“SIMPLY AWFUL.”
UNM ITSTCAL COMPETITORS. “INSULT TO THE AUDIENCE.” HAMILTON, Thursday. The audience at the musical competitions last night was somewhat, startled by the judge’s bitter criticism of the competing pianists. The judge, Mr. Bernard Page, who was obviously worked up to a high pitch of feeling, stated at the outset that he was exceedingly reluctant to criticise amateurs from the public platform, but in this case it was his duty to do so. “Never in all my life have I heard such an awful standard of work,” declared Air. Page, almost passionately. He then proceeded to refer individually to the various competitors, dealing more in particular with those who had appeared during the day sessions. One entrant., according to Mr. Page, sauntered out leisurely and played a lovely minuet, of a great; living composer in a manner that was an insult to the judge, to the audience, tho society, and the composer himself. His attitude, as he turned around to the audience, seemed fairly to shout, “Look at me; it doesn’t matter about listening to me.” “But for the fact that two or three competitors were to follow,” added the judge, “I would have sounded the bell and whisko*?him off the stage.”
Several of Iho other competitors were subjected to similar ruthless criticism. One entrant in particular, said the judge, appeared to be under the impression that he was playing in n jazz orchestra. A gold medal was offered for competition in this class, but, Ihe judge said he could not consider awarding it. "If one of Ihoso competitors were to don a medal," averred Mr. Page, "lie or she would be taken either ns a liar or an imposter, while 1 should go down in.musical history as a fool." Even then My. Page had not finished with the unfortunate competitors. He told the audience that it would be a misrepresentation to award a first prize, and a second award only would he given. This would go to n girl who had played her piece with as much effectiveness as her ,technique would allow.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH19251026.2.34
Bibliographic details
Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16869, 26 October 1925, Page 7
Word Count
345“SIMPLY AWFUL.” Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16869, 26 October 1925, Page 7
Using This Item
The Gisborne Herald Company is the copyright owner for the Poverty Bay Herald. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Gisborne Herald Company. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in