MUNICIPAL ORCHESTRA

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1387, 13 March 1912, Page 6

MUNICIPAL ORCHESTRA

It was rather unfortunate for the attendance at the Municipal Orchestral concert at the Town Hall last ovening that just about the time intending patrons were leaving their homes a regular doivnpour set in, and continued until shortly after tho concert commenced. As it was, the audience was a fairly largo one, and those who braved the elements had the pleasure of listening to a very good concert. The orchestral items included Suppe's overture, "Poet and Peasant," an item of the "popular" class, which made a pleasing and quito appropriate introduction to the programme; a delightful berceuse and prelude from Jarnefeldt's album, so elegantly played by the orchestra that the audience insisted upon its repetition; and an attractive adagio from Quintet Op. 4-1, by Messrs. Maughan Barnett (at the piano), Cohen (oboe), Mackintosh (clarinet), Jenness (horn), and Harland (bassoon). Very enjoyable items also were the Sibelius numbers, "Ballade and AIJa Marcia," from the composer's "Karelia" suite, and the first movement from Schubert's Symphony in B minor. The orchestral part of ,the programme concluded with Rubinstein's fine wedding march, "Forramors." All through, the orchestra's conductor (Mr. Maughan Barnett) had his band well in hand. There was a certain eicinent of risk in attempting chamber music at concerts professedly organised rather for the edification of a variety of tastes, than for the entertainment of the comparative lew who know enough about the art to appreciate such music, but the items of last evening's programme which might be so classified —as, for example, the quintet from Pauer —possessed an intrinsic charm which compelled appreciation, even if, to some, tlioy might have been somewhat unintelligible. The- soloist for the evening iras Mr. Hamilton Hodges, whose programme numbers included Beethoven's tender apos"Lonely Wanders Thy Love" (tho "Adelaide" Cavatina), and two songs from tho "Eliland" Cycle (Von ITielitz)—"Anathema" and "Resignation." In tho latter the singer was at his best, and his interpretation of tho monk's renunciation of worldly love and the abbot's "Anathema" was very fino indeed. Mr. Horace Hmft played the accompaniments.