Boston was privileged Thursday evening, in hearing George Copeland, long absent from Boston, in his second recical of the season, Breaking away from his former extreme specialization, he seemed bend on proving that he could play German music with the best of them; and without the shadow of a doubt, he can and did. But the Fates, 14 seemed were against him.

He started out with two movements from the Bach Italian Concerto, in the first of which he was noticeably nervous and therefore inaccurate. The second he played with a real depth of emotion and stylistic discrimination perhaps unexpected of him. In the Chopin number which followed, the Fantasie-Impromptu, a Mazurka, the A Flat Ballade, he again disclosed a wealth of poetic imagination, proving himself a really great Chopin player.

Beethoven Sonata Pleases

Then came the Beethoven Sonata Appasslonata, played as we should like to hear it played again, which a breath-taking climactic effect which completely electrified his audience. Just where the trouble lay in Percy Grainger's "Maguire's Kick" one could not tell; plainly, it was played badly, with a superabundance of wrong notes and chords; as plainly, Mr. Copeland realized the quality of his performance and, a bit cynically amused at the warm applause which greeted it, refused to acknowledge the plaudits accorded him. During the Cathedrale Engloutie, which he played with a truly magnificent tone, and great beauty, he was still plainly "rattled". The other Debussy, and the Spanish numbers, he played as only he could play them, with a completely captivating sense of rhythm and color.

Throughout the evening Mr. Copeland was hampered by one of the worst pianos we have ever had to listen to. Even at that, rarely does an audience hold its breath as it did Thursday, We should be glad to listen to Mr. Copeland as often as be would play; we believe more-over, that he owes it to himself and his audience to play on a real piano in Boston, one of which it could be said not only that all the notes sounded, but that they sounded fairly well. It is irritating to have a great pianist and his audience bothered with a wretched piano.