DUNEDIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22211, 14 March 1934, Page 13

DUNEDIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

With its concert to-night—the first of the season—the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra should leap higher than ever in public favour, for it is a programme compiled to meet every musical predilection; and reports of the final rehearsal indicate that the orchestra will commence the season in the best of spirit and form. The chief work to be performed, Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, will be followed with the keenest and most critical attention. It is one of the three last and greatest symphonies Mozart gave to the world (the other two being the E flat major and the C major). Unlike these, which depict happiness and grace, the G minor has its chief note in heavy anxiety of spirit. But it is not a heaviness that depresses the listener, and its beauty in these sombre passages is embellished by the subsequent gracious and limpid minuet, and the overwhelming fine finale, in which, though the major theme represents “wild merriment that seeks to drown sorrow,” there is a middle theme that has the serenity and radiance peculiar to so many of Mozart’s melodies. Second in importance are the two Wagner items—the Introduction to Act HI of “The Alastersingers,” and the extraordinarily vivid entrance of the Gods into “Valhalla” (“Rheingold”), while lighter compositions are the sparkling overture to “ The Barber of Seville,” and Tschaikowsky’s “ Marche Slave.” Two gifted young artiste are the chosen soloists—Miss Andri Bevin (contralto) and Aliss Louise Tonkin jpianist). Miss Bevin will sing the “ Che Taro,” from Gluck’s “Orfeo.” Beethoven’s “Creation Hymn,” Brahms’s “ Der Jaeger ” and “ Der Schrnied,” and Strauss’s lovely “ Zueinung”; while Aliss Tonkin will play, with the orchestra, the first movement from Beethoven’s Pianoforte Concerto in E flat major (“The Emperor”). _ The concert will be given in the Concert Chamber, Town Hall, and particulars are advertised.