CHRISTCHURCH HARMONIC SOCIETY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 261, 31 July 1937, Page 4

CHRISTCHURCH HARMONIC SOCIETY

At Town Hall To-night Considerable interest has been aroused in the visit to Wellington of the Christchurch Harmonic Society choir of 120 voices, who will give a recital in the Town Hall to-night. The visit cannot fail to give renewed vigour to choral musie in Wellington, as was the e when the society visited Dunedin in 1935 and again in 1936. On the latter occasion audiences totalling more then 5000 people heard two concerts given bv the choir. The highlights of to-night's programme will be Lambert’s “Rio Grande,” a brilliantly-conceived short descriptive work in jazz idiom for pianoforte solo, orchestra, and choir,, and “The Highwayman,” a dramatic setting by the modern writer, Armstrong Gibbs, of the well-known verses of Alfred Noyes. The choir will also be heard in many shorter works, including the splendid “Sanctus.” by Bacb, "O Praise the Lord of Heaven,” by Vaughan Williams, and such delightful part-songs as Elgar’s Bavarian Highlands Suite and "The Campbells are Coming.” The solo pianiste in "Rio Grande” will be Mis»s Bessie Pollard, and the society will be assisted by Miss Ailsa Nicol, soprano, as vocal soloist.