lovely lyrics which,
through much use, have almost become
obscure. AS Mr.. Crooks and Miss
Jepson sing them they take on fresh
meaning, through the artistic inter-
pretation in the hands of artists whose
musicianship is unquestioned.
This musicianship was aptly evil
dent in numbers which preceded these
favorites and which will remain for
all time the test of a singers ar
tistry. Opening the program with
Gluck's 20 del Mic Dolce Ardor" and
Stradella's per Pieta," Mr.. Crooks
sang the classic phrases, with their
exacting respiratory control, with a
fine spinning of vocal tone and a
definite mounting of the sentiment
content to a fine climax.
Three songs by Richard Strauss.
''Zueignung," Die Nacht" and Nor
gen." sung together, and "Heimliche
Aufforderung," followed. These par
ticular compositions from the Strauss
vocal literature have baffled many
singers. whose artistic sensitiveness is
not great enough for them to catch
the delicate shadings that make of
these contrasting numbers the mas
terpieceS which they are.
Mr.. Crooks is the one artist who
comes to mind, whose feeling for the
words and whose vocal delivery are
so finely balanced as to present every
shade Of minute feeling in these beau
tiful songs.
Mr.. La Farge's "Supplication" was
another number given with rare un-
derstanding, to which the composer
at the piano added the completing
touch. Encores necessarily included
Mr.. Crooks singing of the "Manon'
aria and Dvorak's Songs My Mother
Taught Me-"
Miss Jepson, one of the most at
tractive singers before the public to-
day. carried on the lovely singing ira
dition which Mr.. Crooks began. Her
voice is one of the finest among opera
stars of the Metropolitan, superbly
placed and responsive in coloring. To
her great natural endowment she is
constantly adding a broadening musi-
cianship, which yesterday was evident
In both the songs and arias Of her pro-
gram. Her voice is especially well
adapted for French music. which re-
uuires perfect attack and delicate
manipulation in q small compass, as
well as q refined portrayal Of senti-
ment.
Her singing of Chausson's lie
Temps des Lilas," Koechlin's "LHiver'
and la Lune" were cameo fine in
their exquisite detail, while the taxing
aria, "Dis moi que je suis BELLE" from
"Thais," showed her ability to sustain
in dramatic measures the same refined
style. A folk-lullaby group and other
English songs revealed yet another side
of her talent, in the simplicity with
which they were rendered. One feels
that the musical resources of Miss
Jepson, fine as they are at present,
have but been touched upon, and the
future should reveal her as one of the
greatest lyric sopranos of this country.
Frank La Forge, for Mr.. Crooks, and
Arpad Sander, for Miss Jepson, pro-
vided sensitive support at the piano.