MUSICAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1854, 3 June 1887, Page 28

MUSICAL.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON CONCERTS. The fourth concert of the series .was given on Saturday in St. Matthew's schoolroom, which was completely, filled by the subscribers and their' friends. \ The concert opened with a good render-: ing of. a trio in C major by Haydn , for piano, violin, aad^violoncello, the 'cello part being taken by an amateur, Mr Adams. The most telling part ' of the trio was the presto movement, which was full of the. genuine naive humour so characterisr .tic of Haydn. The! next, number on. the programme ; was Schubert's 'well-known , serenade,.which was sung, by Miss Lily Mason, with violin, obfeligato; but we think that the beauty of tHe song was decidedly not Enhanced by the addi- . tion of the obbligato. 'The "Moonlight" sonata came next, in order. . In-his prefatory remarks, we understood,, Here Scherek to point' out that this sonata consisted of three movements only, not of foui— : the invariable number in the orthpdoz form of such compositions. 'The movement omitted in this sonata was the allegro-movem-ent, which would have stood first had the sonata consisted of four movements., , This sonata then began with the slow movement and was further remarkable in that the second and third movements followed without anyinterraption whatever. Any departure from orthodox form was- so novel at the time of ' its composition , that Beethoven' .gave this sonata the title of " Sonata quasi una Fantasia." The first movement was in the form of a nocturne, and displayed the effect of the sustaining pedal, which was a new invention in Beethoven's time. . Herr Scherek concluded his ! remarks 1 with an amusing reference to the various romantic but erroneous traditions as to the origin of the " Moonlight " sonata. As to the performance of the sonata, the playing, of the first movement could hardly have been improved upon, but Herr Scherek, who had unfortunately been very much indisposed for several days before the concert, was evidently suffering greatly from fatigue during his playing of the second and third movements of the sonata, which are a. tax upon the strength of the. strongest performer. • At the conclusion of the sonata. Mr Edward Towsey sang Blumenthal's well-known song "Across the far blue hills, Marie." 'The next number was an arrangement for the viola of a beautiful air for a tenor voice in Felioien David's symphonic ode •• The Desert." The. composer makes extensive use in this work of the strange Arab melodies which he heard during' his sojourn in Algiers, and the' air referred to has a most 'peculiar rhythm and intonation. Mr Schacht was much applauded for his careful playing.. in this number. A duet fr.om Rossini's " Stabat Mater" followed, sung by Miss Mason and Mrs Rose.* It- is worthy of note that the music of this work was originally written for 'an opera bouffe, but Rossini afterwards adapted it to the words of -the "Stabat Mater." Three piano soli by Herr Scherek' came next upon the programme, and were greatly enjoyed by the audience. : The soli were Chopin's " Nocturne " in G minor, Mozart's " Menuetto f avori " I (adapted for the piano by Herr Scherek from a {serenade for 'stringed instruments), and a "Centre danse" by Beethoven, the last being an „ extremely humorous composition. 'Two songs by Mrs Rose followed : "Day Dreams," by Lassen, and a song by Jensen, both really nicely, sung, and well suited to Mrs Rose's, voice; the only fault* that could be found with the, first song being that it was so extremely short. The concert was ended with a sonata for .violin' and piano, opus 23; one of tHe prettiest sonatas of Beethoven. Here also was .an example of humorous music in the andante scherzoso, which, as well as the rest of the sonata, was! admirably played. The next'concert is fixed-foj. Saturday week, June 11. I