CITY ORGAN RECITALS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3116, 21 June 1917, Page 4

CITY ORGAN RECITALS

A COKIIESI'ONDENT lakes I'.s to t-isk for an alleged failure on'our part to support and encyvjrago the Saturday night orgftf, recitals at the lowu Hall. Wo are not conscious ot any b :c k of sympathy with these atlrjirablo performances, even though, as charged against us we do ti.'ob attempt an expert criticism eacn week of the programme- presented by the City Organist. Tho most | sanguine lovers of good music as I expressed through the medium of tho grand organ scarcely dare hope that organ recitals will ever become popular in tho ordinary meaning of tho word, but it is accepted as | traditional that they are one of the finest aids to higher ideals in music, A very proper ambition with Way I city of promise and aspirati/oW is tho possession of a Town JJ a li as au attribute to tho dignity 0 f the municipality, and, haying such, it is c ? ,/, tradltl 9Sal that the edifice should be graced, with it graud organ and a competent organist to play it. bucli possesions are to music as a national gallery is to painting—a mcdi'jia through which all may learn to love and appreciate works of , oeauty and artistic worth. Tho I organ enables tho student and tho ! music-lover to make acquaintance with tho great masters, and to learn from thoir works tho rare beauties, dramatic; poetic, tragic, and pastoral, -which have placed thorn among the immortals. In Wellington, whcrcr wo aro in a great measure deprived of other means, orchestral and operatic, ,of hearing such works, tho organ recitals of Mr. Bernard P. Page fill an artistic need that is/too little appreciated. Whilst tho City Organist has been charged with a desire to play music of a class that only people of advanced musical culture can fully appreciate—a chargo that could bo easily combated by an examination of any half-dozen of his carefully-arranged programmes—no real lover of music could dispute their elevating and interesting character. At such a time as the present, when tho world is distraught with the livid horrors of a terrible war, there is solace as well as artistic uplift in theso recitals. Mr. Page is a master of tho instrument, and his' fine expositions of all classes of music entitle him to a greater mea&ure of support than has yet been, accorded these weekly recitals.