SYMPHONY CONCERT

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 32, 1 November 1929, Page 6

SYMPHONY CONCERT

SCHUBERT’S “UNFINISHED” With last night’s concert the Wellington Symphony Orchestra concluded its first season. That it has been a success there is no room for doubt. Mr. Leon de Mauny, the able and enthusiastic conductor, with his fine optimism and confidence in the public, has been able to demonstrate that there is room for such an organisation in the Empire City, and though the large orchestra habit had long since fallen into desuetude in Wellington, he undertook, with faith that moves mountains, to revive the corpse. That he has done so is all to his credit. Everv concert has seen a marked advance, and one felt after the excellent performance of last night that Wellington owes Mr. de Mauny a good deal for his achievement, Another conviction was inborn, too, with many present last night, that come what come mav in the form of “talkie” music, the flesh and blood orchestra will ever have its place in every well-ordered community. It is nearly a year since the centenary of Schuberts death was remembered the world over, but as the •Symphony Orchestra was then only an ■ embryonic thought, nothing toward marking the event could be done. This was rectified last night, when the programme included three numbers by this amiable genius who endowed the world with such a wealth of melodious music, nnd yet died in a state of abject poverty. Probably there is no liner fragment of orchestral music ever composed than his symphony in B minor (the “unfinished ). The entrancing solemnity and impassioned dignity of its wonderful tn«n es never grows stale or tiresome. There appears to be no end to the “emotional sweep” which an able conductor of a good orchestra may command from this work. Yet only two movements and part of a third were written, and Schubert himself never heard it played. Th® P“’* less, bitter irony of it! Had he elected to write the traditional four movements under the same inspirational ur S e that characterises the two we know, 'what a golden page of magic music would have been left to posterity. As it is, the “Unfinished” goes on stirring successive generations of Schubert idolators throughout the world, and fairly sharing with the "Pathetique” of Tschaikovsky. of certain of the immortal nine of Beethoven, the honour of being the most popular orchestral compositions. . . The performance of this work last was admirable. The orchestra.,with its fine body of violins, had the basis of success a KO od, firm string tone. A little arny of them there were, who played with a certitude of touch and a spirit that denoted good training. Led by Mr. AS . Lavin, this section of the orchestra did conspicuously good work. The woodwinds were satisfactory, and the brass very sound, all uniting in a spirit conaucive to the production of those treasures of romanticism and poetry that stud this lovely work. Perhaps scarcely so well played as the “Unfinished,” the “Rosamunde overture, which is luxuriant in provoking melodic themes of unchallenged originality and musical interest, terminating in a sparkling coda that carries all before it, was nevertheless well done. Vocally, Schubert was represented by "The Erl King,” a ghostly song of mystic terror, which calls for highly dramatic two-part interpretation. It was never written to be sung .witli a large orchestra, but simply as lieder, and was not a great success as sung by Mr. Harison Cook, whose "profundo” tones were, for the most part, lost in the clamour of the .orchestra s agitation to do the subject justice. 'ln the second part the orchestra gave a brilliant rendering of the “Tannbauser” overture, an amazing work that envisages the whole of the opera. The dazzling continuous work for the strings in the Venusberg”' musie is so trying that when it was first proposed to play “Tanhauser” in England one writer said that they would never get orchestral players to last through the opera, as they would be exhausted after playing the overture. The dual themes—the ■ PHgrims’ Chorus and the fleshpots of A enusberg—were very effectively brought out, the march was brjghtly played, and the finale was impressive. In response to much applause the Jarnefeldt "Prelude, a dainty work, with tricky solos for the oboe and flute to a pizzicato accompaniment on the strings, gave pleasure. . Madame de Mauny was the soloist in the first movement of Schumann’s Concerto in A. Minor, very nicely played indeed. There was rich entertainment in the varied forms of the six movements of the ballet music from Gounod s “Faust,” usually cut out of English performances, but still included in France. This is entrancing music in a lighter vein—inspiring stuff for the dancers. Finally Elgar’s stirrifig “Pomp and Circumstance” inarch was played with fine flash and vigour to the delight of the audience, who would have liked to have vocalised the "Land of Hope and Glory” cadence were it not that a symphony eoneert. is a dignified affair. Their Excellencies the Governor-Gen-eral and Lady Alice Fergusson were among those present.-