ARTHUR HIRST, F.R.S.A.

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 639, 16 April 1929, Page 15

ARTHUR HIRST, F.R.S.A.

LECTURE-RECITAL IN CONCERT CHAMBER i Auckland music-lovers will have j their first opportunity of hearing one of the famous lecture-recitals by Mr. Arthur Hirst, F.R.S.A., in the Town Hall Concert Chamber this evening. Mr. Hirst provides a unique educational entertainment, in which he really does little more than trace the growth of music and the development of its construction, explain, the circumstances of the lives of the great composers—which he pointed out was essential to the proper appreciation of their works —and then artistically interpret at the pianoforte typical examples of their music. A most sympathetic pianist, evidently with a wide repertoire, he is also an equally sympathetic and fluent speaker, and his combination of the two faculties constituted a memorable evening. One point he emphasises which is not sufficiently realised: That for the proper appreciation of music it is necessary to frame the item in silence; that is, to allow the last notes to die away undisturbed by applause. If this advice were more usually followed, he said, it would be found that it would add much to the enjoyment of the programme. And so it was that, save for one or two spontaneous outbursts, the audiences at Mr. Hirst’s recitals in the South withheld their applause until he had finished.