ORGAN RECITAL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2170, 8 June 1914, Page 6

ORGAN RECITAL.

There were about 400 pcoplo present at the Town Hall on Saturday night to listen to . one of rthe finest recitals ever given on Wellington's City organ. Tho audience could hardly bo called commensurate to the worth of the programme or with its rendition by Mr. Bernard F. Page, City Organist. Howover, those who wero present wero keenly appreciative, tho numbers being listened to with rapt interest, and awarded generous applause. Tho programme was well .diversified, .being calculated to call forth the best efforts of the organist and tho full capabilities of (ho organ. In this latter respect, it should be mentioned that, thanks to the fine orchestral part of tho organ, Mr. Pago is able to give real orchestral effects. Ono heard tho different sets of instruments as they camo in, and they blended in one complete harmony, giving tho feeling that tho listener was actually hearing a full orchestra of strings and roods. IE these organ, recitals were only appreciated at their worth, or something approaching it, they could not fail to have an immonso educative value. Saturday's programme opened with tho overture to Mendelssohn's'"A Midsummer Night's Dream," which Mr. Page has only played once before here. It is a charmingly poetic compositions, full of rhythm and grace, with here and there beautiful orchestra effects. This was followed by "Tho Curfew," a delightful composition by Horsman. Tho motto for tho number on the programme was the opening four lines of Gray's "Elegy," and nothing could more aptly describe ' the nature of the music. Wagner was represented on the programme by tho Prelude (Act I) to "Parsifal." The copyright of this opera has just run out, and it is now being performed in Europe .and America, and it is to this extinction of tho copyright that we are indebted for such a fine Wagnerian composition as that just mentioned. Tho keynote of tho

piece is compassion, and throughout it is full of tender emotion, which every now and then breaks forth into noblo passion, making demand on the fullest executive powers of organist and organ. A beautifully tuneful melody, "Revo d'Amour," by Felix Corbettj. followed, and was repeated in. response to an encore. This led tho way to what, in the opinion of many, was the gem of tho evening, Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in C Major." This is tho first tinio that

Mr. Page has publicly played this work on tho Wellington organ. Mr. Pago has already made Wellington pcoplo familiar with other of Bach's great compositions, particularly the G Minor, and the two D Minors (The Dorian), and Saturday night's work completes a. very fine Baelfseries. Guilmant's "March Funebre et Chant Seraphique," which was played immediately after the interval, proved another "very enjoyable item, being ono of Mr. Page's new selections for a Wellington audience._ The march was written for the opening of the grand organ in Notre Dame, Paris. Greig's everpopular and exacting "Peer Gylit" Suite, Op. 46, was the concluding number, and was a fitting finale to a uniformly brilliant recital. Mr. Tnge simply revelled in the strange haunting melodies of the different movements", producing effects that, to the uninitiated, would appear incapable of production from an organ. Loud and hearty applause greeted Mr. Page as he rose from the instrument.