MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 274, 9 February 1928, Page 18

MUSIC

(By

Mr. Edwin H. Lemare, the celebrated organist, left Southampton recently by the White Star liner Majestic, for New York. Mr. Lemare, who arrived in England on November 11 by the Majestic, has made a visit to his aged father at Ventnor, Isle-of-Wight .It was at the parish church of that town, when his father was organist there, that Mr. Lemare played his first Sunday service. "Do not try to attain mere technical facility, the so-called bravura. Try to produce the same impression with a composition as that which the composer aimed at;’ no one should attempt more; anything beyond it is mere caricature.”—Schumann.

John McCormack, the eminent Irish tenor, Is jubilant over recently finding a composition of Handel’s, written 157 years ago. It is called “Praise the Lord.” and was composed for voice, violoncello, organ and pianoforte. “I was born many years ago, and God touched me with His little finger, and said to me; ‘Write far the theatre —take care, only for the theatre.* And I have followed this supreme counsel.” —Puccini. Miss Lilian Frost, referred to by the English Press as “The famous Australian organist, who created such a sensation when she played at St. George's Hall In 1911,” gave a recital at the Wallasey Town Hall, England, and the audience was the largest ever seen at any organ recital given there. The criticisms state that “Miss Frost created wonderful enthusiasm, encoro after encore being demanded by the delighted listeners. Her most scholarly achievement was her interpretation of the Bach 'Toccata in F Major,’ her rapid and unerring pedalling recalling the brilliance of the late W. T. Best.” * * * It is definitely announced that the J. C. Williamson grand opera season will open in Maxell at Melbourne. Something in the nature of a grand opera festival is to be given this year, as for the first time on record there will be two complete and separate organisations operating im Australia at the same time. Standard productions are assured, for, in addition to Toti dal Monte, Lina Schiavizzl, Apollo Granforte, and Gaetano Azzolini, firstquality favourites already known here, we are to hear Hina Spani, the famous Spanish soprano; Francesco Merit, an eminent La Scala tenor; Angelo Minghetti, Agusto Beuf, Antonio Righetti, John Brownlee, the Australian baritone, and other artists who have European reputations. “Turandot,” the Chinese fantasie, Puccini’s last and great work, left incomplete, and finished by Franco Alfano, will be the opening opera. Maestro Gaetano Bavagnoli is the principal musical director. • * • The Wellington Amateur Theatrical Society has chosen for its next production “The Belle of New York,’ und arrangements have been made to produce this musical play at the beginning of April. The society has been very fortunate in securing the services of Mr. Lester Browne, the well known Australian producer, who was stage director of the original production of “The Belle” at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London. Rehearsals .re now in full swing under Mr. Leu * arnes. The Waipawa Operatic Society will produce “The Sunshine Girl” next month. MUSIC AT OXFORD NEW DEVELOPMENT THE ART ONCE NEGLECTED Such a musical event of national interest as the production of Montevede’s Popaea” by the Oxford University Opera Club emphasises the enormous change which less than a century has brought about in the position of music in the old universities. In the late thirties of the last century, in Oxford, as Tuckwell, himself a lonely enthusiast, reminds us, “to be musical was bad form.” Dean Gaisford appointed scouts and bedmakers, no longer efficient for their jobs, as cathedral choristers. When the Provost of Oriel’s butler was sent to tell Newman of his election to a fellowship, and found him playing the violin, he was completely bewildered and thought he must have come to the wrong person. At that time the Professor of Music had only £l2 a year. In order to get the degree of Mus. Doc. all that had to be done was to send in an orchestral thesis and pay a band for its performance: but the University showed its contempt for its doctors of music by refusing them admission to the semicircle in the Sheldonian Theatre. Doubtless the prevailing sentiment was that expressed by an Oxford bard of an earlier perid— Some cry up Haydn, some Mozart, Just as the whim bites; for my part I do not care a farthing candle For either of them or for Handel.