PIANO EXHIBITION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 108, 8 May 1937, Page 16

PIANO EXHIBITION.

THIRTY-THREE INSTRUMENTS

WIDE VARIETY OF DESIGNS

The cultural value of self-expression in music was stressed by Mr. Varley Hudson, M.A., when he opened Chas. Begg and Company's piano exhibition in the Unity Hall yesterday afternoon.

"This exhibition is, I think, for the good of music as a whole," said Mr. Hudson. "People have nowadays more leisure than ever before, and probably will, in years to come, have still, more, and they will find no better way of occupying their leisure than in music. Next to the human voice, the piano is, I consider, the noblest of musical instruments, and I would particularly commend it to our young people. It is far better for them that they should express themselves through music than that they should become mere listeners to the music made by others."

Mr. Hudson remarked that he was particularly pleased to see that every one of the 33 pianos in the exhibition were of British manufacture, and the wide variety in styles showed that the British manufacturers were keeping abreast of modern tastes. For those that liked the antique there were "period" models, with old-fashioned exteriors containing the modern "works," while at the other end of the scale there were small models for up-to-date flat*, and even a "cocktail" model of cubist design. Choice woods from every country in the world could ibe found amongst the instruments displayed.

The instruments on show were all landed at Auckland during the past week, when the steamer Akaroa arrived from England with the largest and most valuable shipment of pianos that has been imported into New Zealand for many years.