MUSICAL SOCIETY'S CONCERT.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3915, 25 May 1877, Page 2

MUSICAL SOCIETY'S CONCERT.

The Musical Society's concert was held last night in the Protestant Hall. The building was fairly well filled, and the concert taken altogether was one of the most successful which the Society have recently given. The instrumental pieces were, as a rule, good, and well rendered. An exception, however, must be made in regard to the earlier part of the first overture. In the first movement some one had evidently mistaken his place. Whichever instrument should have taken the first part was not playing, and the thing was a muddle till the second part was reached, when it went well enough. Everything else in the instrumental performances was highly creditable, both to the performers and • conductor. The Lanter ne quadrilles, which were new to Napier audiences, were especially brilliant and inspiriting. The chorus which followed the opening overture, the " Belfry Tower," was a very pretty and simple piece. The refrain in imitation of the bells had a remarkably pleasing effect. In the style in which it was given, howeaer, it was surpassed by another of Hatton's choruses, the " Indian Maid," which was sung at the close of the first part. This is, 'in itself, a beautiful little chorus. _ Commencing in a joyous and vivacious strain, it ends with a wail, expressive of the despair with which the maiden discerns the augury from which she divines her lover's unfaithfulness. Both the sopranos and altos, we observe, have had an accession of strength since the last concert. A few more male voices, particularly basses, would be a great acquisition. "La Sonnambula," solo and chorus from Bellini's well-known opera of that name, was a very successful piece. The solo was charming, the runs and trills being most artistically sung. Altogether it was a very creditable effort, although, perhaps, a selection from opera requires more voices than the Society at present possesses to make it go off in a satisfactory manner. In " Summer Morning" the parts did not seem to go very well together ; the tenors dragged a little. " England," the last chorus in the second part, was a sterling and patriotic piece, and was well received. The three choruses by Hatton, indeed, were all successful. They are remarkably well arranged, the parts being equally distributed • J and well harmonised. To come next to the vocal pieces — duets, solos, &c.,— we may remark, with regard to the first of them, the " Song of° Neptune," that it required rather more attention to time and tune, and hardly seemed to possess sufficient spirit for a sea song. The next piece, one of Glover's charming little duets, the "Flower Gatherers," sung by the conductor and a lady vocalist whom we heard last night for the first time, was a pleasing contrast; it was much appreciated by the audience. In " Elfin Echoes," a beautiful, but somewhat difficult song, the refrain, " dying, dying, dying," was sung, perhaps, a trifle too piano. The fair vocalist, however, showed a great advance in excellence on any of her previous efforts. The song by the leading tenor, " The Lime Trees by the River," was one of the great successes of the evening. We may congratulate him on choosing a song so well suitedto his voice He too, was quite a recent accession to the society. The " Lime Trees" was loudly encored, and the encore was kindly responded to with another song, which was also well received. Among all the vocal pieces, however, we must award the palm to the "Magic Wove Scarf," a trio of soprano, tenor, and bass voices, sung by the leading vocalist in each of these parts. The voices "harmonised to perfection, and the most careful attention was paid to , the lights and shades. The last 4) solo of the evening was Benedict's lovely sons' "In niy wild mountain valley, from the Lilly of Killarney. It was sung by the leading soprano, who seldom fails to charm her audience. On this occasion she received an enthusiastic encore, to which she responded with another very beautiful song from the same opera. _ We must not omit to mention an instrumental trio on the violin, clarionet, and piano, consisting of selections from Der Freischutz. It was perhaps rather too lon» for a mixed audience, but was at the same time, highly appreciated by all the genuine lovers of music who happened to be present. The allegro movement was given with great spirit. , We may remark that the concert lost in effect to some extent, owing to the performers being new to their building, and to some of them, at any rate, being in consequence nervous. We think, too, that the arrangements made were susceptible of improvement. If it is not thought desirable to have the instrumentalists on the stage, as they were m the Oddfellows' Hall, it would, _at any rate, be as well to _ bring the vocalists nearer the front. As it was, they were altogether too far away from tho conductor. At the same time the arrangements with regard to lights were so defective, that some of them who were farthest back could not see what they were about.