MUSICAL JOTTINGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19846, 21 May 1927, Page 17 (Supplement)

MUSICAL JOTTINGS

(By “C Sharp.’’) General comment upon the Orchestral Society’s first concert of the season appears to be highly favourable and the orchestra should be gratified at meeting its largest audience so far, and at the measure of appreciation expressed. A little more weight is needed in the second violins to balance the increased strength and efficiency of the 11 firsts, ” but the general string work was good. There must be very few oboists, who after two months’ acquaintance with their instrument, would be able to give a creditable rendering of the first oboe part of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, but this was achieved by Mr Greaves on Thursday evening. The septet was a class of composition rarely heard in this country, but the clean execution and musical insight revealed in its performance brought forth many expressions of hope for a further hearing. It is probably not generally known that one of the horn passages in the septet is quoted in a book of “the most difficult passages’’ written for this instrument. Every player in the combination did splendid work. The Society has been less than three months in preparing for its first concert and it is a pity that three concerts per year cannot be given. Another hundred subscribers would enable the orchestra to give three concerts for the subscription at present payable for two. Only one in a hundred of the population of the city subscribes to the Orchestral Society—not a very high percentage for a city which has the notion that it is musical. * * * * Mr Gordon Mcßeth, writing from Vienna, states that lie was in the Austrian capital for the Beethoven Centenary Commemoration Festival. Amongst the wonderful performances in the city in which the great composer died, Mr Mcßeth heard the great Ninth (choral) Symphony, and the “Missa Solennis, ” on the day and at the hour corresponding with those of Beethoven’s death one hundred years ago. Another notable musical performance attended by Mr Mcßeth was that of the opera 1 ‘ Lucia di Lammermoor ’ ’ at the Scala in Milan. Toti Dal Monte’s performance was magnificent, arousing the greatest enthusiasm. Apparently Mr Mcßeth is enjoying himself too much to state when he may be expected back in Wanganui. Mr Mcßeth also forwards the following clipping from a London paper:— The concert notice does not, as a rule, offer much scope for innovations; and it is with a pleasant shock of surprise that one reads in the Manchester Guardian: —

On Saturday evening in the Free Trade Hall a conference was held of the Ancient Order of Popular Tunes and Compositions. Sir Henry Wood was in the chair. The proceedings opened with a vote of sympathy and condolence to Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C sharp minor, unable to be present owing to a slight attack of chromatics. The gathering, however, was representative, and included Handel’s Largo, Shephard’s Hey, the “Peer Gynt” suite No. 1, Boccherini’s Minuet, the “Hoffman” barcarolle, the “William Tell” overture, the intermezzo from “Cavalleria, ” and Walford-Davies’ “Solemn Melody.” It is really a notice of the Brand Lane Concert (which is mentioned in a headline), but one is really more interested in the fact that Handel’s Largo boasted that he “had never felt better and was able to walk several bars dailv.” ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Writing from Tasmania, whither ho went with Prof. Arindel Orchard and Prof. Walenn on a propaganda tour for the Australian Musical Examinations Board, Mr Frank Hutchens mentions that in Melbourne he had boon the guest of Dame Melba at Coombe Cottage. Amongst notable letters received by the diva, which Mr Hutchens saw, were those from King Edward, Gounod, Massenet, and—Charlie Chaplin! A big Anzac Day procession preventing return to the hotel for his luggage, Mr Hutchens had to embark for Tasmania without any—Mr Walenn having the same experience. At Hobart the visitors found a dinner arranged in their honour, and everyone except the “guests” turned up in evening dress. The situation created great amusement. The party afterwards visited Launceston, Burnie and Devonport. Mr Hutchens was impressed witn the quiet refinement of the Tasmanian people. ♦ * * * Musical Opinion says: — At the fifteenth annual meeting of the Society of Women Musicians, it was

announced that Miss Evangeline Florence had accepted the presidency of the society. On the same afternoon, Signorina Rachcle Maragliano Mori sang an interesting selection of ancient and modern Italian songs, and the Kendall String Quartet played Mozart’s Quartet in B flat. Miss Katherine Kendall gave a brief account of the wonderfully successful world tour from which she and her string quartet have just returned, after giving a hundred and ten concerts in six countries. It is specially worthy of note that several of these countries had never before been visited by a string quartet. (Wanganui wold certainly welcome another visit from this delightful combination, or any other of the same type and quality.) —(“C Sharp.”) * ’ * * ♦ The feelings of the audience at Bnrton-on-Trent Town Hal] when they were informed by Mr Leff Pouishnoff that his piano had been lost in the fog and that he was bound under contract not to play on a piano of any other make another of that make not being obtainable —may be better imagined than described. There was apparently no other course open than to ask the audience to disperse, which they are said to have done in a state of bewilderment. Presumably . the money paid for admission was refunded; but was Mr Pouishnoff under no contract to play, and why was that with the pianoforte maker held to concel the other? One wonders what would happen if the concert-giver chose to contest the point. The strange case of M. Pouishnoff and his piano lost jn the‘fog gave an opportunity to The Times to indulge in half-a-column of lumbering banter. This we need not follow, except to mention one phrase: “Violinists do not need to have Amati, Stradivarius or Hill painted on the belly of their fiddles.” No, but fiddlers and their press agents make no little fuss about

the age and worth of the violins played • at concerts; and the press itself will accept any statement as to the money paid for the favourite instrument, its insurance, bankers’ vaults, etc. That the public believe any such statements may bo doubted; certainly all in the . audience do not believe the press agent. . To induce such belief, it would be necessary to hang around the neck of the artist an enlarged copy of a Hill guarantee that the instrument was genuine as described and that its monetary worth was so-and-so, which latter would be found to be about one-tenth the sum mentioned by the artist’s press agent and printed in the newspapers. So there is not much to the advantage of the violinist when he is put in the scale and weighed against the pianist. This custom of the violinist . to magnify the value of his instrument is not a thing of yesterday. One is reminded of the old yarn about J. L. Hatton and the fiddler. They were to appear together at a provincial concert, and the latter announced that he was to play on his “thousand-guinea Strad.” Hatton—or at least so the story runs—made it all ludicrous by announcing that he would sing in a pair of Moses’ “half-guinea trousers.”