WORLD OF MUSIC

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 21 May 1932, Page 13

WORLD OF MUSIC

COMPETITIONS FESTIVAL The Hawera Competitions Society will hold their festival* as usual m August and tlie schedule, revised tno.o ugnly and including several new features, is just completed. Experience in other centres shows that the festivals have been extraordinarily successful, with record entries in all sections. Keen enthusiasm is being shown .by people interested, and there appears to be a strong probability tnat the Hawera event will be as successful and as popular as ever. Choral singing is to be specially encouraged, and this is certain to be a feature which will' meet with popular approval. Palmerston North Festival is. just, concluding after a record season and with exceptionally good entries. Performers from Hawera took part and have done very well. The judge of music (Mr H. Barry Coney, of Auckland) commented very favourably on their work. He was most enthusiastic over the work of the instrumental trio, Louis, Margaret and Olga. Fox, and commended specially, the .playing of the cellist. “ANCIENT MARINER.” i The Methodist Choir of Hawera in- 1 tend, if the music is available, to give ! a performance of the famous cantata! “The Ancient Mariner,” by J. F. j Barnett, set to words by Coleridge. | It is a very beautiful work, abounding i in lovely solos and choruses, with j •much of interest in the instrumental section. The performance will be very popular and will he another indication of the enterprise of the church choirs of Hawera. OPERATIC SOCIETIES. | The Hawera Operatic Society, has made a decision in the matter of the 'coming season’s performance, and it is considered by all who have experience of musical comedy that “'Gipsy Love’ is an excellent choice. Music and libretto are distinctly attractive, while the characters to be portrayed are clever and full of interest. There has been keen enthusiasm shown in the town, aiid a good strong chorus is being enrolled. The lion, (Mr H. E. Robinson) and those associated with him are very optimistic and are leaving no stone unturned to secure a successful season.

There is much activity shown m other centres and a revival in operatic music is forecasted. The committee of the Hamilton Operatic Society is considering musical comedies for tlio next production, and it is expected that an early decision, will he made and that rehearsals will commence in the near future. “Katia” is amongst the pieces under consideration. lhis has never been produced -by amateurs, and should it be chosen Hamilton will follow the lead it established some years ago with “Katinka” hy being the fii-st amateur society to ipi-esent the play. A feature of “The Runaway Girl,” to be staged by, the Wanganui amateurs this month will lie the specialty dances.

The Wanganui Society hopes to produce for a three-nighits season m August the musical play “Moonflower,” written by Marilyn McGill, and composed by Gordon Mcßeth, 'both of Wanganui. The production will be entirely local. VERBRUGGHEN—CONSERV A- - TORITJM DIRECTOR ? With the announcement that the director of the Sydney Conservatoiiutm (Dr. Arundel Orchard) is soon to retire comes news that M. Henri \eibrugghen, founder and former director the eonservatoriuni, is contemplating a health visit to Sydney. In well-informed musical circles there is a belief that if the post of director were offered to M. Verbrugghen he would be prepared to accept it at a salary much less than that which he formerly received. It is said that tne climate" of America does not agree with M. Verbrugghen, and that he would welcome an opportunity again to settle in Sydney. For the past eight years he lias been conductor or the famous Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. CONDITIONS AT HOME.

Miss Zillah Castle, a young Wellington violinist, who is studying at the Royal College of Music, writing _to friends in Wellington, says:, As this is February you can imagine that, things musically "are certainly ‘humming in j more than one sense of the word. _ f quite despair of hearing all the tilings I feel I should do, and although one has plenty of choice in entertainments in London, one needs a pocket in proportion to same. I must confess I had a wrong impression about the price of admission to concerts and tlieatics hcie. I imagined it to be very low; but, on the contrary, if one heard even at the cheapest ra'te the chief conceits or shows of a season, one would need a bank balance of large proportions. If it were not for “The Old Vic’ and a few ‘free shows,’ I should be quite badly off. You sec, all in one month is the advent of the Berlin Orchestra, the Lener Quartet, Kreisler, etc., and as the cheapest rate is 3s Cd you can understand wliat a poor student feels! The college does not get concessions for these concerts.” From this it would seem that we have not much to com-

plain about out here so far as the rates of admission charged to hear visiting celebrities are concerned. RECORDED MUSIC. ‘ •Tannhauser’ ’ Overture.

The overture to Wagner’s opera “Tannhauser,” which has been oriiliantly recorded by the Berlin State Opera Orchestra under Clemens Oclmialstick, is the longest orchestral prelude ever written and one of the a:nest. An epitome of the drama it !• jreshadows the struggle between good and evil and the final victory of good, it opens with the melody of the ril e-rims’ Chorus,” beginning softly as at earning from a distance, and gradually increasing in power until it is heard, in all its grandeur. A,t this point it •is joined by a violently agitated accompaniment on the violins. This passage evoked great criticism when it was first produced, and for many years thereafter it was thought to imar the beauty of the chorus. But without doing so at all it conveys additional dramatic meaning,. for these ;i rotated phrases depict the restlessness of the world as compared with the grateful tranquility of religious faith as set forth in the melody of the “Pilgrims’ Chorus.” Having reached a climax, this chorus gradually dies

away and suddenly, and with intense dramatic contrast, one hears the seductive music suggestive of the Venus--I,er". Now magic -sights and sounds fill ""the air. one hears exultant shouts and voluptuous dances and Tannhauser under the influence of this strain, sings a jubilant isong of love. He is answered first bv strange and notous; cries, and then ‘bv the seductive voice of Venus herself. Filially Venus carries Tannhauser away to her abode of souldestroying pleasure. The storm is laid, and onlv a soft breeze seems to stir the niHit air with weird voluptuousness. "Dawn breaks. Once more the pilgrims’ chant is heard in the distance, then nearer and nearer as the srtni descends : but .."the /soft sighing or the breeze, which at first had suggested the wailing of condemned isouls. rises too, and swells the tidings of (rrcat jov, proclaiming the salvation of th° Ve 11 usherg itself, and joining the pilgrims’ , chant in a chorus- of rede ic lit ion. All this, and much more, is in the glorious overture. The overture takes up three sides of two twelve-inch v«cor fl -s, and on the fourth the orchestra plavs “Album *,eaf,” also by Wagner.' The playing throughout is note-r-orthv for' its brilliance and wonderr-,] definition of tone. (H.MV., 0218485. )