GLEE CLUBS GIVE BRAHMS' REQUIEM

The following is a review of the performance of Brahm's German Requiem given yesterday at Symphony Hall by the Harvard Glee Club and the Radcliffe Choral Society under the direction of M. Koussevitsky. The final performance of the Requiem will take place tonight at 8.15 o'clock in Symphony Hall.

With the performance of the Brahms' Requiem yesterday afternoon, the Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society have added another triumph to their already long series of successes. Under the direction of M. Koussevitsky, the 300 singers and picked members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra gave a rendition of the Requiem which compares most favorably with the performance last year, and may well serve as a mark toward which to aim in the future.

It is difficult in reviewing Brahms' Requiem to restrain superlatives, and although it seems customary to bar any superlative but a negative from a critic's vocabulary, the reviewer must ask pardon in this case.

Into Pure Melody

Of Brahms' music a few words will suffice: Brahms, who has often been accused, it seems to the reviewer unjustly, of being academic in his writing, has in the Requiem poured out his heart and soul burning with the fire of a great sadness, and transformed them into pure melody.

From the very opening when the sopranoes impose their superb planissimo upon the undertone of the bass viols, through the great organ chords of the fifth chorus and the magnificent climaxes of the sixth to the stately Maestroso of the final chorus which dies away in the beautiful counterpoint between the sopranos and tenors, Brahms shows himself as one of the very greatest of molodic composers.

To do justice to a work of this sort, is a task which might well prove a stumbling block to a choral society made up of especially trained voices. Yet the Radcliffe Choral Society and the Harvard Glee Club showed themselves fully equal to the occasion.

Taken as a whole the performance was characterized by a clarity of line and a delicacy of shading which brought every nuance and tint into relief. Even in the difficult counterpoints among the choruses or between certain voices and the orchestra, there was no blurring of the melody. From the most delicate pianissimo to a stirring fortissimo, from the richest chords to the most varied countempointing, every voice came out with a clear, sustained sweet quality rarely if ever found in any other college choral societies. Great praise must be given to Mr. G. W. Woodworth, who trained both clubs in the absence of Dr. Davison, for the admirable work he has done.

In addition to the Choral Society and the Glee Club, both the soloists, Miss Ethel Hayden, soprano, and Mr. Boris Saslawsky, baritone, sang very well, Miss Hayden particularly carrying the melody with the utmost clarity above the groundwork of the choruses.

M. Koussevitsky conducted the performance with his usual verve and spirit and when that is said there is really no need for further comment. Mr. Koussevitsky has the faculty, unfortunately too rare, in conductors of getting the utmost out of the score as well as from the musicians under his baton. It has been said that an orchestra is largely the conductor, and this may be taken as a case in point. M. Koussevitsky brought the best out of the singers and players alike in a way worthy of the plaudits which the house showered upon him