Musical Events
Last Friday night, the Toronto Symphony came to Carnegie Hall
under its able maestro, Karel Ancerl, and it, too, made a striking impression.
Mr. Ancerl is a mature veteran in the art of conducting, and in my opinion one
of the best conductors now appearing on this continent. His orchestra is an
exceedingly well-trained one, and his program was interesting.
It started off conventionally, with Beethoven's "Leonore"
Overture No. 3, done to near-perfection.
Then came a new work, "From the Diary of Anne Frank," by Oskar
Morawetz. This is a setting of a few paragraphs taken from the diary - and
touching words they are. Mr. Morawetz's music is atonal for the most part,
resolving to common chords or tonal centers only at the end of episodes. Perhaps
this is the one type of music suited to such a subject, as the diary is, in a
sense, beyond tragedy, having a quality of emotion that is terrifying and
infuriating as well as sad. At any rate, Mr. Morawetz's way of using atonality
is deft indeed.
The words, in English, are sung by a soprano voice, and the
vocal line is beautifully laid out. Moreover, Mr. Morawetz is a master of
orchestration, and his treatment of the underlying orchestral fabric is highly
original, being largely quite light and translucent, and quite distinct from the
vocal part. I do not know whether any setting can improve on the simple words of
the diary. They speak so much for themselves. But the Morawetz composition has a
certain claim to distinction.
The vocal part was sung by Lois Marshall, a magnificient
Canadian soprano, whom I had not heard in some time. She has excellent
enunciation as well as a voice of great power and extraordinary emotional
potential. No one could have sung the work better. Mr. Ancerl handled the
intricacies of Mr. Morawetz's instrumentation with remarkable insight, and the
audience responded with considerable feeling.
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