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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,