HARMONIC SOCIETY

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 127, 31 May 1928, Page 6

HARMONIC SOCIETY

AN ENJOYABLE CONCERT The performance of the Wellington Harmonic Society in . the first subscription concert of the 1928 season, given at the Town Hall Concert Chamber last night, before a large audience, was well, up to the standard attained previously; The coniductor, (Mr. H. Temple White) had some 'fifty voices under his baton, and, except for one or two occasions, when the tenors were too prominent, the balance wa3 good, While generally the tone-colour was excellent. The most interesting of the choral numbers were drawn i'rom. the works of Sir Edward Elgar and Coleridge Taylor, the Elgar items being the beautifully descriptive part song "My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land," and The Fountain," and the Coleridge-Taylor items "The Lea. Shore," and the nymphs song from "Üb'sses," "From the Green Heart of the Waters" (for female voices). Other choral numbers, all given, finished renderings, were "Jerusalem" (Parry), "An Evening's Pastorale" (Shaw), which was encored, "Moonlight" (Eaton Faning), "The Cruiskeen >Lawn," an arrangement by Bflntoclc on an Irish melody, "The Sea Hath Its Pearls" (Pinsuti), and; the festival carol, "Bing Out, Wild Bells" (Percy Fletcher). ': The society was assisted by Mr. Hari-i son Cook (bass), and Mr. Ledn de Mauny (violin) as soloists. Mr. Cook gave a refined interpretation of "The Wanderer" (Schubert), and infused _ much life and humour into the Drinking Song from Nicolai's "Merry Wives of Windsor." Later he was doubly, encored after a very successful rendering of Addison Price's weird song of the woods, "The Witchflight," the recall numbers Hing "The Sergeant-Major's on Parade" (Longstaff), which was greatly appreciated by the audience, and "Jogging Along the Highway" (Samuel)-. Mr. de Mauny, accompanied at the pianoforte by Madame Evelyn de Mauny, received a warm welcome. Franko's arrangement of the "Hymn to the Sun," from Rimiky-Kovßakoff's onera, "Cou dOr," and Mlynarski's "Mazurka," bracketed, were characterised by 'warmth and roundness of tone and crisp attack, meriting an encore—O'Connor Morris's version of the traditional "Londonderry Air." In the second portion of the programme Mr. de Mauny played the 'Romance from the Wieniawsky D Minor Concerto, the encores being "Seranade Badine" (Gabriel-Marie), and "Spanish Dance" (Sarasate).. Mr. Clement Howe played the accompaniments to the vocal numbers.