ORGAN RECITAL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2619, 15 November 1915, Page 3

ORGAN RECITAL

Rather- a larger attendance 'than usual was recorded at the organ recital given in the Town Hall by Mr. Bernard Pago on Saturday evening. Thanks to Mr. Page's policy in forcing acquaintanceship with new additions to his extensive repertoire by repeating them over and over again, his audiences come to realise at least a measure of their intrinsic beauty. This has notably been the paso with the Debussy bracket, which includes the charming overture to "L'Etifant Prodigue," the Parisian composer's most successful work for the stage. Still, Debussy's odd colouring and his defiance of all accepted rules in composition are more olearly conveyed on ■ the pianoforte. The exception, of course, in the bracket under notice is the overture, which is given a delicate orchestral dressing by tho organist. Debussy's music is not perhaps of that fibre that will live through the ages. ' His melodies are too fragmentary, his effects- too evanescent, but it is good to keop in touch with the young idea that kicks aside the traditional, if it be only to realise the verity that in tho making of music there is no end. Debussy's music strikes one as the music of a clever dillotante, not that of a master. Still, who can tell? Compared with Schonberg's music—which we do not know, and which is ridiculed as hilariously as it_ is doted on in opposing schools of criticism—Debussy's music is regarded as almost pedantic. Mr. Page also played the melodious overture to Beethoven's "Coriolan," Rachmaninoff's "Melodie," a. charming pianoforte piece which has been gracefully adapted to tho organ; the Prelude, Fugue, Mid Variation (Opus 18) of the mighty Cesar Franck: that eloquent and exalted excerpt from "Das Rhincgold" (Wagner), that pictures the entry of the gods into Walhalla, and the more beautiful third movement of Tschaikowsky's "Pathetic Symphony." There will be another recital on Saturday evening next.