MUNICIPAL ORCHESTRA

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1088, 29 March 1911, Page 10

MUNICIPAL ORCHESTRA

SECOND CONCENT OF TXIE SEASON, j Good music will always attract, if persisted in. There is no question now that the audiences attending the concerts given b.v the Wellington Municipal Orchestra are attracting '.lie attention of increasingly large audiences. Both concerts given this year have been very well patronised, and—what is even more gratifying— fhe public appear to derive keen pleasure from the work that is being done. Mr. J. Maughan Barnett lias now got his band into good working order, and their efforts are, as a rule, marked by careful treatment, and a musieiauly spirit which may be rather cold and formal in character, yet is strictly eorrcet. To those who know Mr. Barnett there is only 0110 fear, and that is that, in dread ot overdoing, he is underestimating the tTue value of certain sound effects ill some of the pieces selected for performance. There is a well-defined tendency to keep everything down, until a written double forto effect has bccoinc merely forte, in fact. Some works demand broad treatment, and certain passages cry aloud to tlio conductor to get all he can out of his band. After ull, the pleasure derived from music is purely emotional, and it is well-studied contrasts, a nice discrimination in light and shade, which make for tlio best .results. Last evening the orchestra was in a subdued mood—it had no moments. Even in the finale of tho "Rosamundo" Overture thero was an absenco of that impressement which au orchestra of forty players should, and doubtless are, able to realise. This is only mentioned to show a tendency that should be guarded against. It obtruded in Iho swinging, whole-hearted "Cornelius March" (Mendelssohn) which, although played with spirit, sounded somewhat tlnii for such a body of players. The weakness may be tho result of having to kecpthe band down to the value of a certain section of instruments and, if that is so, that section should bo strengthened rather than that thero should be a depreciation of tho sound value of the orchestral body. Even in the lightest, most delicate music, as for example the pretty "Pizzicati" movement from Delibcs' "Sylvia," tho massed instrumental effect is needed. This piece if-as delightfully played as far as interpretation and finish were concerned, but the effect was as if the "plncking" was only pretence on the part of two-thirds of tho strings. The larghetto movement from Beethoven's Second Symphony is a sheetdelight. It is a stream of the purest melody, and was very well played indeed on the whole. Some of the most tender passages were marred by roughness by the French liorns who were far from true in tune. The special and particular treat of the evening was the performance of SaiptSaens' "Dance Macabre"-— a weird eerie composition, descriptive of a wild night with the animated dead in a graveyard. It opens impressively With tho striking of tho hour "when churchyards yawn and graves give up their dead," and is followed by a graphic illustration of the high revels held by the skeletons when (vide the poem of Henry Oazalis, upon which tho dance is founded): "The night is dark, The wintry wind whistles And sighs through tho linden, trees, The white skeletons cross its shade, Running and jumping'. under their winding sheets." Particularly effective was the playing of tho solo violin part by Mr.. Herbert Bloy, whose music was like tho wail of a lost soul, tremulously pdthetic in its rer flection of utter hopelessness. Tho strings and wood-winds combine in the production of some leffects calculated to mako those of nervous imagination feel a real thrill of relief when the oboe crowed up the dawn, and the skeletons rah whimpering into their graves again. It is a composition of rare imagination and . instrumental ingenuity that will be welcomed hereafter. Mr.. Frank Johnstone played a tuneful "Cantabi'.e," by Cui, ; nicely, with an orchestral accompaniment that was not so smoothly played as it might have been./'-''''/ 11 ' 1 ; • ii-ir;-.-At tho organ Mr. Barnett is always tho artist. Last evening he played Bach's "Prelude and Fugub in E Minor," utilising the echo organ effectively for the latter part of the fugue. Reinberger's. "Idyll" was notable for some beautiful tone grouping and shading. He also played ''The Curfew" (Horsmann) and au attractive "Intermezzo" of his own composing.