The World of Music

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20782, 17 July 1937, Page 14 (Supplement)

The World of Music

Notes and Comments of General Interest

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The members of the Budapest String Quartet, which is to be heard in the Drininion later in the year .are Josef F oisman, Alexander and Mischa tichneider and Boris Kroyt, the latter having come in place of Ipolyi, who was member of the quartet during its 1935 tour of the Commonwealth. After having given a series of concerts in Sydney the combination is now playing in Brisbane before opening in Melbourne on June 10.

A famous Irish tenor, Danny Malone, will visit New Zealand towards the end of the year in the course of a world tour. Mr Malone specialises in the well-known ballads of Ireland, England and Scotland as well as in the classics. Possessed of a sweet voice of wide range and fine quality Mr Malone is regarded as the legitimate successor to John McCormack. He was born in Ireland and sings with all the feeling that is characteristic of singers from that country. Many records have been made by Mr Malone who also has broadcast on numerous occasions in Great Britain and the United States. He has just finished a successful American season and is now on a farewell tour of England and Ireland before leaving on his world tour'.

Sir Ernest MacMillan, conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Conservatorium Choir is to visit Australia and New Zealand next year, and It is expected arrangements will be made for this distinguished musician to conduct several concerts in the Dominion. Sir Ernest was knighted in 1935, and is the only musician resident in the British Dominions to have been so honoured. Within two months after his appointment in 1931 as conductor the Toronto Symphony Orchestr. was winning such public acclaim that its membership was increased by

25 per cent., and in Jhe following year the budget was doubled, seat prices raised, and the audience greatly increased. From the time of his first concert Sir Ernest set himself to build an orchestra of front rank, and those best qualified to judge agree that he has brilliantly succeeded.

How true is a statement expressed by W. S. Drew, in the latest number of Musical Times, on the subject of voice-training! Most students of singing, he says, listen a great deal to other singers with a reputation, but too often in a jealous state of mind that leaves a clear memory of some fault that they have been warned against, and very little memory of anything which is of constructive use. Sometimes, on the contrary, the listening is done too much in a hero-worship mood, especially where the singer has a picturesque foreign name; and, as the vices and mannerisms of great singers are easier to copy than their virtues (the ease of successful mimicry depends largely on this), the enthusiastic amateur who learns in this way often achieves no more than a medly of mannerisms which is a very unflattering caricature of his models.

For the fourth year in succession 230 guineas has been set aside as prize money in the now famous grand opera aria contest which was instituted 14 years ago by the Melbourne Sun, the first prize being 120 guineas, the second, 20 guineas, and the third, 10 guineas. An amount of 10 gu'neas is alsc awarded to each of the eight finalists selected from the preliminary stages to be held at Ballarat at the long-established South Street competitions. from September 28 to October 1. The adjudicator on that occasion will be Mr Linley Evans, and the grand final is fixed for Wednesday, October 6, at the Town Hall. Melbourne. All previous Sun aria winners are excluded. The contest is open to every lass of voice, soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone or bass, and competitors in the preliminary test at Ballarat will be required to render in English any aria of their own selection taken from a grand opera. At the final, two arias must be sung, one of which may be that already sung in Ballarat. Entries will close on Friday, August 20, and particulars are now available from Mr L. A. Blackman, central Secretary of South Street competitions, Ballarat.

Madame Winnie Fraser, the wellknown vocalist, arrived in London the second week in June from China and the East, taking in South Africa, where she has been broadcasting. After remaining in England a month, Madame Fraser intends visiting Vienna and Salsburg. The date of her return to the Dominion is uncertain.

The accomplished pianist, Benno Moiseiwitscn, will begin his fifth tour of New Zealand at the end of July, according to an announcement by J. and N. Tait. Although it is not revealed yet at which centre the tour will open it is stated that his itinerary will be extensive. Moiseiwitch is at present completing a very successful tour of Australia.

Platoff’s Cossack singers and dancers will begin a Dominion tour at Wellington on July 31. The company numbers 26 artists, all of whom are exponents of the best in choral and solo work, as well as being noted interpreters of the fascinating dances of their country. Not since the memorable tour of the Don Cossack Choir has such an entertainment been presented in New Zealand.

A young man, whose treble voice as a boy brought pleasure to millions, sang to a handful of people in St. Mary’s Church, Aldermanbury, at lunch-time, says a London paper. But he sang treble no longer. The wonderful voice that made its owner world famous in “Hear My Prayer" is now a pleasing baritone, moderate in range, like, as its owner says, "thousands of other baritones.” The young man was twenty-flve-year-old Ernest Lough, famous as the Temple choirboy whose records ot hymns sold in tens of thousands. He studies hard at his singing Once a week he has a session with a music master. He said to a reporter after the service: “I think my baritone

voice is getting a little belter. People tell me sometimes that they hear echoes of my old voice when I sing. I think they must Imagine it. lam going to sing at the Temple Church on Sunday as a baritone. It will be the first time I have sung there since my days as choirboy.” A remarkable tribute to Madame Kirsten Flagstad, the famous Norwegian operatic and concert soprano who has been engaged by J. C. Williamson, Limited, for a lour of Australia and New Zealand next year, was recently paid by the Musical Courier, of New York. “How can one describe 10,000 people rising in their seats, shouting and cheering?” the journal asked. “Such glorious singing, such royal bearing, such convincingly dramatic portrayal as Madame Kirsten Flagstad offered, beggars description. If only Wagner could have heard this performance!’’