A STKOLL WITH A FAMOUS ORGANIST.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12508, 22 May 1906, Page 8

A STKOLL WITH A FAMOUS ORGANIST.

MR LEMARE INTERVIEWED

NEW IDEAS ABOUT ORGANPLAYING.

ISPKCIAI TO •TTIU PRE."*.") WELLINGTON*. May 21. The telephone, and a l-'ttrr of iiUroduct...n from a frk::d in Honolulu, resilked in a delightini afternoon epent in the company <a Mr at.d Mrs Lemaro, who lnve a: tivod i.'i Weliinz.-rm, after many vi; i.- itude-' and inueh sootl luck —h:it tor the fact- that they broke their journ-.-y at .Salt l*ikc City, they would have, been, in win Francisco on the day <«f the earthquake. They arrived tho day after, and on rear".i tig the train teruuiiuft nt Oakland th.y -aw seven miles cf the city < f S.ni Frarcv*c.-> ablaze. I: wa.s a magnificent, but a very Kid, sight. Th ;■ rai.way people wanted Mr and Mrs Lemate to g> to San Francisco, but. a.s hi.i wit\> wns in delicate heal*.:!, h- firmly iiiii-ed to do <=.?.

and tho r.iihvay company, contrary to r.:gulatk.'';.s. ielt t'iieiu at the wharves in, a skx ping-car, in wiiich they spimt the night. On the foMowing day Mr and Mrs Lemaro had the fortune ti> had ail t'.t ir heavy luggage, including a valualle cay? oi mn.s.c which had ben n sent en aluad. i-ar. in the ierebuilding, wiiich jiiis. nii-..se;l K-ing destroyed by the lire. They k-ft at once for Vanc./iiver, and came across tho oc an w.th "th;*- earthquake mail" iv th.- Moana. •'Had I net left when I did, said .Mr Lcmare, "I might have been shoveling brcks in San Francisco for some davei, for m.my visitors were pressed into work ci various kinds." Mr Lcmare on leaving Vancouver thought lie was going to Australia, but the .Moana wai-> divet't.d at Fiji and sent on to New Zealand. F.nally. Mr and Mrs Lemaro came down from New Plymouth in the mail tra.n on Saturday night. It is our god f,.rtnne to have Mr Lemaiv with us at la-t, and the public will no doubt be interested in hearing what manlier of man lit- is. Tlio ordinary interview in ,i hotel smoking-room is somewhat st.ff and formal. so we took tram to the Kelbume Tea Kiosk, where we. chatted over a cup of tea, Iwth Mr and Mrs being charmed with the splendid view that stretches from tho Pacific Ocean, outside the heads, to the distant cloudcapped Jtuahines, far beyond the spacious wind-Mvcnt liarlwur.

Mr Lemare was modest about his own work, but I knew that ho was nt the top of the tree, both as n master of the organ and as a composer of organ music. Mr Lorn arc hn.s ideas of his own about the organ and about organ music. He hns made it his mission to popularise tho organ, and to write musio that is suitable for the organ, and so far lie has been successful in n remarkable degree. Mr Lemare even goes further in his mission, and gives advice to the organ builder, for, as ho is able to show, tho organ is moro in a state of transition than any other instrument. Each builder has his own individuality in the way of voicing, action, etc., and Mr Lemare pleads for standardisation, and, above all, simplicity. So*-"" reonle are under tlio impression that th© more mechanical accessories oan be jammed into tho console the better, but tho very opposite is the case, and Mr Lonwiro "holds that the less a player has to think about in the shape of -mechanism, tho finer will bo his artistic interpretation. When I wrote in a preceding paragraph that Mr Lomare's mission was to popularise the organ, I did not .perhaps quite accurately express bis ideas in reality. His aim is not so much to "popularise" tho organ as to uiako it acknowledged generally as an artistic 6010 instrument, the same ns the violin ami tho piano. Hitherto, said Mr Loimare, it has not had much respect shown to it, because tho great majority of tho programmes of organ recitals have been so arranged as to be deadly dull. One went io an organ recital and heard simply the old-fashioned music ono was wont to hoar in church. "You cannot wonder," said Mr Lemare, "that no ono ever went to such recitals."

Having finished our tea, wo lit a cigarette, and strolled through tho Botanical Gardens, and continued our talk. Mr Lemare was delighted with tho indigenous plant life, tho tree ferns, tho cabbage trees, the flax, and a hundred other things that caught his eye. His wife was equally enthusiastic, and it was a. pleasure to show such people round.

Mr L?ma,re's last remarks about the dullness of the average organ recital led mc to warn 'him that Wellington people* minht rot appreciate such a composition, as Bach's prelude and fugue in D Major, which it is announced lii» will play at his firet recital. He naid that if hb experience in. Sydneywas any guide, ho felt sure the Wellington public would appreciate that selection. The Svdn-sy peoplo liked Bach's ft'gucs; in fact, they received them with greater applause than they bestcwed on tho more popular "selectio'ts—"and, after all," remarked Mr Lcmare, "that is the finest music, when all in «>aid and done."

And just here I might let out a half-eccrc-t. Mr Lemare, as wo all know, is a great compo er cf organ music. He has written much original work and many transcriptions from famous authors. Aftt-iwards lie showed mc a procf copy, marked "private," of a Momewhat ambitious work of his now in tho press—an orchestral symphony in 1) Minor. This work is in'the hands of his publishers, tlu- wc.l-kn-r.wii. Novello and Co., of Loudon. It has never yet be.n perform.d in public, neither the orchestral work n-cr the organ transcript if n. but if Mr Lcmare finds that tho Wellington public appreciate good music, it will be born into the mu-ical world i.i New Zealand—if net, Melbourne will live th? honour.

No on: rec.ignis's mire than does Mr Lrmare the mechanical restrictions and limitations of the organ. Ho t?!!s a sory of playing, at one of his recitals in tho United States, tho great Toccata Adagio and Fugue in C Major of Bach. When h*.» reached the adagio, lie found one or two heavy flue stops on tho pedal on*:ui would net go off. Rather than stop and ppeil the continuity cf tho whole work, he played tho detached pedal bi*.«s "very" staccato. Next mornins: the newspapers criticised him adversely for the inartistic US' he had made of the- pedal organ in the aclagi>! That story is just given as an. instance of th? difficulties an organist hn.s to contend against. Tho orchestra, Mr Lemare fays, always hos been, and over will be. the finest medium of exorcising the hi ghost ■muMi-al thought. Through an orrhe-tra with the intelligent sympathy cf its living member.*, each expert in hi? own instrument, the compiler can g'-r expression of his mo-t original and most daring tone colours. Tho man who writes for the organ, on the ether hand, knows that hi* mest beautiful phrases may be fthorn of a large part of their poetic value, for though like the conductor rf an orchestra, he may have almost ac many j-top-" a.s the forn:er ha* rvifcrnitMS to control, the intelligent --yinrvithy of the living members is lacking for him. He must make the best of hard mechanism.

Mr I.emaro, however, thinks that it is not necessary that the organ should so fail in expression, for, despite tho unavoidable limitation*, tlir- organ can bo brought to a very high level as a medium cf musical interpretation. i>o far, the means of expression obtainable

on tho organ have only been by enclosing some of the pipes in <a ewoll box— at best a clum>y contrivance —and Mr Lcmare holds that by a great radical improvement in swell boxes, and in swell pedals generally, ecnsiderablo advance -an be made in the way of expression. It is this present want of accent of life, ,-md of expression in m> many of the orsrans of to-day. that makes organ recitals so proverbially dull. But that is another story, and there is not space to go into t.he""bnilding" question. Of the Wellington orcr:iii. Mr Lcmare had nothing to -ay hut nrai-e. He fin-i-hed his aft., rnc-cn at it- keyboard. As I watched him with foot and hand testing particular ot .-tops, co'iipleis. -swell pedals, pedal bcaid pi-tons, and composition pedals, t;io difficulties of the instrument were fully brought hcn.e to mc, but Mr Ijemare is vi master of technique, while at the 6ame time he has the .-oul of an artist.

"Is, there anything yen would like to hoar before we go," he asked? "You might piay a bit ot Bach's Prelude and Fugue.""! suggested, and presently the spiondid mu-ic of that ma-je-rie compo.-ition was resounding ;hi (.ugh the empty hall. There was a iittle want cf clearnct-s owing to the echo. "Still, it'll be all right when

o hail is full," to id Mr Leuiaro ccn-

iicli'Htiy. I'or.-on-ally. Mr Lcmare is a youngish man. He does not wear his hair long, and he is in no way effeminate. L> —c Paderewski, he lore- a game of billiards. He is also an enthusiastic motorist.