NEW HEIGHT REACHED IN LAST GLEE CLUB CONCERT

On Thursday evening, the Glee Club gave their second concert at Symphony Hall. The soloists were George Renwick, Lyle Ring and Morris Brown; and Mile. Guiomar Novaes, the Brazilian pianist, and M. Georges Laurent, flutist, were assisting artists.

Looking back upon the programmes arranged by Dr. Davison for previous occasions, there seems to be none which quite measures up to this last; none which exhibits such keen appreciation of the demands of balance and contrast; none, finally, which so succeeds in combining in nicely-judged proportion the various and varied fashions (we call them "schools") of music. Programme making is an art, of course, and requires more care and consideration than audiences realize; and even when a programme is well, drawn up, the foreplanned effect is usually lost or distorted by the introduction of a series of encores. This is peculiarly an American fault.

Thursday evening, then, the East and West of music, so to speak, met. The contrapuntal perfections of Palestrina and the polyharmony of Boulanger bowed, smiled, and behaved in a highly amicable way. The "Vielle Priere Bouddhique", to which Wilbye's rather meaningless "Amarillis" afforded good contrast, is modern music at its best, and establishes a thoroughly ancient and oriental atmosphere by the simple devices of unusual melodic progression and strange and mingled harmonies. The open chords at the beginning are effective; they seem to tell of mystery and paganism. The Christmas song of Arnold Bax's is rousing and tuneful, but the interpositions of the little gig,--admirably played by M. Laurent,--seem to rob the piece of some degree of unity. Of the three choral hymns from the RigVeda, the "Hymn to Soma" is the most striking. "To Agni" is lively and the music surges and dies and surges again like a sea of flame. The climax of "To Agni" is extremely powerful. Mr. Gilbert's "Pirate Song" is pleasing, but did not fit very well in the programme. In the "Hunter's Farewell" the Glee Club outdid itself in beauty of phrasing and tone-color.

Mile, Novaes excelled in the Chopin group. James Gibbons Buneker once said that "to play Chopin, one must have acute sensibilities, a versatility of mood, a perfect mechanism, the heart of a woman and the brain of a man"; and Mile. Novaes seemed to conform with most of that statement. Occasionally she was guilty of excessive rubato, and occasionally she rather pounded the lower reaches of the piano; but, for vitality of tone, evenness of scale, and fine interpretation, she cannot find an equal among any of the contemporary pianists we have heard. The Mazurka and the Etude were especially fine. The second group was disappointing; Albeniz has written much better piano music than "El Albaicin", and as for Liszt, he seldom rises to anything more than a series of mechanical jimcracks.

Of the Glee Club soloists, Morris Brown seemed to sing with more decision and intelligence than the others though Lyle Ring's introduction to the "Hymn to Manas" was well conceived.