HUTT CHORAL CONCERT

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 144, 15 December 1927, Page 22

HUTT CHORAL CONCERT

SPLENDID PAET SINGING

The Hutt Valley Choral Society can' always be relied upon to give a good concert, and last night's, the third of the season, was.no exception to the rule. The programme was appreciated equally by the discriminating few and- by those who just "like" music and singing. The audience, although numerically large, seemed a little cold in its appreciation, during the first half at any rate: perhaps they were smarting under the gentle rebuke administered by Mr.. Douglas Tayler—a rebuke deserved..by"'some at any rate—who suggested that had thOße present been in < their.. places' by, 8 o'clock the concert would have begun then insteadjof at 8.15. There can be no two minds about the conductorship o£ Mr. Tayler. At the first concert of the season the Choral Society sang "Ah Eriskay Love Lilt," from "Songs of the Hebrides," and Elgar's "Spanish Serenade," two part-songs of entrancing beauty,-, the latter having -an orchestral -accompaniment. By general request thesb two items were repeated last night, and it was difficult to believe that it was the same set of voices singing them, so" marked waa': the improvement. Other partsongs, all delightfully song, although some were better: than.others, were "Oh! the Sweet.Contentment". (Alan Gray), "I Saw Lovely Phyllis" (Bevan), "Phillis" .(Parry),- Dvorak's "Slavonic Cradle Song," and "All-in an" April Evening" (Robertson). The Christmas spirit was in evidence in Bainton'a carol, "Snowflakes Falling," the orchestra assisting in this as they did in the final chorus, "Britons, Alert!" from Elgar's "Caractacus." The orchestra, although small in number, very capably played several short items —'"Allegretto," from Schubert's "Symphony in D," "Anitra's Dance," from Grieg'B "Peer Gynt," and "Valse Triste" (Sibelius). The Society of Musicians' String Quartet assisted, and this talented combination delighted the audience with the final movement from Mozart's "Quartet in C" and two movements, "Allegretto" and "Minuet," from Schubert's "Quartet in D." Signor Lucien Oesaroni also contributed towards the success of the concert, singing "Within These Sacred Bowers," from Mozart's "Magic Flute," "Corale," and "Piff Paff," from Meyerbeer's "Les Huguenots." The audience perhaps appreciated him beat in one of his encore numbers—the ever-popular "Volga Boatmen."