MUSIC WEEK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21562, 5 August 1933, Page 10 (Supplement)

MUSIC WEEK

FESTIVAL IN AUCKLAND FINE PROGRAMMES ARRANGED Music week is now only eight .days away and- preparations have been completed bv a vigorous committee for what should bo one of the most successful series of musical events held in Auckland for two or three years. A similar festival was held in 1930, but during 1931 and 1932 only schools festivals were arranged. The great success of these led to a demand for a full week's performances, representative of most of the musical movements in the city. The festival will open on Sunday, August 13, with a concert in the Town Hall concert chamber, arranged by the Auckland Chamber Music Society, and open to the general public. The programme will include the performance of one of Brahms' finest quintets by Miss Dora Jiulson (piano), Miss lna Bosworth (first violin), Miss Lois Walls (second violin), Miss Amy Stevenson (viola), and Miss Lalla Hemus ('cello). . The following evening a national concert representative of English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh music will be given in the Town Hall, where all succeeding concerts will also be held. Many leading Auckland artists will take j>art and the programme will incjydo most of the best-loved national airs of the British Isles. On the Tuesday the primary schools, under the baton of Mr. E. Varley Hudson, will provide a most interesting programme. The unison songs to bo sung by the massed choirs will include the " Pilgrim's Chorus " from " Tannhauser," Geoffrey Shaw's " There is a Spirit Singing," and Bathbone's t{ Shadow March." Several part songs and rounds, in addition to items by individual schools, will also be given. On the Wednesday evening the secondary schools, under Mr. H. Hollinrake, will provide the programme, and for this concert also a particularly fine programme of choral work has been arranged. In three-part arrangements the massed choir will sing "The Flowers of the Forest.," " Pipe, Shepherd, Pipe," and Handel's " Where'er You Walk." Choral numbers by boys' and girls' voices separately will also be given and orchestral and other items have been arranged by individual colleges taking part. Thursday will be devoted to a choral and orchestral concert in the course of which the orchestra of 50 instruments will give two movements of Beethoven's magnificent First Symphony. The choir, which will compriso over 250 voices, will render several interesting compositions, including Parry's eight-part setting of Milton's words. "Blest Pair of Sirens,",, and also Brahms' very beautiful "Song of Destiny." Mrs. Cyril Towsey and Mr. Len Barnes will give solo items,, and the Municipal Choir, alone, will contribute several unaccompanied part songs. The festival will be concluded wiyi a popular concert on the following evening when the Optimists' Club, tho Lyric Quartet and the German Club orchestra, in addition to several wellknown solo artists, will assist.