AFTER FORTY YEARS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 276, 10 August 1918, Page 9

AFTER FORTY YEARS

MR. EGBERT PACKER'S NOTABLE SERVICE TO THE PUBLIC. ,'i'hie is tho last year that Mv. Robert Parker is to figure as a conductor of musical performances in public in Wellington, and in view of his early retirement from tho arena in which'he has bson so conspicuous and,lovable a personage 'the musical, people of Wellington lire, through the. medium of tho Wellingj ton Choral Union, to tender him a complimentary concert at the Town Hall ! on Wednesday evening next, wheh Mendelssohn's '.'Elijah" will ho sung. It is fittuijjf that (his ennoblin,? work should have been selected .for tho occasion, as it was tho first work of any importance conducted by Mr. Parker in Wellington, and that was the first occasion on which its glorious strains and grand choruses had boon heard in the place, 'l.'hiit was precisely forty years ago. The soloists in that first jiDrl'ormnneK vpre .Mesiia.'iies Garrurd, Greenwood, and P. P. Webb (the last-named will bo singing in tho chorus on Wednesday next), and Messrs. .T.-.E. Pago (formerly Town Cleric) and S. Ilnll'ste". It was ten years later when Mr. John Proiiso made his'-first anpearance liero as the Prophet, and it u snfe to say that., his sing ng of this role in pnrticular (which ho subsequently studied under Sir Charles Santley) hae always given deep intellectual pleasure. Ho soon became thfl Elijah of New Zealand, and wherever the work was sung his services were in request. It is Mr. Robert Parker, however, whose services to music in Wellington aro now being rcnifembcred. Ho has been the leader of choral singing in Wellington for at least forty years, j aivl his ideals have always bren 'good. Whether it was with thp old festival so-, cietios (which did notnbly fine work, of i ft much higlier standard than wo hnvo ! known in Wellington for the rmst ten ! years), tho' Wellington Musical" Union, the Orchestral Society, the Liedertafel, or tho choir of St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral j and more recently tho Wellington Choral Union, tho aim has,always been a high one, and tho performances satisfactory, until later years, when there has been evidenced, from perhaps a variety of causes which need not ho particnlarised, a deterioration in choral singing in Wellington. Mr. Parker's career lins been a remarkablo one, in that ho lias been tho original conductor here of nearly all the standard oratorios, ind many musical works that may not Tank as standard. Mr. Parker was recently approached for iv resume of the works ho had conducted during his forty years' residence.in Wellington, and he kindly supplied tlie following imposing list:—

t Handel's "Israel in Egynt," "Messiah," "Judas Maccabaeus," ami "Acis and Galatea"; Bach's, "St. Matthew's■ Passion"; Haydn's "Creation" and "Tho 'Seasons"; Spohr's "The Last Judgment"; Mendelssohn's "Elijah." "St. Paul," "Lobgesang," "Laudu Sion," "Athalie," "First Walfurgis Night," "42nd Psalm," and "Lorely";,Gade's "The Crusaders" and "Psyche"; Bennett's "May Queeu"; J'. F. ' Barnett's "Ancient Mariner," "Paradise and The Peri." and "Tho Building of the Ship"; Dvorak's "Tho Spectre's Bride" and "Stabat Mater"; Parry's "Blest Pair of Sirens"; Stanford's "The Revenge," "Phandrig Cohoore," and "The Last Post"; Lloyd's "Hero and Leander," "Song of Balder," and "The Longbeard's Saga"; Elgar's "King Olaf" and "Banner of St. George" (epilogue); Mackenzie's "Rose of Sharon"; Cowen's "Sleeping Beauty," "St. John's Eve," and "John .Gilpin"; Gounod's "Faust" (concert version), (Rosina Buckman and Philip Newbnry, took part); Sullivan's "Tho Golden Legend," "Martyr of Antioch," and "On Shore and Sea"; ,Costa's "Eli" and "Naamau"; Rossini's "Stabat Mater"; ■Henry Smart's "Brido of Dunkerron"; Dunhill's "Tubal Cain"; and Coleridge Taylor's "Hiawatha." In addition to individual performances ho has been the conductor of most of the big inusical festivals held in Wcllington. .The. first of these took placo in.IESB, when "Israel in Egypt" and "The Golden Legend",. (Sullivan) -were- first heard in.Wellington. The performances also'given on that' occasion included "Elijah" and Beethoven's "First Symphony," with other orchestral works. Tho next big festival was really as notable, as wo had the services of Mr. A. H. Gee, one of the finest baS3 soloists ever heard in Wellington; Mr. , Charles Saunders. the B-ttrlish tenor; and Madame Bristow,from Mtflbonrne. On that occasion the works sung were Dvorak's "Spectre's Bride." Mendelssohn's "Hymn of Praise," and Handel's "Israel in.Egypt." This festival took placo in ISO 3 in tho play--house now known as Everybody's Theatro in Manners Street. The third festival in ISO 3 saw Coleridge Taylor's "Hiawutlia" suns; for the first time in' Wellington. The other performances were Ti.-nett's "The Ancient Mariner" and "Elijah." Another notable performance at which Mr. Parker has officiated as conductor was the performance of "Elijah," when tho soloists wero Mr. (afterwards. Sir) Charles Santley and-tho mem- ■ bers of his concert party, who were touring New Zealand. Mr. Parker was also the conductor of tho performance of Mendelssohn's "Hymn of Praise," performed with an augmented chorus on the occasion of tho opening of the Town Hall. I ■ ■ •■■" ' ■