The World of Music

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20077, 6 April 1935, Page 14

The World of Music

Notes and Comments of General Interest

(By "Semitone")

The musical play "Viktoria and Her Hussar,” to be presented for the first time in Melbourne shortly by J. C. Williamson, Limited, steps from China to Russia and from Russian to Hungary with the greatest aplomb and with all the national colourful trappings. It is a brilliant production, with all the elements that make for success in a musical comedy. “Viktoria and Her Hussar” has been a wonderful success ail over the world and had long rims to its credit in both London and New York. The star of the play in Holland was the Dutch prima donna Beppie de Vries, who was Australia’s “Madame Pompadour.” Sylvia Welling will make her last appearances in Melbourne as “Viktoria” prior to her departure for London. The part gives Miss Welling many great opportunities, providing this popular artist many enchanting singing numbers.

The Christchurch Harmonic Society, which is to visit Dunedin and give a concert on April 13, has in a comparatively short time leapt right to the fore-front in virtue of its admirable performance of contemporary British music—the music of Vaughan Williams, Holst, Robertson, Lambert, and many others—but also of music by the great composers of the past such as Bach and the men who were the glory of the sixteenth century Polyphonl School.

Under its conductor, Mr Victor Peters, who would be prominent as a choral conductor anywhere, the society has created new standards of technical and interpretative performance in Christchurch, and has at the same time gathered round itself a very large group of listeners in whom real enthusiasm for this hitherto rather neglected music has been engendered. It speaks well for the reputation of Dunedin that such a society should be able to face the venture of a visit to that city with the confident assurance of a cordial welcome from its own progressive musical organisations and by the general musical public. With the 250th anniversary of the birth of Bach comes once more the realisation of the greatness of this master. The Bach concert in Dunedin opened and closed with the famous fugues on his name by Schumann and Liszt. Also were the D minor piano concerto, the A minor prelude and fugue for organ, a choral prelude and a brilliant toccata, vocal solos from some of his most famous works and orchestral items, one of them J. Christopher Bach’s “Sinfonia.” J. Christopher Bach was J. S. Bach’s senior by some 42 years, and an excellent musician. It |is delightful to read in “The Little Chronicle of Magdalena Bach,” Esther Meynell’s descriptions of the Bach family making music together whether all the statements are or are not strictly founded on fact, the narrative is none the less fascinating. “The Bachs always began by singing a chorale and always amused themselves by making ‘quod libets,’ harmonising several well-known airs by singing them together simultaneously as a joke.” An interesting picture is presented of Bach’s children singing his compositions or harmonising naturally an air which he would give them. C. V Stanford has well said that Bach was “at work in mid-Germany writing foi all time, without a thought of his own aggrandisement, composing works far beyond the capabilities of musicians at his hand to produce with any approach to their requirements, works which were to shine after his death.” Another writer says: “No musician since he has lived has been too great to learn from Bach, and every great musician reveres his name. ’

The Bohemian Orchestra of Auckland has plans for one of the most ambitious seasons for several years. Ia addition to three Town Hall concerts, three concerts will also be broadcast from the IYA studio. Mr Colin Muston will be conductor. The first studio concert is set down for late April and the first Town Hall concert for the end of May. Last year ended with a small credit balance and it seems likely that this season will result in an even better position.

The town hall of Pretoria. South Africa, is to have a great organ from a leading factory of Chicago. It is of the four-manual type with about 100 sets of pipes. A unique feature, and probably the first of its kind in musical history, is that the pipes will be installed in air-conditioned chambers to overcome difficulties of maintaining a satisfactory tuning, because of the extreme changes of temperature in South Africa. The instrument recently started on its 10,000-mile journey.

The centenary of the birth of Colonel Henry Lee Higginson, founder and for 37 years the single guarantor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was celebrated recently by a free concert to music lovers, with Serge Koussevitzky conducting. On the programme were favourite composers of Colonel Higginson, the “Leonore Overture No. 3” of Beethoven, the “Unfinished Symphony” of Schubert and the last movement of the “Symphony in E Minor” of Brahms. Bentley W. Warren, president of the trustees, spoke briefly, mentioning that this orchestra “was the first in the land to be maintained as a continuous organisation, giving symphonic concerts week after week and consisting of musicians hired specially for this purpose and giving the major part of their time to it.”

Responsible journals report that the German Government has fixed the maximum salary to be paid to any artist appearing in the opera houses of the Reich. The most celebrated performers may not receive more than 500 marks. Foreign artists are, of course, not concerned by the new measure of economy. There was a time when Germany welcomed talented musicians, whether they came from Reykjavik or Timbuktu—when her schools taught and the public applauded any music stamped with genius. Those days are past.

The foreign public will watch the outcome of the German experiment with curiosity. The fabulous sums which are said to reward the appearance of a popular singer have always aroused keen public interest, not unmixed with envy—natural enough considering the disproportion between these and the reward paid for the labours of less favoured members of the community. Indeed, in preHollywood days, says one critic, the singing profession attracted thousands, not all of them drawn solely by devotion to artistic ideals. Many failed miserably—perhaps in no other profession have failures been so numerous. Some were brave enough to begin again in other fields, while others turned to teaching or to obscure activities remote alike from fame and riches. The few who succeeded found the world at their feet. Verdi jeered at the

“fifty-pound tenor” who needed hard and long training before mastering a single role, but the very fact that the singer could demand and obtain such a fee served to stimulate public interest. Since Verdi’s days not £SO but £SOO and more has been paid for a single appearance.

A musician, writing in a Home paper of a talk with Kreisler, saysKreisler maintained that no artistic career is useless. He said: “There is a place for people on every rung of the ladder. Why should there be blank spaces between the bottom and the top? The whole thing then would become topheavy. It is an honour for anyone to be in the service of art, whether as a great composer or an insignificant member of an obscure band. Not one s position, but the fact that one is part of the artistic whole is what matters. Why should there be rivalry in art? The success of one person does not detract from another’s. You may think that it is easy for me to say this. But even when I was a young man that was always my attitude. I felt that the more good fiddlers there were in the world the better it would be for me. Every good violinist who attracts an audience increases the musical public, and helps to create a higher standard. Comparisons stimulate interest. In one sense lam a happy man. I can always enjoy listening to violin playing. For me there is hardly such a thing as bad violin playing. Every player possesses something that another does not, and I find that even the street violinist can teach me something. lam always listening for some quality, some turn of phrasing, some shade of tone from which I may learn. One of the faults of our day.” Mr Kreisler went on, “is the tendency to measure everything by formulas. People like to think that they know and can classify everything. It is a mistake. There are things about which we know and can know nothing. With regard to “personality,” Kreisler said: “I think a player must be in a certain state himself to be able to make anyone else feel what he is interpreting. If a player does not himself change his usual state, he will be able to convey nothing to those who are listening. This state is analogous to trance or to one’s condition under the influence of a drug. In this state the nervous system is toned up, the brain becomes clearer, the feelings more sensitive.”