TOWN HALL ORGAN RECITAL

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 39, 16 February 1920, Page 3

TOWN HALL ORGAN RECITAL

If this j'ear's series of organ recitals on the Town Hall organ can be regularly maintained on the ■ same lines as those given on, Saturday week and last Saturday evening—and as far as the City Organist, Mr. Beniard F. Page, is concerned, this may bo confidently relied upon—it is difficult to see why a steady increase in the attendance should not be realised. The audiences on these two occasions, though making no great show in the huge Town Hall, would have comfortably filled a smaller chamber, and there is every reason to regard the future hopefully, as far as general public interest is concerned. It is suggested that evenings devoted to the composers of one nation, or to the works of individual composers, would prove popular; for instance, a Cesar Franck night would undoubtedly be welcome, in view ot the great interest evoked by Mr. Page's presentation of bis works in former years. The programme on Saturday night comprised works by Handel, Debussy, KargElert, Franck, and Tchaikovsky, and left nothing to be desired either in variety or interest. The first number was Handel's D Minor Concerto (No. 10), arranged by ; Guilmant, who has very successfully filled the spaco allotted to an improvisation by' introducing the reposeful aria from the 12th' Concerto. The D Minor, like all Handel's music, is both beautiful and obviously sincere, and Mr. Page's rendering does it full justice. Two Debussy preludes followed, from "La Demoiselle Elue" and "L'enfant Prodigue," their delightful harmonious fabric, broidererl with jewels of melody, making such a charming ensemble that a reptition of the second was inevitable. The next item on the programme was a minuet-scherzo by Jongen, but it was notplayed, Mr. Pago evidently considering that the following number, "Harmonies dv Soir," by Karg-Blert, was more suitable to the atmosphere created by the Debussy preludes, and certainly the Karg-Elert piece—with the weird yet soothing harmonies—seemed exactly in the right place. The first part of the recital closed with a great performance of Choral No. 2 (in B Minor), by Cesar Franck. Parts of this are extremely' difficult to play, but Mr. Page's rendering gave no inkling of this, every point being developed with' easy precision. The second part of the urogramme was devoted, b}*- request, to Tehaikowsky, and comprised a beautiful Elegy (for strings), and the Finale (Adagio lamentoso,' and andante) from the "Pathetic" symphony. In these Mr. Page was heard at his best, the movement from the symphony losing no more than was absolutely inevitable in comparison with its recent performance by the visiting orchestra, and gaining in several respects more than it necessarily conceded in others.