Dramatic and Musical.

Free Lance, Volume IX, Issue 455, 20 March 1909, Page 16

Dramatic and Musical.

{Continued j i urn page 14.) I was glad to find thai the Liedertafel had the concert chamber of the Town Hail comfortably full on Tuesday night for its opening concert of the 1909 season. Let us hope it is the sure precursor of better things in etore. Surely it is a reflection/ upon 'the musical tastes of the community that in an up-to-date city like Wellington., with its 70,000 people, a Liedertafel under so capable a conductor as Mr. Robert Parker should only have a meagre tally of sixty members. It ought to have ten times the number. • • • For the most part, too, its concerts hay© been thinly attended. I mean its public concerts, of course, although ■the price of admission is onJy two shillings. Of course, the smoke concert? —the invitation affairs — are always crowded out. It is always easy to get a crowd when there's nothing to pay. The Liedertafel ought to be one of the most popular institutions with our young men, and the training it offers in part-singing and! musical culture generally ought to be invaluable to them. I trust "this first concert of a new season marks a new and prosperous departure. Let the Liedertafel com© out of the background and force itself under public notice by performing in the Town Hall, where it is most get-at-able. • • • A programme of much variety was presented on Tuesday night, and, as encores were barred, it was got through m good time for trams and! trains — 10 o'clock. I don't think "the LiedertafeT was in. anything Hike true form in the •unaccompanied . part-songs and glees. The best of them were old favourites like the "Thurinreiani Volkslied" (arranged by Abt), "The Happiest Land" (Hatton), and "The Students' Parting Song" (Mendelssohn) — which, was given by wav of farewell to tihat popular member and genial good fellow, Mr. P. Hockley — and "The Goslings," a humorous piece by Sir J. F. Bridge, and sung to^ a pianoforte accompaniment introducing fragments of Mendelssohn's "Weddiner March" and Handel's "Dead MaTch" in "Saul" to heigh^n its Taughable absurdity. The instrumental solos were particularly good. Mrs. C. M. Hector (nee Miss Janet Ross) is always a valued contributor to a concert programme, and her piano morceaux on this occasion were, as usual, choice, and played with that ease and taste which mark her execution. She gave two studies by Chopin, Men delssohn's evergreen "Spring Song," and that brilliant trifle by Coleridge Taylor styled "PapiMon," or "The Butterfly." Mrs. Hector was recalled at the close of each performance. A similar compliment was paid to Herr Max Hoppe, who presented a delightful violin solo in cantabile style by De Angelis, and' entitled "Enfin Seuls." The instrument practically sang it with sweet and smooth expres^ Bion. • • • Vocal solos were numerous and varied. Miss Mina Caldow, who has greatly improved since her debut in Wellington two years ago, gave "Love's (Rronation" (Aylward) and Willeby's 'S[Juttin' Rushes" with a breadth and fulness of tone and a delicacy of expression, that justify the confident hopes of her friends that she is bound to make a name for herself at Home. It seems to me she has taken Ada Orossley as her model, and certainty the diva will have no need to make excuses for the student. • * • Mr. J. F. Carr gave an agreeable rendering of the pretty old English song, "Passing By," by Puroell, and Mr. Hugh Wright put life and colioui into "Lighterman! Tom." Mr. R. B. Williams contributed "When all was Young," and "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes," but his sweet tenor is usually heard! to much better advantage. Mr. P. Bockley was affected with a cold, but he struggled manfully against huskine&s in order to keep faith end sing at his last Liedertafel oancert in, Wellington. He gave Stanford's "Cavalier Song" and Schumann's "Wanderer." Mr. James Searle was heard again in "The Image of the Hose" and a couple of vocal quartettesby Messrs. Searle, Carr, W. Warren, and Parsons in the first instance, and) Messrs. Searle, Carr, Laycock, and Wright in, the second, went very well. • • » Mr. Robert Parker conducted, Mr. Eric Waters and Mr. Laurence Watkins accompanied, Herr Hoppe played a nice obbligato for Mr. Williams' operatic song, and Mr. R. H. Wedde was "all there" as hon. secretary. • • • "The Merry "Widow" is on her way to invade Wellington. Mr. George Mathieson arrived by the Marama on

Wednesday last to make ready for Mr approach. "The Widow" will appear at the Opera House on, April 10th, and the three leading ladies are Miss FJorence Young, Miss Betty OMs. and M>ss Fanny Dango. • « • The Town Hall was packed with a very enthusiastic audience on Wednesday evening, the attraction being tihe Irish National Concert, the last event on the St. Patrick's Day programme drawn up by the committees of the H.A.0.8.C. and the Wellington Catholic Club. The concert was under the patronage of liord and Lady Plunket, Sir Joseph and Lady Ward, the Mayor and Mrs. Hislop, Archbishop Redwood, and the leading clergy of the Roman Catholic Church in Wellington. ±us Excellency and suite received: a warm welcome from the large audience on their entry. • • • The programme, which would lhave been an excellent one of itself, was en>hanced greatly by "the assistance of the Kilties' Band, who were very successful in their contributions, aaid won unstinted applause. Their playing of the "Tannhauser" selection was a a rare treat, and fairly brought down the house. The programme was an exceedingly long one, and comprised in all about twenty -four items. In view of this fact, the committee were well advised in refusing to recognise calls for encores. Many of the items well merited the recalls awarded them, and the promoters are to be complimenteJ alike on the talent secured for the con-

•eit, and the manner in which all the j>erformers acquitted themselves. Two of the items mern> a special word, even in a long programme of general excellence. One was the chorus, "Hail, Glorious St. Patrick!" sung by some forty or fifty pupils of the Marist Brothers' School. The item was a novel one to have on a coor rert programme, but the boys had been carefully selected for their voices, and subsequently well-trained. It was altogether a pleasing performance. The second item calling for a special word was the Tecital of the well-known piece "Shamus OBrien," by Mr. J. Finlay, who came to the aid of the committee at short notice, and in response to a request for the recitation by His Excellency ths Governor. It is interesting to note that the author of tihir patriotic poem is said to be an ancestor of Lady Pkmket. From all reports, Mischa ELman, the marvellous violinist, who is shortly to visit New Zealand, has been meeting with a tremendous reception in America. But his success cannot have been altogether without alloy, for people will still persist in. regarding him as an infant prodigy, m spite of his long trousers and stand-up collars. Mischa Elman detests this, and he must have felt particularly indignant with the lady in Boston, the other day, who, after he had finished playing, rushed up to him exclaiming, in a voice choked with emotion: "Oh, you wonderful, you marvellous boy! I wish

you were my boyl" The violinist h«s a great objection to being called * "boy," and does all lie can to escape from the attentions of the ladies. When he first came to England, «. gentleman acted as his guide at all his concerts, and, if ladies pestered him for kisses, he used to point to his conductor a-nd say: "He'kisses, I play." • • • A novel attraction is to be introduced to Melbourne in Trelawney, the Cornish Pixie. This freak was discoTercd by Captain Jack Neville in a little fishing village near Penzance, in, Cornwall, some three years ago. Local tradition says he was washed ashore from a wreck on the fearful might of January 3rd, 1905, but this has never been definitely ascertained, though * vessel Homeward bound from South America perished near that spot. According to medical authorities this little Pixie must be between 48 and 75 years of age, whilst his weight is only 9flb, and his height 25£ in. He is said to be the descendant of an extinct race onoe inhabiting the Montezuma region, Central Mexico, of whose existence traces have recently been found.