MUNICIPAL ORGAN RECITAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21406, 6 August 1931, Page 7

MUNICIPAL ORGAN RECITAL

The severe weather conditions caused a slight thinning of the customary audience at the municipal organ recital last night, and this was a pity, as the programme proved to be one of the most attractive that Dr V. E. Galway has yet given, it is questionable whether anything more lovely than the alow movement of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto has been heard at any previous recital, and the audience was demonstrative in its approval of the interpretation given. Other items which demonstrated the resources of the instrument and the technique of the performer were the “ Triumph Song by Baynon, the Prelude and Fugue in E minor by Bach, and Guilmants Fourth Sonata. Cui’s Berceuse and Schumann’s “ Nachtstuck ” proved that the Town Hall organ can whisper as well as thunder. An exhilarating performance of Rossini's overture to the “ Barber of Seville closed a programme which thoroughly delighted the audience. The vocalist Of the evening was Mr Frank Watt, a bass of great power and round, smooth quality of voice. Mr jWatt gave excellent renderings of an aria from Mozart's “Magic Flute ” ' and Schubert’s great setting of the “Erl King.”