ENTERTAINMENTS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 143, 2 June 1911, Page 11

ENTERTAINMENTS.

HARMONIC SOCIETYIS CERT. A GREAT SUCCESS. On Wednesday evening the Princess Theatre was filled to overflowing, when the Harmonic Society gave its first concert of the present season. Before 8 p.m. there was standing room only, and the booking constituted a record for Hastings. It is not too much to say that the concert was in every respect highly successful. The society opened with the partsong Allen-a-Dale,” a piece of extreme difficulty owing to its complicated rhythms ana constant transitions. On the whole this partsong was well sung, though the intonation suffered now and then. The singers were more at home in “There Rolls the Deep,” and the result was a good performance. Th& audience gave an enthusiastic encore to “The Bells of St. Michael’s Tower/’ Two excellent features in the singing of “Moonlight” were that it was sung unaccompanied and entirely from memory. The society may congratulate itself on its good work at this concert. The trebles seemed to be the weakest part of the choir, especially in ff' passages. The other parts were also occasionally at fault, and in. particular one or two basses were inclined to shout.

The Cantata “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast” was decidedly successful, the chief weakness being in attack and precision. The work was tuneful all through ; and the good quality of tone, the excellent phrasing, and the intelligent general reading reflected great crediton the conductor, Mr. E. V. Hudson. The orchestral accompaniments were also very good indeed, and the orchestra deserves great praise for their work.

Miss Large, the principal vocalist, showed exquisite taste in describing “Beautiful Beatrice.” Her vocalisation, articulation, phrasingand interpretation were alike beautiful, and her singing of the triplets was a feature in itself. Again, her singing of the bracketed numbers ‘‘The Message and the Song,” and “Because” (Cowen), was a rare treat. At each appearance Miss Large was heartily encored. Mr. Cecil Prime has a very sweet-’' tenor voice of good range, with excellent head notes, and he gave smooth rendering of “Where’er You Walk,” for which he was encored. In the very difficult and trying tenor solo in “Hiawatha,” he kept good time and though his interpretation lacked warmth, the item was very enjoyable. Miss Ava Symons gave a very good account of herself on the violin in “I Lombardi,” an exacting solo. In the first subject her bowing was slightly at fault, but the intonation was very good and the trills were well handled. In the quick movements she was much better suited and played exquisitely. She deservedly won an encore, which was played with good taste and a splendid tone. A pleasing and artistic number was the duet “The Dav is Done ” sung by Mr. and Mrs. V. R. Roach.. In response to an encore the singers gave with equally good effect Love s Nocturne.”

As an elocutioniste, Miss Duff is well known for her .ernarkable versatility and dramatic power. Her first piece was “Little Boy Love,” and she earned the distinction of a. double recall. Her sparkling humour delighted the audience. Later her fine interpretation of the words, ot the Cantata gate the audience an insight into Longfellow’s poem, and thus added to their enjoyment of the music which followed. This, recitation was a great feat of mem- - ory. The accompaniments were in the able and artistic hands of Mesdames Hunter and V. R. Roach, and Mr. P. W. Tombs— a talented trio. Mr. Tombs also organised the orchestra. All the arrangements for the concert were made by the society’s energetic secretary, Mr. V. R. Roach who with his staff of capable assistants did all in his power to make the huge audience comfortable.