SOUSA’S BAND.

Evening Star, Issue 14635, 3 August 1911, Page 8

SOUSA’S BAND.

Except a few rows of seats immediately in front of the platform all the accommodation of the Garrison Hall was utilised by the audience that attended the third concert of the season last night. The people were delighted and amazed, and some perhaps were overwhelmed by the performance. They obtained as many encore numbers aa oouid be crowded into the programme. Many, if not all, of these extra numbers were Sousa's own celebrated marches. At one stage three of these were played in succession. ‘ Fairest of the Fair ‘ was supplemented by the ‘ Stars and Stripes,’ and this raised such a furore that the ‘ High School Cadets ’ was added. In these the piling up of effect on effect was such that “inspiriting ”is far too mild a term to use. ‘ King Cotton ’ was another of those unique numbers, this being added as an encore to a suite by Sousa entitled ‘ Looking Upward,’ in which the third and last section was notable for an extraordinary crescendo and diminuendo by the drums only. The heavier numbers comprised the ‘ Robespierre ’ overture (Litolff), in which the ‘ Marseillaise ’ was most dramatically introduced ; a Wagnerian fantasia ‘ Siegfried,’ in which the opening “call” for the horn was given by Mr Herman Hand from the roar of the gallery; the second of Liszt’s Hungarian rhapsodies; and the Rakoczy march from Berlioz's ‘Faust.’ All were magnificently played. That goes without saying. After hearing the band in one item only, the possibility of any technical errors is banished for once and all. One cannot, for instance, imagine the half-dozen or more clarinets playing the most ornate passages with other than machine-cut uniformity. It is not for us hero to argue whether in the opening of the rhapsody they were perfect substitutes for the violins. ' On© point is worth mention ; which is that Sousa evolves from somewhere among his performers effects that incite one now to looking to see if a ’cello i« not on the stage, and again (especially in staccato passages) to search for the source of the plucked string of the double bass.

Some insight into the structure of the band wa« given in Sousa's humoresque entitled ‘The Band Game Bank.’ During tho brief interval the band left the stage, except for the harpist in the centre- Present] v he begins a solo. The first obos strolled in, and tho harp drilled into an accompaniment to the oboe’s solo. Then the bandsmen came on in little squadrons —the bass brass, the trombones, clarinets, piccolos, the horns, more brass (who “built up” on the tune ‘ M;issa's in tho Cold, Cold Ground '). Finally, when joined by the bassoons, the whole band is there, and it announces Sousa’s entry by breaking into the ‘ Washington Post.'’ This episode comprised both fun and virtuosity, but the gem of the quaint medley was the quartet of horns in ‘ Sweet anil Low'.’

Tho soloists were again Mr Herbert Clarke, on the cornet; Miss Virginia Root, who sang one of Sousa’s conge and Mira Nicoliue Zcdeler, who played Wieniawski’s ‘ Souvenir de Moscow’.’ . All were encored, and the audience would also have encored Mr Paul Senno’s piccolo obligato in the ‘ Song of the Nightingale ’ if they had had the The solo items heightened the impression that Sousa likes his accompaniments full, but to Miss Zcdeler’» finely-executed violin solo there was pn> vided in places a background of surpassing beauty, the wood-wind producing effects that were incomparable. The band gave a matinee performance this afternoon, and appear again to-night in an attractive programme.