MUSICAL JOTTINGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19840, 14 May 1927, Page 17 (Supplement)

MUSICAL JOTTINGS

By “C Sharp.”) Bearing in mind the fact that Friday evening is “late night” in the city, the large audience which assembled in the Collegiate Chapel last Friday week was an indication that there is certainly a ‘‘public” for this form of music in Wanganui. The fact that audiences of similar size greeted Dr Haigh and Air Arthur Towsey when they gave recitals on lesser organs in the city proves that the element of novelty was not as great as that of real musical interest. The recital itself was a demonstration of organ resources never pre- ■ viously heard in Wanganui, the instrument possessing many features probably quite new to some of those present. In the limited time which Mr Taylor has had to make himself acquainted with the instrument no small factor in such a recital—he has secured a grasp of the potentialities of the instrument which was highly satisfying. Air Taylor’s pedalling and fingerwork were fluent and clean, and his registration indicated a cultured sense - of tone-colour. I was pleased to learn from Mr Taylor that we shall probably have a series of these enjoyable recitals and I hope the demand and appreciation will develop until we have j a Town Hall and city organ of our own. The demand for, and appreciation | of organ music seems to be developing l throughout the Dominion, for Dunedin has just been presented with a £17,000 organ for its new Town Hall, and New ‘ Plymouth is having a fine new church organ opened this week. Christchurch used to possess a fine organ, imported for the exhibition of 1906-7. This instrument was by fire some i years later, and apparently its replacement awaits the erection of a Town Hall. * * * * On May 3 The Wanganui Society of Professional Musicians held its annual social at the Luxor Cabaret. Songs were given by Misses Church, Allomes, “nd green wood, a duet by Mrs Spillane and Mr Will Hutchens, a pianoforte <olo by Miss Harden, and a movement rom the Bach concerto for two vio•■ns by Messrs Hutchens and Naumann. Accompaniments were played by Mrs revor Thomas and Miss Church. A • uple of musical competitions were ■nly contested and enjoyed,'. A tasty ''upper brought a most enjoyable func- • n to a close. Forthcoming meetings >t the Society include a “Beethoven” vening, a lecture on “English Songs— Old and New.” by the president, and a musical chat from Mr Percival Taylor, M.A., Mus. Bac. * * * ♦ I understand that Mr 11. Temple White, conductor of the Wellington Royal Choral Society and well known throughout the Dominion as an adjudicator at Competitions, contemplates : paying a visit to the Old, World next i year. * * * * : Mr Ronald Chamberlain, Mus. Bac, I who will be remembered as visiting ; Wanganui last year as examiner to Trinity College, was announced to give ; a pianoforte recital in London, at Acolean Hall, on March 11. • • • «■ : In connection with the exhibition to j be helil in Vienna from May to July, ; 1927, a musical festival is to be given I ; there between June 5 and 19, which. ; through its unique features, is likely to i attract musical enthusiasts from all j over the world. The works of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven. Schubert, and I others will bo performed in the exact | historical setting and at the same. ; places where they were first heard by j the public in the life-times of the com- | posers. ♦ » ♦ » Writing on February 19, the musical editor of the Daily Telegraph (London) says:—Seventy-seven years ago yesterday (Sir) George Henschel first saw the light of day, and fifty years ago to-day he made his first public appearance in the land of his adoption, when, at the old St. James’ Hall, he sang at a Saturday “Pop.” Since 1884 England has been his home, and a mighty deal we owe to this grand old man of music, who, as I said recently, is still teaching with utmost vigour, and busied also with the recording ' machines. For a brief space Henschel gave a series of London Symphony Orchestra concerts—long before the present orchestra which bears the name had come into being. But even before ' that he was the first conductor of the famous Boston Symphony Concerts, ami also, for a time, professor of singi ing at the R.C.M. Henschel, if memory serves, was a pall bearer at Brahms’ i funeral. He was a glorious artist in | his prime, and his great sense of style seems at this moment in a state of

suspended animation among contemporary singers. * * * * Many qualifications are necessary to the ii.val critic—expert, knowledge in at least one field to enable him to applay an expert’s methods to other fields; aptitude for grasping quickly a new problem; the gift for lucid, synthetic exposition or analysis; catholicity of taste without which sooner or later he must deliver himself to his enemies—and no critic was without them—bound hand and foot; above all, that rarest of all virtues, commonsense alone will enable him to steer his ship safely, avoiding the rocks where ultra-moderns on one side and diehards on the other sing—not always harmoniously—to lure him to his ruin. Common sense alone can show us the hope in defeat, the danger in success, and save our judgment from both pessimism and optimism. (F. Bonavia). ♦ * * »

Paderewski’s seven concerts in the Dominion will be made up of two in Wellington, two in Christchurch, two •in Auckluand, and one in Dunedin. The fifth city is, apparently: “out of lit.” Towands the end of the present month Zimbalist appears in Wellington for three concerts and “preferential booking”— at £1 3s per seat (!) is already announced. Despite Wanganui’s contribution of £l2OO to “No, j No, Nanette,” I am afraid that it would :be unwise to expect these artists to come to Wanganui.

I The Christchurch Royal Musical I (Society is to give “Faust” on June 7 I and 8, but, according to a recent letter from the southern city, the cast is not yet complete. • *99 Of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s big international concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, a London critic says:—To double or treble an orchestra seems easy enough; in reality it is a very delicate problem which can only be solved by a just appreciation of the elements which make for balance of sound. You may double the strings without danger because the strings are the weakest branch of the modern ’ orchestra. To double a whole orchestra using six trombones instead of three without first ascertaining the effect of such rule-of-thumb multiplication is like deciding that because our poverty has been turned suddenly by a stroke of fortune into wealth we shall eat two dinners, wear two suits of clothes, and sleep in two beds. However alluring the general prospect the result of such a determination would be deplorable. The general lines giving adequate balance of sound in the orchestra have been set down by Berlioz, who expects that eighty-four string players will balance “single” wood and “single” brass. Against this there is the fact that modern technique have resulted in an increase of tone for the brass and a decrease of tone for the strings. Brass instruments, thanks to Wagner and his successors, have acquired the habit of making their full weight felt, j for the music assigned to them expects lan.? demands it- They cannot when Iplaving Beethoven. Mozart, or Gluck go i back without an effort to the easier ; methods of the older masters. Violin ’ players, on the other hand, have acquired in the last twenty years far greater left-hand agility, but they have lost in sheer “weight” of tone. The phrasing of the modern virtuoso may be liner and subtler; his tone would have peen accounted thin in the days of Wilhelmy, Willy Hess, and Joachim. Hence the need for a reconsideration of the proportions suggested by Berlioz. Besides, orchestras must be studied on the “terrain.” What may be good in the Queen ’s Hall may be bad elsewhere, and there is no questioning the fact that six trombones in the Albert Hall are much more than a match for any number of strings. Oddly enough, while in the theatre the trombones are tucked away under 4age, in the concert-room they ar.- as on a throne on high, v. • ••••«■ can bully everybody else.