WORLD OF MUSIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 307, 28 December 1929, Page 8 (Supplement)

WORLD OF MUSIC.

GOSSIP OF THE PLATFORM. FROM FAR AND NEAR. (By ORPHEUS.) The Nelson Harmonic Society intend putting on "Hiawatha" as their first concert for 1930. "The Dream of Gerontius" will be the first work undertaken by the Christchurch Musical Society. "A Tale of Old Japan" is the work selected by the Dunedin Choral Society for its first concert in 1930. Madame Lorenza, an English soprano (late of Christchurch), hopes to visit New Zealand on a concert tour in 1931. Miss Millicent Russell, a well-known English contralto, is making a concert torn- of America, Canada and Australia in 1930, and it is hoped she will visit New Zealand and take part in some of the choral society concerts. Miss Lucy Nuttall, the Manchester contralto, who has just completed a concert tour of South Africa, is visiting Australia next year, after which she purposes coming across to New Zealand. Miss Etta Field, who left Auckland some time ago in order to take up her residence in Sydney, is doing very well in that town. She has been singing over the air regularly during the last few months. An invitation has been sent to the Royal Wellington Choral Union to visit New Plymouth during 1930 to assist in the production of a work to be decided on later. In inviting the Wellington Society, the New Plymouth Choral Society have asked that Mr. John Bishop conduct the combined choirs. Very few people in Auckland can boast of having taken an active interest in local music for such a long, period as has Mr. S. J. Harbutt, who recently resigned from the position of honorary secretary of the Royal Auckland Choir. Mr. Harbutt joined the society as a performing member in 1890, and in 1900 was appointed to the office which he has held for 30 years. The membership of the choir at the beginning of .the century stood at 51, and there were 150 subscribers. The total assets amounted to less than £100. Concerts in those days were given in the Old Choral Hall, but on December 21, 1911, the choir held its first concert in the Town Hall, in conjunction with the Auckland Orchestral Society, under Herr Wielaert. The first popular concert was given on March 25, 1912, whan there was a packed house, and ,the society's 100 th performance took place on August 1, 1913. At that time things were thriving. There were 102 performing members and 1075 subscribers; the repertoire consisted of 240 part songs; every seat in the Town Hall was booked and there was a credit balance of £191 5/0 for the year. Needless to say,

the subscribers' roll fell during the war years, but by 1920 it had been built up again to 1000. Since 1925 it has fallen steadily, but with the coming, of bettor times, we are continually being promised, the choir will no doubt return to its former strength. Mr. Harbutt has many pleasant memories of the old days of the society. "During my first years of office," he relates, "we held smoke concerts in the old Masonic Hall in Princes Street. There were some memorable times. The struggle for the beer amounted almost to a free fight on occasions. But since then we have by a gradual process eliminated, liquor, and I don't think we are any the worse for it. My 30 years of secretaryship have been a great happiness to me. I think I have always enjoyed the confidence and goodwill of the members, and I can't remember there being even the slightest suggestion of trouble to disturb the harmony of my relations with them. Enthusiasm in the old days was the keynote of success. The concerts were almost invariably packed, and sometimes hundreds were turned away. Tho enthusiasm may not be quite so 'keen now as it was then, but I think it will return before, long, when the bubble of 'jazz' and 'canned music' is pricked. In the meantime the choir has my heartiest wishes for continued success. I hope it will go from strength to strength."

On present indications it would seem that Alexander Kipnis lias very nearly displaced Chaliapine in popular favour as the world's leading bass singer. Emile Vuillermoz, the Paris correspondent of the "Christian Science Monitor," writes an appreciation of him in a recent article. He says: "Kipnis possesses a bass voice of extraordinary richness, fullness and roundness. But what is amazing in this voice is, if one may say so, its lightness. There never has been a more manageable or malleable bass voice. Ordinarily, the deep tones are heavy and lack' agility. Kipnis, on the contrary, is just as much at ease in the vocalisations of Handel as in majestic moments. It is a veritable tour de force. This singer who has the good taste not to abuse his throat as his colleagues so often do, is able to pass from brilliant strength to softness. He obviously seeks for subtlety of nuance before all. His performances are wonderfully delicate. He passed with ease from a grand scene from 'Boris Godounoff' to the most intimate of the Schubert lieder. In all his interpretations he shows a fine knowledge of the texts. Alexander Kipnis is really a complete artist whose musical culture is unusual."

Miss Marie Hall, the famous violinist, who visited the Dominion in 1907, is contemplating making a tour of New Zealand about July of next year.

From an editorial in a Southern radio journal we note that "radio was called upon at first to blare forth cheap music. It provided a surfeit of jazz; it provided cheap wit. Those stages, however, are passing. Questionnaires conducted time and again of late months record a growing condemnation of jazz, and a demand for a higher, quality of music and a fuller meeting of the demands for intellectual food and moral truth." This is excellent stuff. I was on the point of cutting it out and sending it to the [Radio Broadcasting Company, when it occurred to me that they probably took this journal themselves, and would see it anyhow. Of course, the little bit at I the end about "intellectual food and moral truth" comes perilously close to being hot air, but I am glad to see that the questionnaires revealed Tier a high level of public taste; it has been one of my contentions for a long time that | the Broadcasting Company i« rather inclined to underestimate th<j capacity of listeners for appreciating good music. Some wonderful recordings of longish musical works, occupying perhaps six or eight sides, have been made recently. Yet I cannot recall a single instance of one of these beihg broadcast in full. The company, lacking the faith and optimism of the person who wrote the editorial quoted above, appears to think that listeners are incapable of sitting through an occasional long work. But surely there must be at least a handful of people who are capable of performing this feat without suffering nervous prostration ?—enough, say, to justify the playing of a complete Beethoven Symphony once every six months. Or even once every two years. As for the "surfeit of jazz," which is alleged to be slowly disappearing from the programmes, I leave it to listeners-in to judge whether the amount we get at present may justly be called a surfeit, or merely an overdose. Lest it appear that I am liverish, let me say that the lectures which Mr. Cyril Towsey has been giving during the afternoon programmes at IYA are a most praiseworthy institution. A little more of this sort of thing and even a sceptic like myself might come round to the belief that the Broadcasting Company was beginning to realise its responsibility in the matter of musical education.