WORLD OF MUSIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 71, 24 March 1928, Page 8 (Supplement)

WORLD OF MUSIC.

GOSSIP OF THE PLATFORM. / FROM FAR AND NEAR. (By ORPHEUS.) c) J he British Broadcasting Company recently put on Monteverdi's opera. "The b Return of Ulysses," and the result is V described as onp of the most successful "] transmissions yet heard in England. Yehudi Menuhin, the boy violinist, h celebrated his eleventh birthday the fi other day by giving a recital in San T irancisco before an audience of 10,000 vMenuhin played with dazzling technique' and astonished the critics by his tone and maturity of style. ' h The Palmerston North Choral Society ® is putting on Phillips' opera, "The Rebel ® Maid,' for its first concert this year. This bright opera was one of the works & eung at the Dunedin Exhibition, the English tenor, Mr. Arthur Jordan, taking the baritone role. En -n The Vatican Choir is planning an- .0 other tour of the United States and Y Canada. As on their previous visit, the choir will be led by Monsignor Casimiri, choirmaster of the Church of St. John Lateran, of Rome. —— — ig "Horses of the Dawn," a song by Mrs. 01 Mary Osborne, of Auckland, has just " ] been published by Augener's, and will 3 be on sale here shortly. It was Bung at c< the Lyceum Club in London recently, and Mr. Hubert Carter broadcasted it from w 2FC Sydney last month. The words arc by Miss Mareida Batten, whose verses '1 have sometimes appeared in the "Star." a Albert Coates, the famous English composer, conducted a command performanue of Riinsky-KorsakofFa opera 11 ' Kitesh" for the Xing of Spain during P the visit of the Royal Family to Barcelona. This occasion was the first on el which the King and Queen have been Sl known to remain to the end, their custom a being to leave before the last act. After the opera the King suggested to Coates that he might taken over the conductor- tr •hip of the Royal Opera in Madrid. h The first municipal carillon in the United States was dedicated at Albany, t i New York recently. The carillon has j, sixty bells, with the upper octave dupli- j cated, thus giving forty-eight serrate jj tones. A fund of sixty thousand dollars g , for the purchase of the carillon was t( raised by popular subscription, to whiuh the municipality added twenty thousand P dollars for its installation in the City J Hall tower. The bells were cast in tli_ , famous foundry of John Taylor and Co., { of Loughborough, England, and the in- , augural concert was played by Josef Denyn, the eminent carillonneur, of * Malines, Belgium. The third annual Schoolboys' Own Exhibition was held recently in London ~ Musical competitions were included in the programme, and three of the four ■ competitions were won by schoolgirls. Sir Benjamin Gott, secretary of the Middlesex Education Committee, said, In opening the exhibition, that he was pleased to see that the League of Nations Union was represented among the societies associated with it, because educational work would fail if it did not produce a spirit which would result not only in international but in industrial peace. Mr. John Bishop, the new conductor of-the Royal Wellington Choral Union, recently complimented the union upon ita fine library of musical works. The union at its inception was far-sighted enough to adopt the policy of buying the complete vocal scores, as well as the band parts, of a number of choral works and hiring these to the members of the chorus. It now has about 26 complete works for hire. The Auckland Choral Society, on the other band, has, until lately, followed the principle of letting members buy their own copies at a reduced rate, the society holding only the orchestral parts. This worked very well until the war came, but now that all ehoral scores are more than double the pre-war price the advantages of the Wellington Society's policy have become apparent. So far as the band parts are concerned the Auckland Society has probably the largest musical library in the Dominion, having no fewer than 33 oratorios, 51 cantatas, 11 masses, 105 overtures, 54 symphonies, 40 marches, 129 concert pieces, 8 anthems, 22 suites and 129 miscellaneous dances. It seems to the writer that the City Council has made a mistake in altering tiie night for organ recitals and municipal band performances from Saturday to Wednesday. Unfortunately on Wednesday night many choirs practice and a large number of possible attenders are thus prevented from patronising the Town Hall concerts. Apart from that, Saturday is a night which most people keep free and amusements of all sorts are better attended on that night than on any other. There can be no question that the band and organ recitals should receive first consideration as regards the Town Hall, in view of the superlative work they do in the direction of musical education. Aucklanders probably do not realise how fortunate they are in having a municipal band of the calibre of Mr. Christopher Smith's, nor do they appear to appreciate fully the trouble Mr. Smith goes to in order to provide the very best musical fare possible. A week or two ago, for example, the band played the adagio movement from Beethoven's Fonrth Symphony, this being, we believe, the first occasion on which it has been performed in Australasia. In order to do this, Mr. Smith had to copy out the parts, a work involving considerable time and trouble. Yet the concert" was only sparsely attended. pacing of Thomas Hardy, says an English writer, calls for a word on operatic version of "Tess." This 1r«« j ! U< T, eBB - No tbeme was ever "omtIho" operatic" treatment; and aft On V P roduct »°n fore and an. On that fhrst night, July 14. 1909 ?™/ O ATnI' 1 " ,tory English countryside, bo to speak, was swamped by aromatic Italiin mirt" D Manger's music, very charmiigiy melodious on the whole, and with JIS grace in the country scenes, was at bottom little mofe than diluted Pucciniand the Italian members of the cast could not convey wholly the essential spirit of the work. Yet what a cast it was, and what fine singing! Panizza conducted; And Hardy himself was ainon £ the distinguished audience.