WORLD OF MUSIC

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 1 May 1926, Page 14

WORLD OF MUSIC

THE The last “lap.” 80 to «P eak . in tlie preparations lor the great programme to be presented at the first*, concert ol the season, on May 11, has been entereel -and rehearsing is most careful ana thorough. The work .is going exceediugly well and it- is c*ent!ain that the concei t will be .one of the best and ol the highest standard musically ever heard in Ha.wenk The eyno.psis ol the great “1812’’ overture will *eive to give all interested an idea .ol the ideas in .the mind of the composer and will enable all listeners to fo-llow its progress with keener appreciation of its great effects. The other compositions selected are- all very good and typical extracts rout the works- of their composers. the advent of the great harpist, jflayisher, will he an event- of prime importance and interest to music lovers. He is an accomplished player who has made a name in the harp- world. His .Paying will be anticipated with great pleasure. PTA’NO RiEOITAL, A pianist new to Hawera i.s Miss Olga L&uratl, formerly of Wellington. She has been for some years a pupil of Mr. Robert Parker. On Tuesday, in the Foresters’ Hla-11, she will give- an invitation piano recital, and for that has chosen a very fine series of solo rum bens. A Bathoven .sonata, a Mendelssohn concerto (with second piano accompaniment), a Chopin nocturne and two examples of the modern Spanish arid Russian school find places on her mo-gramme. She will be assisted by Mrs. Garden (Eiltham) and Miss N. Ivil.-vington (pianist). Xt promises to he axcepibi onal ly inferestiii g. OPERATIC SOO-EfTY. The scores having arrived, work will soon commence on the choruses of “The Runaway Girl,’’ the opera selected for this season. All members are keen ito get into their stride. Xt will be an interesting performance. MALE GXIOXR. The concert for which the choir has been preparing is now fixed for May 27. A fine programme lias been arranged, and ail promises well for tlie performance. After much consideration, a cleci-sion lias been made in the matter of a combined choral effort under the auspices of the choir. The committee lias fixed upon Weber’s opera “Oberon,” and a ladies’ meeting last Tuesday organised the co-operation of ti xehoir of ladies. The Orchestral Society has agreed to assist, and it is confidently expected there will be a combined chorus of 200 voices, with forty instrumentalists. Seven soloists are required—four sopralios, two tenors, and a baritone. The performance is likely to be one of the biggest in the history of music in Hawera The music scores, which are being procured from the Wellington Society, are expected to be here shortly, arid after that an early start will be made. ANDRE SEALS,KI. The admirers of Andr e , Skafski will lie glad to know that he is appearing ivibh great success in France. Here is a. trans’ation of one French, criticism: “M. A. Skalski is an eminent pianist, and ranks with the greatest. His technique is impeccable,-his tone sonorous, incomparable. His subtlety and command of nuance are delightful, his virtuosity is dazzling, and withal, be has a scrupulous regard for time, and a uglily developed feeling for rhythm. M. Skalski possesses all these qualities in the highest- degree, and his success wa.s great arid immediate. He is also a remarkable conductor and an incomparable accompanist. . . CHALIAPIN. The career of M. Feodor Chaliapin, the famous opera star, reads like that df some hefo of adventure. He began his working life as a cobbler in the historic city of Karzan. He was then only seven years of age. A breakdown in health kept him sticking to his last. He went to school and gained a rough education amid the misery of Russian poverty. After a brief education tlie boy Chaliapin became a woodcarver, then, in turn, a bookbinder, a clerk, a novitiate in a Russian monastery, and a longshoreman on the Volga at eightpence halfpenny a day. All this was experienced before he was seventeen vears of age. Local fame as a singer in a church choir encouraged him to tramp through Russia as an itinerant troubadour. His importunity came when the nower of his song captivated M. Mamonter, a millionaire whose hobby was music. Chalianin was prevailed to leave the operatic stage in Petrograd for Mamonter’s private opera company in Moscow. This was the beginning of his international fame. Milan, Monte Carlo, Paris, Txmdon—all have acclaimed the glory of his art.

UNWRITTEN" SYMPHONY. One of the most tragic pages in Berlioz's Memoires is that in which he had the inspiration to write a symphony, but was compelled to let it go unwritten for purely financial reasons. The beginning of it, an Allegro in A minor, two-four time, got him out of bed one night and he began to write it, but, on second thoughts—“lf I begin this bit, I shall have to write the whole symphony,” he coniides to his diary. “It will be a big thin*;, and I shall have to spend three or four months over it. That means, I shall write no more articles and earn no money. And when the symphony is finished 1 shall not be able to resist the temptation of having it copied (which will mean an expense of a thousand or twelve hundred francs) and then of having it played. I shall give a concert, and the receipts will barely cover half the cost. I shall lose what I have not got; the poor invalid will lack necessities (this refers to Berlioz’s wife, who was ill at the time); and I shall be able to pay my personal expeiises nor my son’s fees when, he goes on hoard ship. . .' . These thoughts made me shuddpr, and I threw down iny pen, saying, ‘Bah! to-morrow I shall have forgotten the symphony.’ The next night I heard the allegro clearly, and seemed to see it written down. I was filled with feverish agitation. I sang the theme ; I was going to get up . . . but the reflections of the dav before restrained me; I steeled inyself against the temptation, and clung to the thought of forgetting it. At last I went to sleep; and the next day. on awakening, all remembrances of it had indeed gone forever,”