TOWN HALL ORGAN RECITALS

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 33, 10 February 1919, Page 2

TOWN HALL ORGAN RECITALS

New Zealand in.general, and Wellington in particular, are but ill provided with agencies for encouraging among the people a love of the fine arts, and the gravity of this regrettable and retrogressive state of affairs does not appear to have impressed itself at all deeply upon either the Government of the Dominion or the civic authorities of its capital. Fortunately, however,, we are not altogether without voices crying in the wilderness, and all who have the real welfare of this country at heart may well ask themselves whether more cannot' be done to awaken the people to the folly— one might even, have said the danger—of leaving in the hands" of suehl a small number of enthusiasts the attempt to. awaken the almost dormant artistic sensibilities of our population. One of the best of such agencies as do exist here and-there in the Dominion is undoubtedly the superb recitals given by Mr. Bernard F. Page, City Organist, on the" excellent organ in our fine Town. Hall, and it is ft, standing wonder to musical visitors to the Empire City that the audiences at these concerts are numbered by hundreds instead of by thousands, in view of the superlative merit of the performances and the quite nominal charge for admission to them.

The recital on Saturday evening was, owing to the recent epidemic and the year-end holidays, the first since early in November, and it is a matter for sincere regret that the Town Hall has been let for a number of Saturdays to come, and that the date of the next recital will consequently be many weeks distant. It, was, however, gratifying to note the improved attendance on Saturday night, the warmth of the welcome extended to Mr. Page, and the hearty appreciation shown as the performance progressed. The programme opened, with Karg-Elert's masterly Sonatina in A-minor,' a work which demands from the organist a high degree of executive ability,, a demand that, it needj hardly .be said, was fullj met on this occasion; 'The tremendous chorale with which the sonatina closes was followed by a strongly contrasting Pastorale of Scarlatti, which wa3 very, greatly enjoyed. In an entirely different," but equally enjoyable, vebj was the mystical Andante from .a.string quartette by Debussy, and the first part of the recital ended with Schumann's great Fugue on the name of Bach. The remainder of the> programme consisted of Lemare's " Arcadian Idyll " set of three pleasing little pieces, the inimitable melody of Walther's Prize Song from " Die Meistersinger," and the now .well-known Finale in B-fla't by Cesar Franck. The recital fully maintained the very high standard Mr. Page has accustomed us to expect from him.