Music: Debuts in Re'view


A Baritone., Quartet And Trio Are Among Recent Recitalists

By Bernard Holland

A baritone and a string quartet were the most Interesting of last week's debut performers.

Donald Collup's program in Town Hall Wednesday swung back and forth between lieder and the French song tradition but also offered Handel's familiar "Ombra mai full from "Serse" and a world premiere - Ned Rorem's "Three Calamus Poems," after Whitman. They were commissioned by Mr. Collup.

Mr. Collup has an unusually refined baritone voice that sometimes errs on the side of understatement but at times breaks through its emotional reserve. The Handel aria seemed a little distant, but to the end of Fauré's "L'horizon chimérique," in Schubert's "Heimliches Lleben" and in Brahms's lovely "Feldeinsankeit". Mr. Collup managed a nice blend of tastefulness and personal involvement. Poulenc's uncharacteristically melancholy. almost morbid, nine songs, "Tel jour, telle nuit" came at the end.

Mr. Rorern's songs had a very likable lyrical grace about them. There is a calculated monotony in his repetitious of short phrases; but along the way, rhythmic and melodic alterations subtly enhanCe these recurring ideas. The second of these songs, "I Saw in Louisiana a Live Oak Growing," involved a virtuoso piano part. Walter Huff handled it well and was elsewhere during the evening an unusually effective accompanist.



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