"VICTORY CONCERT"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 146, 22 June 1945, Page 7

"VICTORY CONCERT"

TEACHERS' COLLEGE EFFORT 600 VOICES HEARD Vβ SONG The splendid work being done at the Auckland Teachers' College in educating the musical taste of the rising generation was convincingly demonstrated by the high standard reached in the "Victory Concert" given in the Town Hall last evening by the students under the direction of Mr. H. C. Luscombe, before an audience that filled the auditorium.

So much emphasis is now being placed in official policy on the cultural side of education, that it is encouraging to see that talent is being cultivated in the training colleges that will enable this policy to be carried out effectively. It is also highly v gratifying to remember that the students who took part in the concert will, by imparting to their future pupils in the primary and secondary schools the knowledge and appreciation of worthwhile music they have gained, enable an even higher standard to be attained in the training colleges when these pupils, in their turn, become trainees.

A well arranged and varied programme was presented. Items by composers, both classical and modern, were sung by a massed choir of 600 voices with impressive effect. A well-trained choir of women's voices was heard in works by Handel, Bach, Schubert, Purcell and Somervell. Chants, laments, songs and hakas presented by the Maori Club were popular items. Instrumental relief was provided by the performance of Piano Concerto in B flat (Handel) by Rex Barrell, a clever young pianist, supported by a string orchestra reinforced by piano, clarinet, cornet and E flat horn. Mr Barren's execution was neat and clean, whilst the; orchestra's playing was marked by precision and praiseworthy tone and intonation. It was also heard to advantage in the accompaniments to some of the choruses. A stately minuet was gracefully danced to the strains of music by Haydn by twelve dancers dressed as courtiers. Miss Enid Moore, a young soprano with a pleasing voice, sweet and pure, sang Handel's "O Had I Jubal's Lyre" and "How Beautiful Are the Feet" to piano accompaniment by Miss Margaret .Hamill and violin obligato by Miss On ah Redpath. Gratifying features of the choral singing were the pure tone of women's voices and the clear enunciation.

Mr. Luscombe, the lecturer in music at the college, to whose enthusiasm and great ability the success of the concert was mainly due, is to be congratulated upon a fine achievement.