MUSIC

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22609, 28 June 1935, Page 2

MUSIC

NOTES AND RECORDS

By Allegro,

On Tuesday of next week the Choral Society will present a programme of Mozart's music in the Town Hall. The fact that the Requiem Mass will be given should in itself be an inducement to musicians to attend, that they may have the opportunity of hearing this week. Miss Betty Pocock, Mrs C. M. Barnett, Mr Douglas Rutherford and Mr W. A. Finnie will sing the quartet. Mrs Leonard Cronin will sing "Hours of Joy " and " 'Tis a Madness," and Mr J. D. M'Kechnie will sing "0 Isis and Obiris." Mrs Nees and Miss Winifred Gardner will play the charming Mozart two-piano concerto which they performed with such success at their recent recital. The orchestral part of this is delightfully written. On Thursday next the Students' Orchestral Club will give a concert in Begg's Concert Room. The soloists for the evening will be Miss Bessie Gallien and-Mr Arthur MacDonald. Miss Mavis M'Donald will play the last movement of Mozart's E flat piano concerto with string accompaniment, a sparkling work. The orchestra will give the first movement of Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony," "The Caliph of Bagdad" Overture, Russian folk songs and other attractive light items. It is of interest to read of the musical activities of other lands. Budapest announces a Musical Fortnight this month. Ballets by Bartok, Dohnanyi and Kodaly, and operas by Verdi, Wagner and Puccini will be given at the Opera, and there will be a performance of Liszt's Coronation Mass in the cathedral at Esztergom (Gran). " London, once the capital of the 'Land without music,' is on the way to become the musical metropolis of Europe." Articles in Berlin and Vienna magazines describe glowingly the activity of the musical life of London. The sentence quoted above is from an article by Mosco Carner in the Zurich Schweizerische Musikzeitung. Dr Carner goes a little deeper than some foreign commentators in observing not only the abundance of concerts given in London by world-famous virtuosi, but also the growth of a national musical consciousness. He acknowledges the service done a generation ago by such composers as Parry and Stanford in curing English people of a sense of inferiority in musical matters, and he finds in England's possession to-day of a truly national school of composers "the deeper cause of the enormous expansion of the musical life here." Dr Carner particularly draws attention to Vaughan Williams and to William Walton, " the most pronounced personality of the younger generation." He mentions the enormous (" unheimlich ") vogue of Sibelius's music in London and the 8.8.C.'s enlightened patronage of the most recent—and expensive—manifestations of contemporary composers. What town would not be proud of such a library as is here described? The library of St. Michael's College, Tenbury, Worcestershire, contains a famous collection of music manuscripts, assembled in the last century by Sir Frederick Ouseley. It is rich in the music of the sixteenth century, and includes early works, e.g., by Byrd, Taverner, Tallis and Fayrfax, not known elsewhere. Contemporary manuscripts also provide authentic text of works by Purcell and Blow. Lully is magnificently i represented in upwards of 250 volumes " copiez par Phillidor l'aisne" for the Comte de Toulouse, son of Louis XIV. This collection was purchased in Paris by Ouseley after the death of King Louis Philippe. Then there is Handel's conducting score . of " The Messiah," several numbers of which are in the composer's hand. A detailed catalogue of the manuscripts was completed five years ago by Dr E. H. Fellowes. Mr Wootton says in a book on BerJioz that "possibly his harmony owed something to his practice of the guitar, the only instrument he ever really learnt," and goes on to suggest " that his partiality for chords in root position had its origin in the greater resonance of'the three lower strings of the guitar." A male voice recording accompanied by piano has been made by the Comedy Harmonists. Their songs are " Schlabe mein Prinzchen Schlaf ein" by Mozart and the folk song " Guter Mond, du gehst so stille," quietly and artistically given. Peter Dawson has recorded "Farewell " from Stanford's " Songs of the Fleet." and "Why do the Nations" from "Messiah." A massed brass band disc recorded at Crystal, Palace holds a march medley named " Champion " by Ord Hume, and "May Day Revels" from a suite by Cope entitled "Rural Scenes in Days of Old." From " The Merry Widow" Jeannette Macdonald has recorded "Vilia" and "Merry Widow Waltz," Richard Crooks has sung "I Love You So," the Light Opera Company has recorded a medley, Mnrek Weber and his orchestra have played a selection, and also De Groot and orchestra. The artists for the various societies which have recorded classics are as follows:—Arthur Schuabel (Beethoven Sonata Society) "Pro Arte Quartet" (Haydn Quartet Society),Edwin Fischer (Bach "48" Society), London Symphony Orchestra (Sibelius Society), Kipnes, Trianti, Husch, M'Cormack (Hugo Wolf Society), Gerhard Husch (Winternelse Society), Wanda Landowska (Bach Goldberg Variations and Conperin Societies). John M'Cormack has recorded "Poor Man's Garden " by Russell and " Friend o' Mine" by Sanderson, popular numbers. Gertrude Lawrence, who is known from her record from " Private Lives" with Noel Coward, may be heard with Donglns Fairbanks, jun., in scenes from " Moonlight is Silver."