MUSICAL. NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 147, 23 June 1928, Page 24

MUSICAL. NOTES

♦ A change, somewhat radical in nature, has been .made at tho famous La Scala Opera House in Milan, where, with the authority of the Italian Government, the rights of the private boxholders have been expropriated under a scheme of reorganisation. They will now bo offered to the public in the same way as tho individual' seats. • . immediately on his return from America, Sir Thomas Beecham started on an operatic .tour of England * Scotland, and Ireland, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra and three operatic singers—Mme. Maartjo Offers, of . the Scaki Theatre, Milan; Mme. Aluria.G-uglicmetM, of the Paris Opera; and M.. Enrico Mazzei, of the Opera Comique, Paris. Sir Thomas is noon to make the final announcement on the success or failure of the • Imperial League of Opera. A pianist who is able to eiyjage a London hall and practically fill it on a Saturday afternoon is generally acknowledged, to be an artist of some merit, 'writes;. "Tho Post's" London correspondent. Miss Rachel Macandrew, who can claim to be a New Zealaudcr, is not new to the public platform. She has been playing in public for six years, and her ability has been recognised in that she has been select- j od for a professorship on the. music staff at Cheltenham Ladies' College. Mr. J. F. Macandrew, her father, went out to New Zealand in 1878, and eventually owned tho station "Waiskare," at Wairoa, Hawkes Bay. Ho married a Now Zealand lady, and in, 1900 camo Homo and settled in England. Tho family now have a place at Bournemouth. Miss Ma,candrew, at her recital'at the Grotrian Hall recently, hold her audienco effectively throughout the tlrreo sections of tho programme. As her opening pieces she chose the Choral Prelude —"Mortify Us by Thy Grace" (Bach-Rummel), "Prelude and Fugue, A Minor." and six short preludes (Bach), and Chopin's "Polonaise-Fantaisie," Opus 61. The second section was the lighter music of Gabriel Broviez. "L'Almanach -dcs .Jmagcs " provides many ■ touches of fancy and wit in eight episodes after the poems by Tristan Klingsor. Tho last section included, Liszt's Sposalizio and Grieg's G Minor Ballade. .. : .