WORLD OF MUSIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

WORLD OF MUSIC.

GOSSIP OF THE PLATFORM. FROM FAR AND NEAR. (By ORPHEUS.) The Levin Choral Society -will present "The Bohemian Girl" on May 20. The Wanganui Choral Society ia to perform "Maritana" on June 18. The Christchurch Musical Society will sing Sir Edward Elgar's "The Dream of Gerontius," on June 2. Weber's "Oberon" will be performed by the New Plymouth Choral Society on June 18, as the first concert of the 1930 season. Sir Arthur Sullivan's "Golden Legend" is the work selected by the Royal Wellington Choral Union for its second concert of the present season. Miss Naomi Whalley and Mr. Ernest Short are to undertake the parts of Micaela and Escamillo respectively in the Royal Wellington Choral Union's performance of "Carmen." The combined performance of "Hiawatha," by the Royal Wellington Choral Union and the New Plymouth Choral Society, under the baton of Mr. John Bishop, will take place in New Plymouth on the 30th and 31st August. Mr. Guy Marriner, a young Aucklander who left this country some years ago, and has spent most of th© intervening time in America, recently gave two pianoforte recitals in the Aeolian Hall in London. A portrait of him, by

James Montgomery Flagg, the famous American artist, appears in this column. Mr. Marriner is a son of Mr. H. A. Marriner, for a number of years manager of the New Zealand Insurance Company in Auckland." I mentioned last week that the Auckland Piano Students' Association and the Academic Club were considering the question of co-operating to some extent with each other. The president of the Piano Students' Association now tells me 'that this will not be possible, ron account of the heavy programme of work already outlined for her organisation for the current season. With its increased membership, and the enthusiasm which is being shown by the members, the association will have a busy and successful year if all 1 goes well. The next of the series of lectures it is presenting will be given by Mr. Karl Atkinson, and will take place on June 2. The subject, will be "Living Musicians."

Alfred O'Shea was in great demand at the St, Patrick's Day celebrations an New York, singing in no fewer than twelve entertainments. In the "New York American" Mr, Louis Reed wrote: "The conception has long been nourished that in John MacCormack the world had the last of the Irish-tongued tenors who. could do justice to the ballad 'Mother Machree.' The sudden realisation has come to us that in Alfred O'Shea, who was heard last Tuesday night with the Libby orchestra, the world has another Irishman who can accomplish with unusual ease and beauty the widely-scat-tered notes of 'Mother Machree.'" It is apparent that Mr. O'Shea has met with a greater degree of appreciation in New York than it was his fortune to experience in New Zealand. The next concert of the Royal Auck- . land Choir, which will take place on May j 22, will bo a particularly fine one. Miss Naomi Whalley, of Palmerston North, one of the best sopranos in the Dominion, will be the vocal soloist, and items will also be given by the Moore Sisters' Instrumental Trio. The choir numbers will be: "The Viking's Song" (Coleridge Taylor), "Love's Lullaby (Lovatt), "Queen of the Night" (Smart), "Thou Art My Dream," including baritone solo, "Calm At Sea" (Dudley Buck), "Image of the Rose," including , tenor solo (Reichardt), "Reveries" (Storch), "The Viking's Farewell" (Knowles), "Evening Song" (Billeter), and "The Tar's Song" (Tlatton). The items to be .played by the Moore Sisters will b: "Rondo Alia Turca" (Mozart), "Negro Spirituelle" (Clarence C. White), and Schubert's "Ave Maria." The forthcoming visit of the Royal Wellington Choral Union to New Plymouth, when it will combine with the local society in performing "Hiawatha,'{ raises once again the question of musical reciprocity. The plea that economic conditions are too difficult at present to permit of such things as the exchanging of conductors is one that carries no height. The expense of bringing Mr. John Bishop to Auckland for, say, the Auckland Choral Society's "Messiah" concert, and of sending Mr. Colin MusI ton to Wellington r or the Wellington "Messiah," would not prove a burden to either society; and .the interest aroused as a result of such a procedure would react very favourably on the box office takings. To say that musieal life | in New Zealand is at present in a state of coma would be an exaggeration. But it cannot be denied that there is a widespread lack of enthusiasm for hearing good music. This may be due in part to the financial depression from which we are suffering; but it is also attributable to a large extent, I think, j to the, lack of enterprise displayed by t the various societies. The guest-con-ductor system has proved enormously' successful in England and America, and j there is no reason why it should not be i introduced in New> Zealand. It could [ not fail to stimulate interest in the con- r certs. \ i

Mr. Hubert Carter is to be a busy man during the next few months. In addition to the recital he gave at Patea last Tuesday, he is to fulfil the following engagements: "Maritana" (Wanganui, June 18), "The Dream of Gerontius" (Christchurch, June 2), and "The Bohemian Girl" "(Levin, May 20).

In a magazine article Leopold Stokowski, the famous American conductor, says: —"I believe music lovers would enjoy the concerts more and recei'/e more stimulation toward inner growth and well-being if the conditions under which they heard music were improved. In so many halls the glare of direct lighting is very distracting and fatiguing to the eye." I am certain that there is in Auckland a large and growing body of opinion in agreement with this. At most of the concerts which take place in the Town Hall, one is compelled to sit for two hours in a blaze of light which would make a matinee idol feel self-conscious. The eye, we are told, is the means by which we receive sixty per cent of our sense impressions. It is therefore evident that the less the eye is distracted by irrelevant details of the environment, such as bright lights, glittering chandeliers, and human faces, the better the mind 'is able to concentrate on the music. The difficulties of enjoying a concert in the Town Hall, occasioned by the hardness of tlie seats, and the cramped condition of the lower limbs, are sufficient in themselves to make it an ordeal rather than a pleasure, more often than not; and when to these trials are added the graver ones of having to face the aggressive ' blankness of those plaster walls, and to endure the full blast of several thousand candle-power in one's eyes, it is no longer a source of wonderment that concerts in the Town Hall are not always attended as well as might be expected. In the matter of seats, the authorities at Dunedin are more considerate. In the new Town Hall in that city the seats, I understand, are padded. I hate to say much on such a delicate subject, but it is certainly time those in our own hall were made more fit for human occupation.