THE WORLD OF MUSIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 285, 2 December 1933, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE WORLD OF MUSIC.

DIAPASONS AND ECHOES. FROM FAR AND NEAR.

(By ORPHEUS.)

The recital by Madame Irene Ainslcy, originally announced for November 30, is now to be given on December 11. v

Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor (Opus. 64) is to be played by Mr. Vincent Aspey at the next concert given by the Mareo Symphony Orchestra.

The major work to bo broadcast by IYA at 2 p.m. to-morrow will be Brahms' "Symphony No. 1 in C Minor," played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, under Felix Weingartner.

The Bach organ recital, arranged for the Auckland Piano Students' Association by Mr. C. F. Browne last Monday evening, brought to a close a most successful season for that body of musical enthusiasts.

The first movement of Mendelssohn's beautiful Trio in D Minor (Opus. 40) is to be played by Miss Theo. Halpin (piano), Mr. Len Swan (violin), and Miss Lalla Hemus ('cello) at a recital in the Lewis Eady Hall on December 13.

A performance of Handel's "Messiah" is to be given on December 10 by the choir of tile Pitt Street Methodist Church under tho conduetorship of Mr. Albert Bryant. Tho soloists will be: Miss Gladys Payne (soprano), Miss Alys Moncur (contralto), Mr. Harry Blakeley (tenor), and Mr. W. B. L. Williams, of Hamilton (bass). The organist will be Mr. W. Emerson.

Theatregoers have usually little chance of actually questioning and even criticising performers personally. In Aachen, as part of a campaign to bring public and theatre closer together, the director of the Municipal Theatre has invited the public to come to the theatre Sunday mornings for an informal discussion

fiour. Questions are answered, tlie week's programme described and excerpts from the different pieces to bo played are given by actual members of the cast. The innovation has proved • extraordinarily popular. Aachen, however, is still wondering what will happen after a bad play.

An interesting conversation was overheard in one of the boxes at Covent Garden during last year's Wagner season: "Oh, how Wagner bores me!" said a man to a lady. "And oh, how you would liave bored Wagner;" said the lady to the man. The above anecdote is quoted by Ernest Newman, in the "Sunday Times," apropos of the "wire-, less critics," who found the 8.8.C. broadcasts of Bach cantatas dull. "Let us/'' he writes, "in Christian charity, forbear to hint that perhaps Bach would not have been precisely lost in admiration of the musical attainments and the general intellectual capacity of some of these gentlemen."

It may have struck many people that the accepted practice of expressing approval, or appreciation of the performance of musical numbers, by clapping hands, is really rather barbarous. For instance, the lovely strains of a beautiful air have just melted away in the concert hall, and immediately our ears are jarred by the sharp staccato sounds of hundreds of palms being smitten together; bringing us back with a horrible jolt to earth once again. This was brought home to the writer at a concert a few nights ago. Immediately behind him eat a husky young man who seemed to be possessed of an outside capacity for appreciation, together with an out size in hands with which he expressed the aforesaid appreciation, with more enthusiasm- than discretion, about four inches from this complainant's left tympanum (or ear drum). A much more euphonious "way to express approval, or otherwise, might be effected by placing two buttons in front of every scat in the Town Hall. By pressing one, beautiful chimes would sound, denoting appreciation. The other button would bring into action a hooter.

Robert Parker, the singer, who hails from America, is a brave man (writes our London correspondent). He has organised a first-rate opera company, and proposes to tour it in the English provinces this autumn, with a possible season in London at Christmas time. He has chosen an all-Wagnerian repertory and swears that he will make the venture pay. His artists include Florence Eastman, Florence Austral, Walter Widdopp, Horace Stevens, and other well-known British singers, and he will give the "Ring" in full at popular prices. Meanwhile, Sir Thomas Beecham is to conduct on the opening night of the new season at Sadlers Wells, where the prices range from (3d to 6/, and the performances have becomq so good that the 8.8.C. is paying £1000 a month for the privilege of broadcasting one opera a week. "La Boheme" has been chosen for the opening night, and Rimsky- JCorsakov's "Snow Maiden" and "Tsar Saltan," conducted by Albert Coates, and Gluck's- "Orpheus," which has not been seen in London for many years, will be given during the first few weeks, The theatre has also established a thriving school of British ballet.

Tlio Royal Wellington Clioral Union will produce Handel's "Messiah" on Wednesday, December 0, with chorus and orchestra of 400 members, under the direction of Mr. John Bishop. The soloists will be as follows: —Soprano, Alma, Clegg; contralto, Gladys Hibberd; tenor, Edwin Dennis; baritone, Russell J. Laurenson.

Writing in the "Sunday Times" under the heading "Musical Appreciation," Mr. Ernest Newman says:—"Our everyday experience brings homo two facts that often the man who knows all about a given work remains completely insensitive to it as a piece of musical expression, while conversely the man who could not, for the life of him, tell you how the music has been put together is powerfully drawn to it. Which brings us back to my] original point, that what is taught as "musical expression," is nothing of the kind; it is merely an approach to musical appreciation if you happen to bo built along the same intellectual and emotional lines as the composer and the work. If you are not, no amount of talk, about form, subjects, first tune, second tune, exposition, work-ing-out, recapitulation, variation, and all the rest of it, will be of the slightest use to you."