MUSIC

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23202, 28 May 1937, Page 3

MUSIC

NOTES AND RECORDS

By Allegro

The first of a special series of Coronation concerts for children at the Central Hall, Westminster, has been attended by the new Queen, accompanied by Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose. The concert was given by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Sargent, who visited New Zealand last year. The programme included a new "Phantasy for Orchestra " by Sir Walford Davies, entitled "Big Ben Looks On," which is dedicated to the two Princesses. A Coronation Service Book, containing all the music sung at the ceremony, has been issued. The choice of music was necessarily governed in the first place by the particular requirements of- the service; but the opportunity was not lost of providing a selection representative of English music from the sixteenth century to the present day. Tradition is maintained by the inclusion of Handel's sonorous anthem, " Zadok the Priest," written for the Coronation of George II and regularly performed since; and there is a further link with the past in Parry's "I Was Glad When They Said Unto" Me," written for the Coronation of Edward VII, with its dramatic interpolation of the " Vivats " sung by the King's Scholars of Westminster. These two anthems accompanied the anointing and the entry into the church respectively. For the act of homage the precedent of a single large-scale anthem was abandoned in favour of six shorter ones, representing different periods of English church music. Tye, Gibbons, Purcell, Boyce, Wesley and Dyson are the composers of this group. Similarly the music of the communion service was chosen from the work of four composers, including Stanford's elaborate " Gloria," written for the last Coronation. The most substantial of the new work is Vaughan Williams's Te Deum. Simple in structure and faithful to the composer's melodic principles, it does not forget the buoyancy proper to a festival. The one serious defect in the book (in the opinion of an English writer) is the version of "God Save the King'" at the end. The preface claims that it has "the virtue of simplicity." Actually the instrumental accompaniment is fussy and irritating. However, if it is "sung and played," as directed, " with full power by all assembled," performers as well as listeners may find it possible to forget that a unique chance of providing a model setting has been thrown away. Out of 105 competitors, representing 16 nations, Lance Dossor, the young Yorkshire 'pianist who was a student of the Royal College of Music, was recently awarded the fourth prize at Warsaw in the Third International Chopin Competition. He also won the first prize for the best interpretation of one of the sonatas. Mr Dossor chose the B minor. He is the first Englishman to take part in this annual contest, which arouses tremendous interest in Poland. It was so close this year that the international jury of 20 members deliberated from midnight on Friday until 4 o'clock on Saturday morning before deciding on the first four placings. A new opera, "Massimilla Doni," by the eminent Swiss composer Othmar Schoek, with Karl Bohm conducting, has scored a distinct success at Dresden. The libretto by Armin Rueger is adapted from Balzac's novel, and the plot affords scope for dramatic action. The librettist's style, however, is described as ponderous, and this must be blamed if tedium was not avoided in the course of the three hours. Shoek's score contains some beautiful lyrical episodes, but a musical-dramatic climax was missing. An English writer recalls to mind a night in early summer long ago at Bonn. "I walked," he says, "at about 10 o'clock at night, to Beethoven's house. In the falling light I saw the neighbouring houses that he, too, had seen, a baroque church he had known —and then the door through which he had passed. And always, later on, when looking at that modest house or at the oblong castle beside its peaceful garden, I said: ' This he, too, once saw!' I went through the rooms where remains have been collected from his earthly pilgrimage. His pianoforte is there. All the time one struggles with something hard to define. For everything is a reminder of the pain, the tempest, the profundity of his life. To the elderly woman who is with me in the silence I say: 'Are you not Silesian? ' ' Yes, from Gorlitz.' She speaks in a hushed voice; as if he had died yesterday—lay in the next room. The tone remains so subdued . . . because he is there. One speaks as though in a house of mourning. As in the house of an only, unique son of this earth; The woman stops by a window and looks into the light, so that I go on alone. Tears gather in the eyes."

"O Lovely Night" . (Landon Ronald) and "Lullaby" (Cyril Scott) are recorded by Kirsten Flagstad, with piano accompaniment, and make a very pleasing vocal recording. Miliza Korjus, soprano, has put on to the one disc " Martern Aller Arten," from "II Seraglio" (Mozart), and "Aria of the Queen of the Night" ("Magic Flute"— Mozart). Another soprano group is by Elizabeth Schumann—" Wiegenlied " and " Vergebliches Standchen " (the Vain Suit) —Brahms, on one side, and, on the other, "Nachtigall" and "Der Jager" The Huntsman) — Brahms, the spirit of the last-named being well interpreted. Waltz rhythm is heard from two sides of a record with " Waltz of the Steins " and " In the Good Old Summer Time," played by Old Time Waltz Band.