Music and Musicians

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12199, 25 July 1925, Page 14

Music and Musicians

A MUSICAL NOTEBOOK One of the attractions being prepared for visitors to the Exhibition in Dunedin by the director of amneenients (Mr Scott Colville) is a season of comic opera. The Exhibition Operntio Society has beon formed, With the Governor: Charles Eergusson) as pat. ron, to organise a strong combination of soloists, ohQTOs, and orchestra. The society! wilt have the benefit of Mr Gustav Slapoflski's long experience in training the chorus and leading the orchestra, and a professional,producer will be engaged Finance is guaranteed by the Exhibition ' authorities. . It is proposed.to stage a musical" comedy the first'week,’, and something a. little more advanced during the second, but whatever .works are- chosen will have the appeal of novelty. The operas will be produfaed in the Festival Hall, which seats 8600, "and full advantage will be taken of the unique scope ofiered for elaborate scenio and lighting effects. *•* * ” ' The first of a series of children's concerts’in Sydney marks one of the'most important ‘ functions of the Conservotonum of Musio under the new guidance of Mr . Arundel Orchard, and brings this city into line with a movement which has beeii established for many years in some of the big cities abroad, writes a Sydney correspondent. The aim, of course, is to foster among the young a love and knowledge of one of, the finest of the arts; and to make the children of to-day familiar with the great classics in music. Thus a great field, awaits the enterprise of Mr Arundel Orchard. The deoisionof the Government to, place the Conservatorium Orchestra upon a more secure financial basis has now made it possible for him to establish these concerts and thus fulfil, in' a peculiar degree, one of the groat educational functions of the Conservatorium. The opening concert Sras a marked success and established a new era in the history of musio in Australia. The youngsters will now have a livelier and more significant interest in, and a better Understanding of, great works of which many of them had hot oven hedrd, Handel’s" Water Music," as an illustration, with its pretty history, and,’agaim *the >story of ‘'Hansel and Gretcli’’ made a great appeal to the youngsters. **• ■ * , . Several at o'Ur pianistic 'heroes are nearing, or have even passed, the scriptural limit as to years. Opinions from inside the charmed circle pro always interesting, and so it is refreshing, to have Moritz Rosenthal's estimate' pf the elder artist’s powers. "A man of 60 should be able to play better than a, younger man, provided he has lived wisely. It is Considered nothing strange to expect the best thought from a writer or thinker 1 at the age of 60, and with as much right»it can be expected of a’musician.: After all, a man at 60. is ,through with small points and technicalities end only heart and mind are. needed."

Not since the. death of Giuseppe Verdi has Italy suffered such sorious musical losses as., during the last six months,’ nays "The Etude." . Its greatest contemporary masters of the art, Puccini and Bossi, both, passed away unexpectedly ip this time. Puccini rose to his greatest. freights behind the prpsecenium arch and Bossi in the realm of the cathedral. Whue Bosai was not so widely known as Puccini, his genius was no less great. His'organ works, his manses, , his works for chorus and orchestra, all indicate a mind of great breadth and technic of the highest order. •••■ ■ • '

i - In.his "Beethoven's Nine Symphonies," • Hector- Berlioz gives ah account of the physical effect, jnusic occasionally had upon him. _ Like many great composers, however Berlioz had a trick of “dramatising ' himself’’ in print, so perhaps we must not take him too seriously. On hearing certain works my vital strength seems first of all .doubled," ho confesses ■ "I feel a delicious pleasure with which the reason has no connection; cho habit of analysis- then comes unbidden, as it were) to engender admiration. : Emotion, increasing in direct proportion to the energy or grandeur of the composer's ideals, then ‘ soon produces a strange -agitation in the circulation of toe blood; my arteries throb violently; fears which, in a general way, indicate toe end of the paroxysm, mark in this case only a. progressive stage which is liable .to be mush exceeded. No doubt sensations carried to ■ such a degree of violence are somewhat rare; .besides which there is a vigorous contrast to be placed against them—that of bad musical effect, producing tho contrary of admiration and pleasure. . .1 then blush as if for shame; a veritable indignation seizes me, and one might think, to observe me, that I had just suffered some outrage, for which, pardon seemed impossible. , . This may be disgust and hatred carried to extreme limits, but oucli musio exasperates me, and I seem to vomit it from every pore.”

Gramophones and Records

/ MUSICAL EVENTS A NEW STRING QUARTETTE. The word Tokalon stands for beauty in the Greek language, and the new String Quartette which has adopted this as a 1 title deserves it. Competent critics say that the quartette is the finest that Welling’on has ever seen, so the little band of chamber music-lovers may anticipate the first concert. This is on Thursday ne*t, and the programme includes Haydn's Quartette No. 3, from Opus 52; Beethoven's Fourth Quartette, in Opus 18, and the B flat Quartette of Alfred. Hill- The players are Miss Ava Symons, and Messrs Leon de' Mauny, Frank Crowther, and George Blwood. With an attractive programme the seooJid orchestral concert of the Society of Musicians promises much, The Mozart Symphony in G flat, and Beethoven's "Leonora" Overture (No. 3), are the biggest of the works to be performed. This completes the. classical portion of the programme. \ The romantic numbers are, de la Haye's "Columbine and Harle- : quin;*’ a Suite by Pizet; and the "Young Dietrich" will be sung by Mr Harison Cooke. Mr W. Kerry will conduct. SHARPS AND FLATS The pafe band and the. restaurant orchestra are direct incentives to indigestion.—A. T. Akeroyd. , The, suggestion is nothing short of absurd. Music is a distinct aid to digestion. If people get indigestion, would they -return time after time? People? do not enjoy having indigestion.—Messrs Lyons. . ; I myself hardly ever read concert notices'. It is bad enough having, to write? the dreodfijl stuff; to^read it is' impossible.—Edward Newman. After’being an anti-nationalist all my life, I . have come over to the English camp. I havq definitely my faith. No more cosmopolitanism jn mu-' sic for me!—W. J. Turner. Mozart, Haydn, antjl Chopin, were they alive io-oay, would write fox-trots as naturally and inevitably as they pnee wrote gavottes, minuets, and mazurkas.—George If the truth were known, about the origin of the word "iazz," it would never be mentioned in polite society. BIG ARTISTS A MUSICAL WHO'S WHO. Tetrazzini, Luisa, soprano (pronounced Tet-trah-tzee-nee). Tetrazzini was born at Florence, and comes of _ a family of musicians. Hpr early musical training was gained at the hands of her sister Eva' (Mme, Campanini), and she also studied under Signor Ceccherini at the Liceo Musicale, Florence. In 1895 she made an appearance at the Teatro Pagli-' ani as, Inez in "I'Africans." Her real debut, however, took place later at Rio de Janeiro as Violetta in "La Traviata." Then” followed 10 years or more of continued^triumphs in Brazil, Argentine, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Russia. _ It remained for San Francisco to introduce her to the English-speaking world, and on November mid, 1907, came her sensational first appearance at Covent Garden, Which made her a star of the first magnitude and established her name ai\d fame. The tumultuous receptions given her dur-, ing the next few months are now matters ? of musical history. She * visited ' New! York in January, 1906, meeting with ex-* travagant success there, and since that time she appeared regularly every.'season both in England and America. During the war Mine. Tetrazzini remained in Italy, working and singing for the war charities of her native country. In Septeinher, 1919, she made her reappearance in London, at the Albert Hall,-and has appeared each season since then in London and the principal provincial centres. Her voice is remarkable for its purity and great range, and is brilliant beyond description in coloratura work.