THEATRICAL NOTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23269, 11 February 1939, Page 16 (Supplement)

THEATRICAL NOTES

COMING PRODUCTIONS THEATRE AND CONCERT HALL HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE To-day.—Covent Gardeii Kusßtan Ballet. February 10.—Yourn? Australian Boys' L-iiiiin >1 mi Uevue. Vaughan Williams' New Work The Menges Sextet gave the first performance at its concert of January at Wigmorc Hall, a tie\v work j Vaughan Williams —a double trio tor strings, in D minor and in four movements, composed last year.

Griller Quartet's Tour The Griller Quartet sailed from England last month for its first tour of the United States and Canada, beginning at New York with a quartet by Boa. In 10 vears the quartet lias made BUU appearances in public. The members Sydney Griller, Jack O'Brien, Philip Burton and Colin Hampton accept no separate engagements, and—though two of them are married and have childien —the.y keep to their plan of all living togetlier.

Sale of Handel Scores Lovers of Handel's music are to have an auction feast at Sotheby s on February 13, when contemporary scores ot his operas and other works will appear in the Godfrey Arkwright collection, states the London Daily lelegraph. The earliest of these is the score of "Kinaldo," first performed at the Queen's Theatre, Haymarket, on February 24, 1711. Owing to the lavish mounting and unusual scenery, the opera took the town by storm, and it ran until June. Queen Anne may have heard a performance of "Biiialdo, but she was too ill to attend the J hanksgiving Service at St. Paul s on July 7, 1713 in celebration of the Peace of Utrecht, when Handel's magnificent "To Douin et -Jubilate" was given. Later, however, she had a performance of it in her private chapel, and granted to Handel an annuity ot LMU. An earlv and undated score of this is to be sold, as well as one of Handel s first English oratorio, "Queen Esther, performed on August 29, 1/20. Altogether there are oO Handelian scores. The wise Dr. Burney used to say that "Women and Music should never be dated." In this he was quoting the dictum of John Walsh, Handel s publisher, who did not date the scores for commercial reasons. This absence of dates lias provided collectors with endless problems.