MUSIC.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19102, 22 February 1924, Page 3

MUSIC.

NEWS AND NOTES. It is expected that Madame Galli-Curci, who is favourably known by her gramophone records, many of which are remarkable, will make her first appearance in England at the Albert Hall next October. Tbe first opera ever performed publicly, Jacopo Peri’s “E.urydice,” was revived in Florence on December 30, on the occasion of the second Italian Musical Congress now being held in that city. The original performance took place 323 years ago at the festivities which marked the marriage of Maria de’ Medici with Henry IY of France. Since then “Eurydice” has neve# been seen except once at Milan. ' The cost of public performances of operas by provincial choral and operatic societies in England has been the subject of some inquiry. The case is cited of the Stratford-on-Avon Opera Society, which gave a. performance of “lolanthe.” The expenses of the show amounted to £367 8s 2d, and the proceeds from the' theatre were £413 12s 9d, and from the sale of programmes £l7 4s—a total of £430 16s 9d, and a profit of £63 8s 7d. The success of the gramophone records of Wagner’s “Ring” has been followed up by the issue of a noble set of 14 double-sided ■ 12-inch records of “The Mastersingers of Nuremberg.” Some two’ hours of the music of this supremely lovely opera are thus reproduced. It is a surprising achievement, even in these days of the gramophone’s rise in the world. The selections are so far - representative that the gramophone player who provides himself with a copy of Wagner’s libretto can gain a very fair idea of the whole matchless opera. The singing is in English by members of the British National Opera Company, Mr Albert Coates conducting. It should be noted that the overture is not included in this set—it was published some time since.

To those who like the music of Tschaikovsky there is a wide and wonderful range from which to select. Tschaikovsky is revealed in his writings for the pianoforte, the orchestra, and string quartettes as a composer of great power and versatility. Could anything be more charming, for example, than his delightful “Casso Noiselle Suite” (Op. 71), popularly known as the “Nutcracker”' Suite? The idea was conceived from the reading of a story, by one Hoffmann, called “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.”' He made the music for a fairy ballet founded on the story, and later took out of it selected pieces* which he arranged as a suite. This celebrated suite has been recorded both by the Coldstream Guards and the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, and in each case the results were excellent. The Goldstream Guards’s Band does some wonderfully delicate work especially in its playing of the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.” The band’s record of the suite, which embraces three double-sided 12inch discs, is very pleasing. But as the music was written originally for the orchestra the tone colours reproduced oy the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra are. of course,' a more accurate reflection of the composer’s ideas. The overture is a very charming piece of fairy music. Its special peculiarity is that, in order to make it very light and airy in effect the composer has written no low base notes, and has thus mot used his ’cellos or double-basses from beginning to enctf To make the string part full enough without these instruments, he has divided his first violins, his second violins, and his violas into two parts each —making six-part string writing. Perhaps the most delightful of the Nutcracker scenes is “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.” When Tschaikovsky was in Paris in 1891 he found a new instrument, the celesta, that had recently been invented, and wrote home telling the publisher of his music about it, hut telling him to keep it a great secret, because he wished to be the first composer to write orchestral music in which such an instrument appeared. This dance is one of the pieces in which he used it. The celesta looks like a very small piano, but instead of strings it has metal bars for every note. Tschaikovsky was quite right' in thinking that other composers would want to write music, for it, and now it has become a quite common orchestral instrument-

The remaining numbers of the suite consist of a “Chinese Dance”—a weird bizarre conception, and an Arabian Dance, in which one heard with true Oriental effect the tom-tom of native drums. This is a beautiful number, in the minor key, but concluding with a long-drawn strain in the major key, quite a striking effect. There are also a Russian Trepak, a spirited march theme, and the “Valse de Fleurs,” one of the most charming waltz themes ever conceived. In the Tschaikovsky collection of recorded music there is a very fine Slav March, and the composer’s famous “1812’’ overture. This last is a show piece, but interesting in construction, and worthy of careful analysis.