MUSIC

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1695, 24 August 1904, Page 27

MUSIC

NOTES BY 6 BTRINB Mr Watkiu Mills, who is in Wellington this week, is justly regarded as the leading basso on the English concert platform to-day. He hails for Painswick, m Gloucester, and" gained his first experience as a boy chorister in a local congregational choir. When -only 20 years of age, he sang the baritone solos in ‘‘The Messiah" in Gloucester. He became a pupil of the famous Samuel Sebastian Wesley, and for some years sang as basso at Wells Cathedral: then he received lessons from Mr Edwin Holland in London, and later on from Blaeco in Milan. O'n returning bo England he joined the Carl Rosa Opera Company, but in 1835 decided to devote himself entirely to concert and oratorio work. Mr Watkiu Mills has played a leading part in all the great, oratorio festivals in England for years, and has also gained a high reputation in America. He is nearly 6ft in height, of robust presence and resonant voice. He was the first singer to give vocal recitals in Canada, and has made several successful tours in that country. On one of these visits lie sang 103 songs in five consecutive nights, a feat impossible to one .of lees robust physique. . The opera season ac wovent Garden has been a financial as wail as an artistic success —a result which is considered remarkable in view of the increasingly heavy salaries paid to singers like Madame Melba, Madame Calve and Signor Caruso. The English papers praise the excellent casts and the superb stage mountings of tho works presented during the ten weeks' season. As for the orchestra, there is no better judge than Dr Richter, who, before- ho left London, remarked that lie had never conducted ‘a finer or more intelligent band." Hundreds of applications for scate for next year’s season have already been received. Asked in Adelaide by a "Register representative his opinion, of Australian soloists, Mr Mills stated that he had found generally an excessive use of the vibrato. "I suppose," lie said, "'they are taught m that way; but I think it is a great fault. Many students in Australia and elsewhere do not appear to be taught rhythm, and phrasing and rhythm go together. Then there is the enunciation of the words; how many fail there! Bow much more musical, and how much more interesting ic is to know what the performer is singing about. I cannot emphasise too strongly the importance of clear and distinct enunciation. The public love to hear the words, and how seldom they do. In England the academies are insisting, that the language shall be articulated properly. Lack of clearness and distinctness is the besetting fault of both the ordinary amateur and the young singer. Some of them seem to think that if they enunciate tlieir words clearly they sacrifice tone, but that is a mistake.’’ Tho music for a libretto by Captain Basil Hood lias been composed by Mr Hamish MacCuu«. The work, which is to be t called "The Golden Girl," is to be produced iu London shortly. A valuable collection of manuscripts of some of the masters was sold in Berliu not long ago. A four-page letter of Beethoven brought forty-seven poum the autograph of one of Brahms's duets for soprano and alto went for twenty-five pounds; the autograph of Schumann's "Papilions" realised thirty-five pounds; and three manuscript songs by Schubert were knocked down for forty-five pounds. Certain autograph pieces of music by Liszt went for comparatively-small sums, from five pounds upwards; and five letters by Wagner were sold at various prices, from five pounds to six pounds ten. The manuscript of one of Chopin's early mazurkas (dated Vienna, July 30th, ’1831) realised thirty, pounds. The French composer Sainfc-Saens recently paid a visit to Edinburgh. On this occasion he appeared as an instrumentalist, being assisted by Thibaud as solo violinist and Hassolmanns as solo 'oellist. Although it'was'the “off" season, musical amateurs in Edinburgh turned out iu large numbers to give him a welcome to the ’Scots capital. Had tho veteran composer been able to come at the height of tbe musical season, tho largest hall would certainly have been crowded to excess. M. Saint-Saens played, it need hardly be said, in a masterly manner; and, when, at the end of the programme, he bowed his farewell, it was in the midst of a scene of the greatest enthusiasm. The music of the Philharmonic Society of Vienna has among its -relics the pianoforte which' was presented to Haydn during his visit to London. The insfcrumenl once formed part of the collection of the Viennese Capellmeister Herbeck. A local journalist says that an "eminent English pianist" recently played a Haydn sonata ,on the piano, and its still excellent tone greatly astonished the visitors at the museum. . , . .. The widow of Anton Dvorak, according to a Vienna journalist, has received several letters from English music publishers offering to purchase the remaining unpublished instrumental works of the deceased Bohemian composer.