THE CHORAL SOCIETY.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIV, Issue 1032, 19 May 1857, Page 2

THE CHORAL SOCIETY.

The second public rehearsal (for the second season) of the Auckland Choral Society was given on Thursday last. As usual, it was numerously attended, though the Hall of the Mechanics' Institute was scarcely so full as on the occasion of the first concert of the year. The Society were assisted by the band of the 58th Regiment, who performed the overtures to Semiramide and to Guillaume Tell with much care and precision, and assisted in such of the vocal pieces as required an instrumental accompaniment In the purely vocal parts of the performance, however, the audience appeared to think that theie was a falling off; neither did we ourselves think that they were quite as well executed, upon the whole, as on the previous occasion. But in a young Society, still under training, abso'ute and marked improvement ought to characterize each successive meeting. Possibly the

Public Rehearsal was somewhat premature, one or two more evenings of private practice having been apparently needed. Let us however except the "Flower-Gatherers," a duett for soprano and contralto, which was sung with such 3pirit by the fair performers as to have roused a rather inanimate audience to an "encore." Captain Balneavis in his duo concertante with Mr Brown, was equally successful ; but he is so old a favourite that the "encore" com ps to him almost as a matter of course. N We regretted to see that Mendelssohn's charming part song, "Farewell to the Forest," seemed to be unappreciated by the audience. We had taken for granted that its intrinsic beauty alone -would have stamped ifc a favourite. Nor was ifc ill performed, upon the whole, having been rendered with much precision, although it might have been refined by a more careful attention to the effects of light and shale. This, in fact, was the mainly observable defect of the performance, throughout the evening. The excellent old rule, "Take care of the pianos, and the fortes will take care of them -elves," seemei to be altogether lost sight of. For this we scarcely know how to account — unless by the increased excitement of singing before an audience — having heard them very well preserved on practising nights. From these strictures let us except "The Waits," Saville's ever-pleasing madrigal, in which the gradations of sound, from forte to pianissimo, were marked with excellent effect.