DUNEDIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22422, 17 November 1934, Page 4

DUNEDIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The final programme of the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra for the season; will be presented in the Concert Chamber nest Wednesday evening. It is said to be a programme fully up to the standard that has made the Symphony Orchestra so influential an arbiter of public taste. The ; choice of the “star” item, Schubert’s No. 8 Symphony, the famous B minor one, better known as “ the Unfinished,” should find geneTal endorsement. Beethoven, at his very grandest, never revealed a- larger calibre or wider outlook than is maintained in this primitively dramatic and emotional master work, so highly coloured and so individual. There are only the two movements (hence the term “unfinished”), but they contain the richest and most perfect examples of Schubert’s genius. Of almost equal importance 1 is the Wagner selection, the Prelude and Liefbestod from “ Tristan and Isolde,” the seventh of his musical dramas,, marking the culminating point in the composers development, and well designated “ the most miraculous of love dramas.” Very different in character is the third of the major works chosen by M. de Rose for the occasion—excerpts from the delightful ballet “ Sylvia,” of Delibes. This is light-hearted entertainment superior even to the same composer’s “Coppelia ”; and the excerpts — “ Prelude,” “ Pizzicato,” “ Valse Lente ” and “ Cortege de Bacchus ” —are the gems of the work. In lighter vein’, there will be a charming bracket in Mozart’s “ Minuet- in D,” Mendelssohn’s “ Canzoiietta” (opus 12), Franccschi’s “Poeme,” and Grieg’s “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen.” Two vocal soloists will augment the entertainment—Madame Cara Tait, the Timaru soprano, and Mr Roland Dunbar (tenor). Madame Tait, well known as a very accomplished singer, will introduce “The Hymn of Apollo,” by the Dunedin composer Mr J. Renfrew White, which is said to be a very vital and arresting contribution to modern songs; and Mr Dunbar will sing the Flower Song from “ Carmen.” M. de Rose has chosen a very exacting list, the more so that his recent accident, crippling one arm, has imposed upon him the necessity of practically memorising the whole programme.