PROFESSIONAL ORCHESTRA.

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 47, 24 August 1925, Page 2

PROFESSIONAL ORCHESTRA.

The third concert of the 1925 Mason of the Wellington Professional Orchestra was given in His Majesty's Theatre Jast evening before a crowded audience. There was a large attendance of American naval officers and men, and as a compliment to our visitors the orchestra played "The Star Spangled Banner," immediately following the National Anthem with which the concert opened. .Great interest attached to the fir,st performance by the players of Ponchielli's "Bance of the Hours," from "La Gioconda"; this is a short ballet suite introducing the masked ball in the opera. A fantasia on the opera "Madame Butterfly" (Puccini), with its passionate sentiment, was another unusual number. A characteristic piece was the "Chinese Wedding Procession" (Hosmer),, and the programme concluded with the playing of Wallace's "Maritana" overture. This was the gem of the evening, the audience hearing the well-known airs with an enjoyment that never wanes. Mr. W, W. Marshall's bass voice was well suited to "The Tideless Sea" (Lauri Bowen), and in response to_ a recall he delighted with "Devonshire Cream and Cider." Mr. T. Goodall, cornettist, in "Lb, Secret" (John Haze), wag masterly, and had to give an encore number. The overture, "Euryanthe" (Weber), wa's also given by the orchestra.