LES COMPAGNONS DE LA CHANSON and LES PETIT CHANTEURS A
LA CROIX DE Bois. (Palace.) THE Little Singers of Paris, an unaccompanied boys' choir weighted with adult tenor and bass, some thirty in all, share this entertainment with the well-known harmonisers Les Corn- pagnons. Almost hypnotically conducted by Mgr. Maillet, the boys range between the musi- cal excellence of a cantata composed for them by Milhaud and the English rendering, with impeccable diction, of such a piece as 'Danny Boy'; between such extremes come the easy rhythms of `Frere Jacques,' La Nuit' (memor- able as the vocal finale to the film A Cage of Nightingales), and a Brazilian lullaby in which a diminutive solo chorister displays a quite unusual strength of tone, remarkably sustained and controlled. In a Spanish carol given as a routine encore this same singer gives real point to the performance. Undaunted as the boys were by their theatrical setting, one still felt, however, that the ideal place for them would be a church or a concert platform.
Les Compagnons de la Chanson, who sus- tain the second part of the programme with exuberant precision, may well appeal to a public more accustomed to the quick-fire turns of the variety stage. Their French songs alter- nate with arrangements in English (notably that of the ubiquitous 'Jimmy Brown' song) which owe too much, one feels, to their six US tours; despite some amiable clowning and conjuring, the contrived sentimentality of some of these items is disappointing.
M. H. II.
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