DUNEDIN MALE CHOIR

Evening Star, Issue 15928, 7 October 1915, Page 6

DUNEDIN MALE CHOIR

Perhaps the feature of last night's concert in the Burns Hall -was the success of the various soloists, to two of whom, at least, the large audience paid most flattering attention. One was a lady, Miss E. Richards, formerly of Invercargill. She made a decidedly favorable impression on her first appearance with ‘Poor Wandering One.’ which suited well her highly trained and flexible soprano voice, as also did Benberg’s ‘Nymphs and Fauns,’ sung later on. Miss Richards displayed a varied range of temperamental and vocal gifts in her encore numbers—a lullaby and a Scotch song. Altogether she scored a most genuine and deserved success. So also did Mr W. 'Gemmell. The prologue to ‘II Pagliacci’ requires inspiration on the singer’s part to avoid the danger of monotony to which it is exposed in any but skilled hands. This quality Mr Gemmell brought into his rendering. He evidently knows how to “work” a eong, has a mind for interpretation, and a keen eye to a climax. Thus the prologue was thoroughly arresting, and the audience’s demand for more was whetted, not satisfied, by the addition of ‘lnter Nos,’ magnificently sung; so that the original programme item had to bo expanded to three numbers. Mr J. Simpson (under orders to proceed to Trenthara Camp next week, along with the society’s hou. secretary, Mr R. F. Algie) gave a very pure and polished rendering of Blumenthars Evening Song, and has pleasant tenor voice also delighted his hearers in an encore number. Well earned recalls were also achieved by Mr J. A. Wallace for his playing of a Vieustemps Rondino for the violin, and to Mies Isabel Forrester for her recitation ‘Alma,’ their respective additional numbers being ‘Le Cvgue’ and ‘ The Telegram.’ The work of the choir, however, is the main thing. Last night it was good, but not uniformly so. The most ambitious of their new numbers was Boulanger’s ‘Cyrus in Babylon,’ descriptive of the Persian invasion of Assyria. It opened well and spiritedly; but with the change of the music to a more reflective mood (which occurs in the second verse) there was a decided change in the choir, due apparently to a misunderstanding with Mr Timson. The singers lost confidence, cohesion, and pitch, and a recovery was not made until the end of that movement. The return of a vigorous theme found them their feet again, and the description of the night assault on the city was full of the glow of action. The choir sang better and better, the basses being especially telling, and a splendid conclusion was arrived at Tile now familiar ‘ Song of the Northmen ’ started the concert off with vim, and there was decidedly good work in another vein when ‘The Long Day Closes’ was sung in memory of the late Mr James Jago, one of the original members of the society. A most effective setting by Davies of Kipling’s ‘ Hymn Before Action ’ was one of the choral successes of the concert, precisely the right spirit being caught. Other part songs were ‘ The Haymaking, 5 ‘Lend an Ear, 5 ‘Tar’s Song,’ ‘Spin, Spin 5 (which went particularly well), andy as a wind up the intensely clever and humorous ‘Merry Frogs!’ More than formal acknowledgment is due to the excellent accompaniments of Mr .o^^,’Martin.