ROYAL DUNEDIN MALE CHOIR

Evening Star, Issue 23128, 30 November 1938, Page 7

ROYAL DUNEDIN MALE CHOIR

CHRISTMAS CONCERT The annual Christmas concert of the Royal Dunedin Male Choir will be presented in the Town Hall on Monday night. As in the past, the programme will consist of request items and new carols, and an attractive selection has been chosen. The first song will be the Gustav Holst setting of the old Hampshire folk song, ‘ Swansea Town,’ which is always certain to appeal. This will be followed by a setting by Sir Hugh Robertson of G. K. Chesterton’s poem ‘ The Donkey,’ a dramatic work of magnificent chords. Robertson is also represented! by two other works, ‘ De Battle ob Jerico,’ which proved such a success at the choir’s first concert this year, and ‘ The Old Woman,’ a really beautiful and tender work, short but effective.

An interesting departure will be the singing of the King’s High School Boys’ Choir with the men in Gustav Holst’s beautiful carol, ‘ In the Bleak Midwinter,’ in which the boys, 70 strong, will sing the third verse to a humming accompaniment by the male choir. In conformity with what is almost a tradition, the concert will conclude with Percy Fletcher’s ‘ Ring Out, Wild Bells.’

The supporting artists are worthy of the occasion. Miss Bertha Rawlinson’s contralto voice will be heard in ‘ The Witch of Bowden ’ (E. BrevilloSmith), and another item that should prove to the audience’s liking will be the tenor horn solo by Master Ralph Francis.

The box plan will open at Bcgg’s to-morrow.