The Omaha guide., 1936-01-18
Marian Anderson
Scores Triumph
At Town Hall

EefndpS II DeSC way 10 40 JUS
tice to Marian Anderson's per-
formance at Town Hall Monday
night is to let the critic of Amer
ica's great newspaper, The New
York Times, describe how he felt
as he heard her. Let's follow the
critic who signs himself always as
"H. A"
Let it be said at the outset:
Marian Anderson has returned to
her native land of the great
est singers of our time. The Ne
gro c~ontra-alto who has been
abroad for four years established
herself in her concert at the Town
Hall last night as the possessor of
an excelling voice and art. Her
singing enchanted an audience
that included singers. There was
no doubt of it, she was mistress
of all she surveyed"
The simple facts are better than
sup~erlatives, for superlatives are
easily abused. Fact one, then,
should be the sheer magnificanee
of the voice itself considered as a
musical instrument. 1T is a con-
tralto of stunning range and vol
ume, managed with suppleness
grace. 1t is a voice that lends it
self to the entire emotional ga
NIT, responsive to delicate nu-
ance and able to swell out with
opulence and sorority.
"Fact two should be Miss An
derson's musicianship. In a pro-
gram that encompassed a full
group by Handel, another by Schu
bert, a Verdi aria, a Finnish selec-
ton and a concluding group of
Negro spirituals, she revealed a
penetrating command of style.
She understood not only the diff
ference in approach between the
songs of Handel and Schubert and
Sibolius, but the divergence of in
tent in the music of the same COM
poser. Each song was treated as
an artistic til, set forth with care
study and intelligence.
"But without deep feeling these
other assets would not achieve the
grandeur of Interpretation that
was Miss Anderson's last night,
and that should be item three. For
Miss Anderson has the transcend
ing quality of all authentic art
a genuine emotional Identification
with the core of music. Schubert's
"Der Tod und das Maedcheen"
and "Allmacht" were ennobling
in their grandeur. And how many
singers have communicated the
transferring rapture of John
Payne's "Crucifixion" as Miss
Anderson did last night? 1t was
music making that probed too
deep for words.
"To all these things must be
added the native good taste of the
artist and the simplicity of her
personality. Here was a woman
of poise and sensibility. The fact
that one foot, injured in an acct
dent on board ship in the voyage
home, was encased in a cast was
never permitted to intrude on the
listeners consciousness. She sang
with a consciousness of her abil-
ity and with a relish of her task
that was positively infectious.
1t was possible for those of Pc
dantic minds to find minor mat
tiers to bubble over, such as an
occasional edge in the top tones
or imperfections of enunciations
in foreign languages. They need
not be labored here. In the pres
ence of such art, pedantry might
we'll be spared.
Limitations of space forbid a
detailed discussion of each song
on Miss Anderson's program,
where columns could be devoted
to it with profit. A hint of felici-
ties of phrase and style culled
without sequence must be added,
however, the sweep of Handel's
"Ah spietato" the delicacy of
Schubert's "Liebesbotschaft," the
purity of the co~ntralto's amazing
low tones in "Tod und das Maed-
chem" the ~coloratura work in
Sibelius's "Die Libelle" that re-
manned always in the frame of
the song, the laughing quality and
exquisite tone coloring in the lit
tie Finnish folksong that was an
encore after the Suomi group.