RETURNED SOLDIERS’ CHOIR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22654, 20 August 1935, Page 10

RETURNED SOLDIERS’ CHOIR

SUCCESSFUL SECOND CONCERT POPULAR MAORI SOPRANO The second concert of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Choir’s 1935 season, which marked the first appearance on a Dunedin concert platform of Miss Ana Hato, the well-known Maori soprano from Rotorua, attracted a very large audience to His Majesty’s Theatre last evening, and those who attended in the expecta<;on of being afforded something novel end interesting in musical entertainment were by no means disappointed. The choir’s programme was one that was ideally suited to the traditions of the organisation, being composed almost exclusively of works of a martial character, while the assistance of such artists as Miss Ana Hato and four extremely competent young pianists ensured the maintenance of a high standard of musical entertainment. Under the direction of Sir J. T. Leech, the choir sang with Us customary spirit and vigour, giving fullblooded and rousing interpretations of the compositions selected for the concert, and in those of Miss Hato’s numbers where it was required to supply a choral background it acquitted itself with considerable success. Florence Aylward’s ever-popular “ Song of the Bow,” with which the concert was opened, was an attractive piece of work, the choir singing with good cohesion and balance for the most part, any slight raggedness that developed occasionally being fully compensated for by the authentic colour which was infused into the px-esentation. Bizet’s ‘•Agnus Dei,” in which Mr L. B. Borrow sang the solo part with good expression, was a finely restrained effort, the singers maintaining evenly-balanced tone and attractive cohesion. In lighter vein was the solo and chorus “ I am the Captain of the Pinafore,” from the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera “ H.M.S. Pinafore.” Mr R. Duerdon, singing the solo part, invested his performance with plenty of appropriate colour, and the choir . also entered into the spirit of the excerpt with notable enthusiasm. In response to prolonged applause, Mr Duerdon and the choir sang “The Sergeant-major’s On Parade ” in hearty style. A return to the martial note was made in “Fallen Heroes,” by Jenkins, a work which gave the choir opportunity to achieve some excellent contrasts. Sung with a wealth of dramatic detail, this number was a particularly good effort, Mr G. Crawford singing the solo part in convincing style. Elgar’s “Zut! Zut! Zut! ” a marching song with a lilting tempo, was very well sung, the audience demanding and receiving a repetition of the number, but an occasional raggedness in attack somewhat marred Sullivan’s “ The Beleagured,” a part song that called for crisp and decisive work on the part of each individual section of the choir. Foss’s “ The Last Long Mile,” which concluded the choral portion of the entertainment, was attractively sung, those ever-present bugbears of the infantryman, a blistered heel and the ser-geant-major, receiving theip share of attention in this amusing number. Miss Ana Hato, who appeared on the platform attired in traditional Maori costume, immediately won the hearts of the audience by reason of her complete naturalness and freedom from anything remotely savouring of affectation ox; selfconsciousness. In addition, she obviously enjoyed singing quite as much as the audience did listening to her, and gave free rein to a spontaneous sense of humour in a manner which delighted the audience immensely. To those who have heard her recorded songs—there must be very few who have not —the beautiful timbre and range of her voice came as no surprise, and she sang with a charming ease and simplicity that brought out all the beauties of the Maori and other melodies in her repertoire. Her numbers included “ Hine e Hine,” a delightful lullaby, “ Waiata Poi,” in which the rhythmical swinging of her grass skirt and the dexterous whirling of the long poi were in perfect time with the song, “ Pokarekare,” “Ako Ako Ote Rangi,” another lullaby, and “E Pari Ra,” all of which were enthusiastically received. In addition. Miss Hato was generous with her encores, in several of which she played her own accompaniments on a ukulele. These included a Tahitian song of farewell, Alfred Hill’s “Waiata Poi,” “By the Waters of ‘Minnetonka,” exquisitely sung in Maori, and as a final encore “ Home, Sweet Home,” also in Maori, the lastnamed being a particularly fine piece of vocal artistry. The choir soloists were Mr T. Cairney, who sang the bass solo, “This is My Song” (Longstaffe), and as an encore “ Trees,” and Mr Stan Kingston, whose tenor numbers, “ Lorraine ” and “ Silver Hair and Heart of Gold,” were also well received, while a double quartet, “An Evening’s Pastorale,” by eight members of the choir, was an effectively restrained and nicely-balanced presentation. Four young ladies, Misses Marjory M'Dowell, Muriel Ironside, Ruth Moore, and Audrey Kirk, gave a fine display of executive and artistic competence in two piano duos for eight hands, Nico-' lai’s “ Merry Wives of Windsor ” overture, and “ Zampa ” overture, by Suppe, both of which were played with excellent precision and attractive depth of interpretative shading. In response to the repeated demands of the audience the latter portion of the “ Zampa ” overture was repeated. The pianoforte accompaniments provided by Miss Sybil Baker were always artistically shaded and in perfect sympathy with the singers.