Orchestral Concert

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31222, 21 November 1966, Page 14

Orchestral Concert

The Christchurch Civic Orchestra, conducted by Professor J. A. Ritchie and led by Mr Louis Yffer, gave a concert on Saturday evening in the hall of the Hillmorton High School. This was the first time the full orchestra has given a concert in a suburban area; the other concerts under the Orchestra Foundation’s policy of presenting music away from the centre of the city have been string orchestra performances.

The programme began lightly and gaily with the “Knightsbridge” March by Eric Coates and showed the orchestra’s snappy precision and vitality of tone. There was - well-balanced ensemble topped by stirring brass. Miss Patricia Payne, who recently won the Sydney Sun Aria contest, was the guest artist and a very impressive one. She has a strongly resonant contralto voice of operatic quality and of wide range. Her words are clear and she has plenty of colour at command in order to bring out the emotion and the dramatic significance of what she sings. Hers is a voice of outstanding promise and her future development will be of great interest. The first movement of Mozart’s Symphony in C was played with flexibility and with artistic turning of phrases. The balance between the sections of the orchestra was well kept and the tonal colours were interestingly varied and attractive. The second movement was clear, but the levels might have been softer with good effect in this hall. The minuetto was played with dignity and aplomb, and with warmly mellow tone. There was exhilarating flow with fervid timbres in the last movement with stylish grace and good spirits. The string orchestra, conducted bv Mr Brian Barrett, played Hoist’s “St. Paul’s” Suite with lively character of tone, excellent precision, and with meticulous attention to expression in the Jig. The Ostinato had a beautifully velvety tone, and the pianissimo playing had rare charm. The differing moods in the Intermezzo were, faithfully caught and the playing of the solo passages by Mr Yffer and Mrs Rogers had lovely quality of sound. The Finale came off splendidly with fine grading of expression, and the whole performance had a polished finish.

Miss Payne, accompanied on the piano by Mr Barrett, sang two Spanish folk-songs by de Falla. “Cancion” had sumptuous warmth and the atmosphere of the siesta—a most civilised custom—and “El Pano Moruno,” with its guitar-like accompaniment, had the fire and swirl of a dance sone. The richness of tone in Miss Payne’s voice, produced with elegance and ease, is compellingly interesting and captivating.

The strings played Mr Barrett’s “Slick Chick” with

an effervescent sparkle that won all hearts, and then the concert ended with the wild abandon of Don Gillis’s “Symphony 5J.” It is a humorous work using jazz rhythms and idioms intriguingly. At times it is very noisy—rather like a “Slick Moa” perhaps—but the second movement, which is in the form of a Negro spiritual, has an appealing tenderness. The third movement, entitled “Scherzophrenia,” does seem to suggest that sitting on the head while someone telephones for the waggon would be in order. The last movement gives the elation of a very merry party with occasional crashing bursts as though the home-brew had blown up the washhouse. —C.F.B.