THE NEW ZEALAND ’CELLIST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19505, 13 June 1925, Page 22

THE NEW ZEALAND ’CELLIST

SPLENDID APPRECIATION. (From Odii Own* Correspondent.) LONDON, May 9. The opinion is expressed by the musical critic of the Daily Telegraph that a vioioiicello recital is perhaps more difficult to sustain than any other* kind, both for the recitalist and tho audience, The idiom is one which can bo very soon exploited to tho uttermost, and then there is nothing left bin to go through the various permutations and combinations of its potentialities. “When, there, a ’cellist can incite an audience as Mr Arnold Trowoll did ou Monday evening at the AVigmore Hall,” he continues, “we are compelled to recognise in him more than ordinary qualities. Mr Trowel! not only plays the ’cello, but is a musician in that sense of the word which the more sensitive among us would like to have applied to ourselves. He has very definite pre-concoptiors —aloof and unyielding they arc—and he can give them clear and fine effect in every succeeding phrase. He thinks in terms of phrases, and adjusts their inter-relation so surely that his music is borne along by its own movement, so to say. The Boccherini Concerto in B flat and tho Brahms Sonata in B minor were both performances wherein eloquence was au essential quality and not fabricated by gesture or flourish. In the Adagio of the Concerto and the last movement of the Brahms Sonata Mr Trowell’s full, rich, and rounded tone emboldened him to break through his austere regard of control for a space, and then it was that he came near to rhapsody. For tho remainder, howhe quenched all signs of familitanty, and gave tribute to tho abstract.’' Mr Charlton Keith played the pianoforte parts. A NEW ZEALAND PIANIST. By her very successful pianoforte recital at the Wigniore Hall last night Miss Father Fisher enhanced greatly tho reputation winch she already holds in London as a very talented pianist. There was a very good audience at the Wigmoi© Hall, and keen appreciation was expressed of her playing. Her programme an interesting one, the composers selected being Brahms, Schumann, Chopin, and Debussy. Artistic depth ana colour characterised her playing of all live movements of Brahm’ Sonata in 1< minor. Opus 5, while light and shade were well defined in her Schumann group (Kreislenana, Op. 16) of eight Fantasies, especially' in the quicker movements. The Chopin ■ Berceuse was dolightfuly played, while groat delicacy and sureness marked her playing of JJebussy’s “L’lsle Joj*ouse. In response to insistent requests for “more," Miss Fisher responded with two encores. She was very charmingly dressed in flesh pink georgette, her swathed sash being finished with a deep silver fringe.

THE BOWEN FALLS. TO THE EDITOR. Sir—l read with surprise the copy of a letter from tho Hon. Mark Cohen to Mr W. B. Stool appearing m your issue of to-day. Juno 10. , For the benefit of those readers, who failed to notice tho publication, permit mo to reproduce certain small extracts which have aroused in mo, who am in no way connected with the commercial proposal regarding the falls, a desire to defend both the Expansion League and tho scheme. 1. Mr Cbhen writes concerning the Expansion League: “I did expect better things from an organisation whose chief aim, as I have always understood, was tho real ground work of its existence, is to conserve and protect the material interests of Otago, and to preserve for the advantage of posterity those immense assets which the Fiordlands of tho West Const of this island possess. ,r , . 2. Mr Cohen says further; I have no hesitation, in asserting hero and now that in Milford Sound, this dominion has a wealth of scenic beauty and grandeur that is without compare, which will bo irretrievably ruined if this project of using tho water of tho Bowen Falls for the manufacture of nitrate is carried out.’ 3. Mr Cohen also says: “I am satisfied, as the outcome of conversation with all sorts and conditions of people in different parts of the dominion, that this nitrate proposition, if perpetrated, will bo received with disfavour. . . I venture to appoal to the league . . . notj to consent to what a very largo section of the people of Noiv Zealand rightly think would bo an act. of spoliation amounting to a national crime. ’ Far be it from mo to condemn tho sentiments of one so much more able and one so honoured, but I deem it my duty, as one who has spent a great deal of his available time in the past few years exploring, and when possible, advertising the wonders of the district, to record my objections to the statements made by Mr Cohen. 1. I have known Mr Steel, the Expansion League’s able secretary, for some years. Ho will confess freely that his hobby is the advertisement, encouragement, and development of tourist possibilities at and around Milford Sound. Few know' how he has fought for tho boiler management and expansion of tourist facilities at tho Soundtransport, accommodation, etc.—and few know of tho disheartening lack of support he has received, not so much locally, as from tho Government generally, and that, to me, inefficient body, tho Tourist Department. It has apparently occurred to Mr Steel and his league that hero at last, in the advent of private enterprise, is an opportunity of increasing the traffic to the Sound which tho Tourist Department could never achieve. The nitrates scheme opens up possibilities of steamer transport, electric lighting and heating for accommodation, water supplies, and other obvious advantages, while tho restrictions which will be imposed on the activities of the company will give its factory and works in that vast wonderland the appearance and effect of a blade of grass in a 100-acre paddock. 2. I heartily agree with the statement as to the scenic beauty and grandeur of the Sound and its surroundings. Year after year have I climbed the peaks in its environs, explored the valleys, and admired the Sound. One is irresistibly drawn to return to the wonderful maze of peaks in the vicinity and the marvellous scenery of the Sound itself. I know the Bowen Falls well ; I can imagine the site of the nitrate works; but in spite of rny intense admiration of the wonders of the Sound, I fail to see tho spoliation that such a comparatively small undertaking would effect in such a vast environment. 3. Nothing strikes mo so forcibly as the remark to which lam now replying. Of all the vast number of people who have become interested in the Bowen Falls problem, how many have ever seen tho Bowen Falls? Of all the number who have voiced their opinion on the scheme, how many speak from first-hand knowledge? What have they who condemn tho scheme done to assist tho Exnansion League in interesting tourists, and especially foreign tourists, in the district? No amount of condemnation of such a scheme onn forgive an apathetic Tourist Department or other institution from its omissions in respect of "the development. Apparently the merits of the district are receiving somewhat belated recognition, now that those who know comparatively little of tho struggle that has gone on, and is going cn, for its development. find something to cavil at. It is a great pity our tourist resorts were not in tho hands of private enterprise. The Mount Cook venture boars mo out in this. Tho function of the Tourist Department, which seems to bo to be mainly the arrangement and booking of tours, could bo ably effected by tho Railways Department and licenses could bo issued to private enterprise to control our national parks in a manner befitting their national economic value to u-s. My condemnation may sound severe, but it is engendered by tho fact that, while resident in Wellington, I was requested by tho Tourist Department there to act as general informant to all applicants to it for information regarding Milford and its surroundings. Of the GraveTalbot pass and track the department had never oven heard, I regret taking up space for what appears to be a strong attack on our well-meaning Government, and I desire to make it clear that Mr Cohen hat my respect and not my animosity although I feel constrained to oppose what appears to be a very general attitude in the dominion. In conclusion, I wonder if the Hon. the Minister-in-Charge of Tourist Re-sorts lias ever been near Milford Sound?—l am, etc., R. S. M. Sinclair. Dunedin, June 10.