ORCHESTRAL SOCIETY

Evening Star, Issue 22687, 29 June 1937, Page 3

ORCHESTRAL SOCIETY

TO-MORROW RIGHT'S CONCERT _ Within recent years it has been noticed that even the most prolific of symphonic composers are considered Jo be doing very well indeed if they turn out only two or three symphonies in their lifetime. Looking back further, it is found that Beethoven himself provided only nine. Brahms wrote only four in the course of a very full musical life, and Schumann produced a like number, It is somewhat amusing, therefore, to go back just a little further and find Mozart with his 49 symphonies, although that master’s genius m this direction pales away when compared. with Haydn’s 150 _ examples. Very little of Haydn’s music finds its way into the modern concert hall, and yet his symphonies are so refreshing and full of humour that they sometimes come as a welcome relief from the heavier musical matter which exists in so much profusion. Those who will hear Haydn’s fifth symphony in D major, to be played by the Dunedin Orchestral Society in the Concert Chamber to-morrow night, will agree that music need not express itself always in soul-stirring chords and ear-splitting crashes in order to be great. . Apart from Haydn, the concert will include a number of works by English composers. The late Sir Edward German, who wrote ‘ Merrie England,’ will be represented by the two evergreen ‘ Nell Gwyn ’ dances, and two short pieces by Sir Edward Elgar, ‘ Chanson de Matin ’ and ‘ Chanson de Nuit,’ will also be played. Montagu© Ring’s ‘ Three African Dances ’ (presented to the orchestra, by Mrs John Hamer), the overture, ‘ Stradella,’ and the rousing march, ‘ Washington Greys,’ complete the orchestra portion of the programme. Mr C. Roy Spackman will conduct, and the concert should prove an auspicious opening for this, the fiftieth year of the society’s existence. The assisting artists will he Airs C. M. Barnett, Mr John Edgar, and Mr Douglas Rutherford.