A CHORAL EVENING

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 32, 6 August 1930, Page 11

A CHORAL EVENING

INSTRUMENTAL INTERLUDES

Three choirs, under the batons of three conductors, gave .a fine conceit at the Town Hall last evening, in the .presence of the Governor-General and Lady BledisIqe and,"suite, and attended by the Mayor (Mr. G. 'A: Troup), and/the" Mayoress (Mrs.. Troup). There was .a large audience, although the hall was not filled as it might have been, hud the weather been better, for the programme of choral music was attractive and well compiled. The Wellington Harmonic Society, Mr. H. Temple White conducting, sang "Come, Pretty Wag, and Sing" (Hubert Parry), "Weary Wind of the West" (Elgar), and Gustave Hoist's psalms 80."and: 148, free and metrical versions, and new no doubt to the greater part of the audience. The two songs were beautifully sung with a nice appreciation of light and shade, artistic expression, and in perfect time. In the psalm 86, the solos tor soprano and tenor were allotted to Mrs. Woodward and Mr. lidwin Dennis respectively. The psalms were sung with fitting reverence, as well as with full understanding of the details of their musical structure. The first is a prayer, the second a glorious hymn of adoration and praise. The solo and choral work was excellent. The contribution of the Commercial Travellers' and Warehousemen's Club Male Choir consisted of three numbers—''Bugle Song" (Dudley Buck), "Calm as the Lake (Abt), and the cantata "Sulainis" (Gernsheim). Mr. John Bishop conducted. The audience liked "Calm as the Lake" so well that it insisted on its repetition, and the latter half of the song was repeated. In the "Bugle" number the choir sang with fine spirit and in correct time; in the "Lake" song it obtained some beautiful piano effects, and the tenor solo'by Mr. G. M. Howe, was grgatly appreciated. In the "Salamis" number, descriptive of the triumph of the Greeks over the Persian navy, the choir sang with appropriate zest and in admirable time. Mr. W. H. Church was- soloist. The contribution of the Orpheus Musical Society, under Mr. Harison Cook, was Bach's exceedingly tuneful and jolly "Peasant Cantata," in which the soloists were" _Mrs. Woodward (soprano) and Mr. Key Kemp (basso), and the highly important part of accompaniste, or rather, the pianoforte j part, was allotted to Miss Hazel Kowe, who acquitted herself with distinction. The work was manifestly much enjoyed, coing by the warmth of the applause, and Its duration.

Between choral numbers, a musicianly rendering of Bach's Concerto in D Minor, with an orchestra of strings, was played by Mr. and Mrs. Eric Meier, and the Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. John Bishop conducting. This wan a number appealing more to the trained musician perhaps than to the average concert audience, but it was accorded a most enthusiastic reception. The same orchestra was heard in Mozart's melodious piece, "A Little Night Music/ and in a suite of three folk dances, by Rutland Boughtou—"Hornpipe, Weary Wave o' Tyne, and Culloden's Jig." The last was repeated in order to satisfy the clamant demands of the audience. The concert as a whole appeared to have fulfilled the objects of the promoters ot musical week, viz., to stimulate; public interest in the art of music itself, and "to practically demonstrate the various forms of musical endeavour, by which our corporate life is being enriched and uplifted," to quote the words of Mr. Robert Parker, C.M.G., who may fitl.v_ be described as a musical pioneer in New Zealand.

This evening the Philharmonic--Orches-tra will play the uverture to "Tannhausor" and Schubert's Symphony No. S in B Minor; and the Koyal Wellington Choral Society will give parts 1 and 2 of Coleridge Taylor's "Hiawatha."