MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 641, 18 April 1929, Page 14

MUSIC

(By

F.1.R.)

Succeeding the late Oscar Sonrieck, Carl Engel is to be editor o£ the “Musical Quarterly.” The annual festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music commenced at Geneva, Switzerland, on April 11. Vaughan Williams, of England, was among the musicians present. ‘‘lt is not so,” said John McCormack’s manager recently, referring to a story In the newspapers to the effect that he would become a candidate for the Irish Senate. The tenor is now giving concerts in England. Says “Musical Courier”: “It costs £l2O a year to feed a London Zoo elephant. But Sir Thomas Beecham so far has not had a shilling from his Government toward the support of his national opera plan.” From Paris comes news of a Mozart revival. This is the piecing together of the forgotten opera, “Lo Sposo Deluso,” or “Le Fiance Trompe,” which dates from the year 1783, a year after “II Seraglio.” Eight numbers in the opera had never been orchestrated, and this has been reverently undertaken by the Munich musician, Ludwig Busche. ... To What Base Uses It was after the opera, says “London Tit-Bits.” A lady approached a broad-shouldered man outside the stage entrance of Covent Garden. “Have I not the honour of speaking to the renowned basso of Covent Garden?” she asked. He smiled his “Yes,” asking. “And wliat can I do for you, madam?” “I can’t And my car,” she answered. “Would you be so kind as to call out ‘Charlie’ at the. top of your voice?” • * * New Zealand Opera The premiere of ,Alfred Hill’s charming one-act opera, “Teora” (Or “The Enchanted Flute”) was an auspicious opening for the Turret Theatre at Mllsom’s Point, says the Sydney “Sun.” The house was bought out, and a great number who wished to hear the first performance of the opera were disappointed. The slaying of the loader of a rival tribe, Pomare, by Tainui, and the fashioning of a flute out of the armbone of the

dead leader, are pivots around which the tragic plot revolves. There is also a romance between Waipata, Tainul’s son, and Teora, the daughter of the vanquished chief. Mr. Hill is an adept at instrumentation and orchestral colour, and these factors, and appropriate and beautiful harmonised melodies, are evident throughout the work. Both vocal work and scoring characterise cleverly every tragic or other mood.

NOW SIXTY

Sir Henry Wood Wears Well PAINTING HIS HOBBY Sir Henry J. Wood, the famous conductor, celebrated his 60th birthday recently. Like most men who divide their life intelligently between town and country, he wearrremarkably well—and philosophically, states ar, English writer. At his charm ing home at Chorley Wood, Bucks, he disports him self in an easy old coat, and has a big lofty barn ingeniously adapted as a studio. Nothing gives him such happiness here as to forget music for the moment and devote himself to his painting hobby, oir ncnp ~uuu In his earlier years he was a great conductor of festivals throughout the country, and quite recently was still enjoying jaunts up to the Lakes for the Westmoreland Festival at Kendal. Many of his paintings are souvenirs of Festival visits, painted in off hours of relaxation. His latest, crop of canvases was from a holiday in Switzerland. He was one of the first of our eminent musicians to hail the gramophone as a serious medium of musical art, and regularly tries over and “edits” new records as they come from the manufacturer’s presses.

Arnold Bax’s Third sonata for violin and piano was heard for the first time in London on February 4. "The new work,” says the London “Telegraph,” “Shows again flax’s preoccupation with an Irish idiom mixed strangely with his citizenship of the world. Its two movements, moderato and allegro molto, are packed full of imagination and independent thinking, running a pretty extensive gamut of moods and rhythms. A first impression suggests it was written at white heat, at a. single sitting. It has the continuity of sustained inspiration.”