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Marian Anderson Applauded As Artist And Humanitarian - Standing Ovations By Capacity Audience

Marian Anderson Applauded As Artist And Humanitarian - Standing Ovations By Capacity Audience image
Parent Issue
Day
15
Month
April
Year
1965
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Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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Standing Ovations By Capacity Audience

Marian Anderson Applauded As Artist And Humanitarian

 

By Albert Cohen

In a special presentation at , Hill Auditorium last night, the University Musical Society, paid tribute to one of the great contralto voices of recent times, that of Marian Anderson. It  hardly seems possible that Miss Anderson, in this farewell concert tour of her career, is retiring from public performance; she has been so much a part of the concert scene for the past 40 years (Ann Arbor has been host to her performances some 10 times since 1937).

Statuesque in bearing and noble in gesture, Miss Anderson presented a program that reminded the audience of those very special qualities that have come to characterize her voice over the years — an unusual range, a middle register of velvety smoothness, a low voice of strength and poignancy, and an intense expressiveness.

The program consisted, for the most part, of familiar art songs, during the first half, and of settings of Negro spirituals, during the second. Two delightful pairs of songs by each Handel and Haydn opened the concert. The Spirit’s Song by Haydn, a remarkably expressive work, was especially effective. The highlight of the first part, however, was certainly the set of four lieder by Schubert, and in particular the famous Der Erlkoenig.

But, for this reviewer, it was in the sets of spirituals that followed the intermission in which 'Miss Anderson demonstrated some of the beautiful singing for which her voice has become famous. Noteworthy were the low-register singing of Hear de Lam’s A-Cryin’, and the dramatic interpretation of He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands, which closed the program (except for two Schubert encores).

Miss Anderson was capably accompanied by Franz Rupp at the piano, who unhappily tended to overpower the singer in her somewhat weaker upper register.

The standing ovations given to Miss Anderson by the capacity audience were a tribute to her not only as an artist, but also as a humanitarian whose work has reflected the ideals toward which she has dedicated her life.

PHOTO: Marian Anderson