RejsenTilAmerika_1912

126 TRO Y , N EW H A V E N , P E R T H AMBOY, N EW YORK , H J EM R E J S E N t Ved denne Lejlighed skete for øvrigt den historiske Begiven­ hed, at Clante sprang et Vers over, det eneste, han ikke sang med i paa hele Turen. I stort og lille Kor, i Holbøll- og Knudsen- Kvartetten var der Brug for hans Røst; men ved denne Lejlighed følte han sig saa ganske bragt fra Koncepterne ved et al Levy- sohns bekendte Blikke, at han mente sig ude af Stand til at synge med i næste Vers. Naa, han kom dog heldigvis hurtigt over Tilfældet. Et af 7 >oi/-Bladene skriver om Koncerten: There were several reasons why the Student Singers of the Royal University of Copenhagen, Denmark, gave a splendidly effective concert at Music Hall last evening. One reason was that they have voices. The chorus is wjell balanced, and the tenors, instead of making an up­ hill fight, as in many male choirs in this country owing to the inevitable predominance of bass voices, are heard with the same ease as the basses. To be sure, they were young, fresh voices and had the natural aggressiveness and insistence of youth. Another element of success was the mental culture af the singers, which gave them sentiment and a thorough sympathy with music. Then they had the human sounding- board in the shape of a large and responsive audience, in which the Danish element was in the great majority. The unusual sounds in an American music hall of the Danish language set to melody filled with enthusiasm the hearers whose nativity or descent was from Denmark, and ¿the encores doubled and sometimes trebled the original numbers so that the singers, good-natured as they were, practically exhausted their repertory. A very important element in the success, however, was the training given by the conductor, S. Levysohn, whose keen ear and graceful but authoritative baton were at work all the lime, and upon whom the eyes of the singers were continually fixed. To produce this last and indispensable result two elements combined: First, the fact that all the selections were sung from memory, so that nothing interfered between the sight of the singer and the motion of the con­ ductor, and, second, the also noticeable fact that of the two ranks of about fifty singers the rear row was elevated by a platform , so that every man could see the conductor and each singer’s tones reached the audience without having to circle about the head of someone in front of him. The chorus pleased the eye as well as the ear, for it was as finely set-up a body of youths as one would care to see, and wiith just enough decoration of costume to give the impression of picturesqueness. Volume, vigor, shading, simultaneousness of attack and a marvelous precision in the ending of phrases were all that could have been ex­ pected, and the performance throughout was delightful. The novelty too of the Scandinavian music, with its patriotic and folk songs, gave distinction to the concert. The range was from serious, even to sacred, music to the jo lly choruses of student life— but all given with artistic purpose and completeness. The solo singers were Helge Nissen, baritone, and Olaf Holboll, tenor. Mr. Nissen is a singer of grand-opera calibre, with a noble voice,