The Trapp Family Singers gave the second of two concerts of Christmas music yesterday afternoon. The audience filled Town Hall and half of its stage, the other half being occupied by the several members of the family and a large Christmas tree trimmed with cookies and ribbons. The program was kept strictly informal, and the Baroness Maria von Trapp, acting as spokesman for the group, explained that since she wished the public to go away carrying with it the feeling of Christmas, all encores would be sung before the intermission, leaving the carols for the very end of the program.Although a good part of the charm exercised by this gifted family over the spectator is purely extramusical, there is no denying that the performances adhere to a high level of good, homely, nonvirtuoso musical ability. The program yesterday was varied, including a cappella group, various combinations of voices, spinet, and recorders, and two delightful Austrian folk dances. One of these, a waltz for octet of recorders, sounded like a careful and very gentle calliope.
The large work of the concert was a Christmas Cantata of the seventeenth century, I Bid Thee Welcome, Bridegroom Sweet, by Luebeck, sung with solos by Baroness von Trapp, obbligati on two recorders by two of her daughters and choral work by the others. Dr. Franz Wasner conducted from the spinet, which was beneath the Christmas tree. The freshness of the voices, the effortlessness of the singing and the touching unpretentiousness of the music itself combined to give an impression of purity as simple and bright as an Alpine winter’s day. The audience, in the mood to receive just such nostalgic suggestions, responded with great warmth.
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