TOWN HALL ORGAN RECITAL

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 91, 18 April 1921, Page 8

TOWN HALL ORGAN RECITAL

Mr. Bernard F. Page, Oity Organist, has given many notable recitals in Wellington, but it may be doubted whether any has been more enjoyable and successful than that of last Saturday oven ing, and the sustained applause at the conclusion of the final number was » pleasing expression of the audience's appreciation of really good music worthily interpreted. The list of composers drawn upon was thoroughly ' cosmopolitan, and ranged from the sixteenth century to reoent times. Hollcway's "Suite Ancienne is now well known. The Prelude Chorale and the Finale alia Fuga are fino bold movements; the comante (in canon) re very charming, and the duo is pleasing, and specially interesting to iho»e who know what "thumbing" means. CUusemann's beautiful Elegie was artistically played, and effectively registered, and was followed by the unsurpassed melody of the Prize Song from "Die Meistersinger. The first ■ part of the programme to completed by a great performance of the noble Allegretto from Ceaar ' Franok s Symphony in D Mm ■•. • Franck is certainly one of the coi.-> >sers who never fail to inspire Mr. Pi- ,%• to give of his very best. After the uterval came a bracket of three old-time works—a quaint Pavane by Byrd, a Capriccio Pastorale by Froscobaldi, and a Musette by Dandrieu, the simple grace of which afforded a pleasing contrast to the more complex beauty of the modern numbers. The recital concluded with a transcription of the Third Movement from Rimsky-Korsakoff's "Scheherazade" Suite, in which Mr. Page not only played brilliantly, but again demonstrated fiis mastery of the art of registration.