WORLD OF MUSIC

Hawera Star, Volume L, 21 February 1931, Page 15

WORLD OF MUSIC

HAW ERA MALE CHOIR. The Male Choir have started their rehearsals for the season, meeting for the first time, on Monday. There was a good attendance and it was announced that there was a splendid series of part songs available for the' first concert- q 1: the season. Great enthusiasm was .shown 'by all members. The date of the annual meeting is not yet fixed and members., active and honorary, are looking forward with keen interest to that event. Masterton and Manawatu Societies have decided to cut out their .competitions festival this year. Both had an extremely hard time last year. Owing to the societies having made a loss last year, the executive did not consider it safe, or wise, to risk the heavy expenditure necessary under the economic conditions ruling at present. The Stratford Amateur Operatic Society will hold their annual meeting on Tuesday next, when the future will be discussed. They have done much good work in the past and many friends will wish them a continuance in the future.

An Auckland lady who is fond of good music, and who has recently returned front Sydney, expresses herself ns having been very disappointed with the organ recitals in the Sydney Town ITall. Although she attended two. sep irate recitals, not once did she hem la legitimate composition for the organ played. The only items given were : transcriptions of more or less hackney-1. ed excerpts from popular operas and ■ songs of “The Rosary” type; and this i' on one of the most famous organs in j J the world! It is true that the recitalsJj were described on the programme as 1 being “popular.” How “popular” they [ were may be gauged by the significant fart that, in a hall that holds approximately 3039, there was only a. more handful of people. The death, took place at Christchurch last week of Mr Alfred James Merton,

who lias long been associated with the musical life of Christchurch and was president of the Canterbury Division of the New Zealand Society of Music Teachers. At the time of his death he was organist of St. Barnabas' Church, Fendalton. RECORDED MUSIC. Brahms’s Choral Music. The full beauty of Brahm’s beautiful “.Requiem” is revealed in an excerpt, “Hew Lovely is Thy Dwelling-Place,’' sung by the choir of the Temple Church London, under the organist and director of the choir, G. Tlialben Ball. The choir is famous for its boy sopranos, who p.ay a prominent part in the success cf this recording. The singing is both reverent and eloquent, and the blend of voices is admirable. Brahms’s “Requiem” is the best-known of his choral works. Its breadth and nobility is all-embracing; its words, chosen from tiie Bible, are a living commentary on the great subjects of life and death, of jcy and sorrow. It has seven movements, and the beautiful chorus in E flat, “How Lovely is Thy Dwelling-Place,” leads its hearers to the highest region of thought and contemplation. Duets from Wagner.

One of the most delightful episodes in Wagner’s opera, “The Maestersingers,” the duet in the third act between Eva and Sachs, beginning, “See, I Ev’clien! "Where, Methought, Can She Be-'” is very finely sung by Elizabeth Rethberg and Friedrich Schorr, two or the greatest living exponents of Wagnerian opera. The effect is heightened j by the balance maintained between the voices and the orchestra. The duet has been called “one of the loveliest inspirations of this extraordinary work,” and this recording is certainly a vocal . and orchestral achievement.