LOVE OF MUSIC

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 141, 29 May 1928, Page 5

LOVE OF MUSIC

HOW TO STIMULATE IT MR FRASER GANGE INTERVIEWED. (By “STELLA.” "It is absolutely necessary for the cultural advancement of the nation that the art s should be studied and supported," This was the emphatic statement made in an interview at the Hastings Theatre last night by Mr Fraser Gange who, with Miss Amy Evans and Miss Conley, gave an excellent concert to a very appreciative audience.

“Tile beautification of life is newssary,” he said. “God made a turnip, but did He not put some green on it to beautify it So it is really ‘up to us’ to see that the colourless lives of many human beings should lie helped and beautified in a proper fashion. THE ARTISTS’ IDEAL. “Both Mrs Fraser Gange (Miss Amy Evans) and myself have an ideal in our hearts as we tour New Zealand. We want tremendously to kindle in your people's hearts the wish to help New Zealand-born musicians and to give them opportunities in this country for a musical career.” Here Mr Gauge referred to his speech given to the Women’s Chib that afternoon: “Men are busy with their work, and we artists realise that it is women who are at the back of musical movements at tho present time. CONCERT COURSES. “I would like to see women’s clubs with a regular concert course, opening up the way for musicians. 1 cannot agree that there are no artists in New Zealand. Your composer, Craxton, is the only English composer who has had an opera of ms own performed nine times in succession to large audiences in the great theatres at Leipsig and Berlin. That alone shows that nis work is of the very highest class. The Germans do know what good music is, so for a New Zealander to have an opera produced there is a very great thing. NEW ZEALAND TALENT. “Esther Fisher, who is at present in New Zealand is a Wellington girl whom we consider one of the finest women pianists of to-day. You have Rosina Buckman, and many more great musicians that I could mention. HOW HASTINGS MAY HELP. “The Hastings Women’s Community Club has the power to give a good fee to New Zealand artists to come to this town. I understand that there are more than 2CO members at present. Just think what could be done if every member paid one shilling a month into a fund for visiting artists. The club could give a violin, a vocal, or a pianoforte recital. A lecture could be arranged or a quartette could be brought to play the music by the great masters. Reasonable fees could be given to New Zealand artists to come, so that they might acquire the right atmosphere and lose that terrible feeling which has killed so many musicians—the fear of the public. A fee of £lO could perhaps be given. In America women in the combined musical clubs give fees of from £lO to £6OO or £7OO. HELP YOUR OWN. “There must be among the women in the Hastings Club those who have song or daughters who may become artistes. Help your own while they are young. Give them their opportunity. Genius can come from anywhere. ‘B‘v forming this musical fund you could have here either your own or international artistes. “This town can easily do it.”. THE WANING OF JAZZ. “The day of jazz is passing, and passing fast. I’ve noticed as we’ve travelled on ships, that passengers do not dance so much A good waltz is played perhaps, and then they rise and dance, but jazz has had its day. During the war period, we more or less suffered from neurosis. We are getting over that, and gradually turning to the real thing again. Futuristic paintings are losing their appeal, and futuristic statuary is passing mto oblivion.” PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. Mr FrSser Gange, like all true artists is very modest, but after his interesting talk, in which his endeavour to stimulate public enthusiasm for music was most evident, he complied with a request for gome personal experiences. “We are endeavouring to give a programme which satisfies all tastes, * Mr Gange said. “Everyone wno comes to our concerts is not a musician and we do not sing oh’y heavy music. We try. by giving good programmes, to lend those who hear us to the finer things in music. During my stay in America, one of my most delightful experiences was at Fritz Kreisler’s birthday party. He is a great personal friend of mine, and he sat at the piano and accompanied me while, to nis exquisite music, I sang many beautiful ‘leider.’ It was an evening I shall long remember “For the past four years in America we have sung under the batons of all the great conductors of the world— Toscanini. Mengelberg, Furt-Waeng-ler, Dami-osch, Reiner, Verbruggen, sang in the first performance of ‘Oedipus Rex,’ by Stravinski, also in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with Kursewitsky conducting. “In summer music still continues in America. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra is enlarged to 110 men, under the baton of Hoogstraten Orchestral concerts are given every night at the Lewisohni Stadium, with an average audience of about 8000. Usually some choral performance is given.' Th*9th Symphony of Beethoven as an extraordinary attraction. We were both singing in that, and also in the ‘Verdi Requiem,’ when the audience exceeded 14.000. The effect of singing in the open air in the absolute quiet of the summer night with the silver crescent of the moon above us, was very marvelions. 'Hie unbelievable quietness of that huge audience gave us a thrill almost impossible ever to recapture.”