NEW PRESENTATIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22905, 12 June 1936, Page 7

NEW PRESENTATIONS

CHRISTCHURCH HARMONIC SOCIETY Reviewing the first performance in New Zealand of Constant Lambert's " Rio Grande " (given two years ago in Christchurch by the Christchurch Harmonic Society), the press critic said: "'Rio Grande' exemplifies a phase of contemporary musical development. It demonstrates the manner in which the. best in the popular art of any age flows into the wide main stream which has come down from the mountains of the past and mingles with it as it flows on into the future. For ' Rio Grande' has undoubtedly appeared as a work of art vitalised by the rhythmic characteristics of eontemporary popular music." This work appears as the main item in the highly interesting programme to be given by the society to-morrow in the Town Hall. The choir has made it peculiarly its own; and, in the brilliant choral writing, the colourful orchestration, the highly original solo pianoforte part, and (above all) the compelling waywardness of the rhythmic features, listeners will find something delightfully new unci yet perfectly easy to comprehend. The programme allows for co-operation from local Dunedin musicians. The Dunedin Orchestral Society will provide the orchestral accompaniment for " Rio Grande" and for the other large-scale work, "The River" (Alec Rowley), in which the part of the narrator will be taken by Mr A. G. Fleming, L.R.S.M. (chairman of the Dunedin JVl.ile Voice Choir). By the offer of hospitality to the visiting choir members and in many other ways, local musicians and musical organisations are working for the success of tlie concert. In Mr Victor Peters, modem British composers find an enthusiastic champion. His interest in their music (and in contemporary developments generally) took Mr Peters to England to meet the men and to hear their works. The brilliant group of composers at the Royal College of Music (together with the fine performances of their music) inspired him to promote their cause with redoubled energy on his return to New Zealand, and. in meeting the technical demands of these modern compositions, his choir has reached a standard of choraliem of which our whole country may justly be proud. It is, therefore, not surprising that the programme to be heard at the forthcoming concert reflects the standards and aims of some of the finest English choirs of our time. It is the critical opinion of competent musicians who have heard the Christchurch Harmonic Society that, in listening to the choir's work, audiences are hearing choralism of a high English standard—a standard which many choirs at Home would recognise as their own. The composers represented in the programme—Constant Lambert, vaugnan Williams, Alec Rowley, Parry, Grainger, Roberton, and the rest—are amongst those whose works are constantly being selected by leading choirs in London and the provinces, and the visiting choir's technical proficiencv is worthy of the works thus chosen. The interest in choralism, engendered and maintained by the constant efforts of Dunedin choirs, will receive an added impetus from the visit of this choir from Christchurch—a visit which promises to be one of the outstanding events of the present season. The box plan is at Begg's.