MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2741, 8 April 1916, Page 9

MUSIC.

ru* TEEBLB Clst.l .Peter Dawson on New Zealand. Mr. Peter Dawson, the. celebrated baritone, who is still starring with,signal success in the Hugh D. M'lntosb theatre in Sydney, recently talked to ail interviewer about New Zealand. Ho said: "Despite all we-hear about the J Dominion's advanced legislation, the . country is essentially conservative, and' 1 regards every new thing lyith a good deal of suspicion. Very loyal to the old loves is Ne iv Zealand. Sing any 6ong andeared by memories, and you're right.' Appeak to any good old-fashioned Hritish sentiment, and the people are with you ' cordi.illy. It's a cheerful country, even when it is in appearance a trifle dour on top. . Everywhere I went I received such hospitality, such kindness, a3 it warms my heart to refnember. They'll »tand anything from the stranger who seems inolinod to play the game; the? even stood my golf. Prohibition ? Well, my experience is that New Zealand in the matter 'of liquor in daily use. is pretty much on a level with other decent countries. Drunkenness is becoming unpopular, bevanss tho feeling of all good citizens is Against it. Some queer things happen. The one place in the Dominion in wliich I had to devise subtle schemes to dotlce the too lavish and indiscriminate hospitality of the good men with a bottle of that Scotch stuff was Te lvuiti, which is what you call 'absolute prohibition.' One journalist friend said to me, 'Don't go there, 'Peter; you're too young to risk it.' He knew something, thai fellow. If you refuse to drink whisky in To Kuiti they'll rim it in on you as. a hair-iyash. The more you get the more they think you want; it's almost unwanny. But tho New . Zealanders are great chaps. Their kindness is moro than skin deep. They really liko to make people happy. As a-general'rule, the brighter and gayer a show is the better New Zealand \yiH'.like it. 'Right through a good part of my own tour I suifered from tho competition ot a party of Wellington, amateurs who were out. with 'The Private Secretary,' or - ono' of those old farce-comedies.' In Rotorua a fellow showed' me*.thirty poems he had written to a girl in tho Tivoli Follies—not bad stuff, either. I advised him to try the poems on one of the family weeklies, and ho said be'<l tL-ink hard abou.t it. I hope he did, because I love to liven up the family Press. Give my love to New Zealand, anyway. 1 mean it." A Young Genius. For several seasons the Berlin critics and public have watchdd ft'ith unusual interest the development of Jasclia Spiwakowski, a youthful Russian . pianist, who astonished the musical world as a prodigy. He has now outgrown the prodigy period ::nd appears as a wellfledged artist. It is doubtful if his teacher, Moritz Meyer-j\lahr, has ever had another such talent in bis twentyfive years' experience as. a pedagogue. It makes no difference wehther he plays Brahms, Chopin, or Liszt, he always surprises with tbe maturity and depth of his conception and the finish and brilliancy of his execution. His success was enormous. The Creative Faculty. The vigorous creative, activity the great French composer, M. Camille Saint Saens, despite his 81 _ yeaTs, is showing at the present _tirae is but another proof that youth is not invariably necessary for musical 'composition. Youth was certainly not necessary to Handel, who did his finest works only when he had passed his 55th year. Nor was it required in the case of Verdi. It was not till Verdi was just on 60 years of age that he wrote his first truly significant opera, "Aida." His great Requiem was written still later; his setting of "Othello" came into being when he was past 70; and then, at 80, the Italian master .performed tho miracle of giving forth 'his superb achievement, tho opera "Falstaff." No other musician of any time can claim such an astounding record. But Liszt wrote some very important works when past his 70th year; Wagner completed his "Parsifal" when near 70; Brahms composed some of. his finest music when in the vicinity of the 60's;_and several others, including Cherubini and Bach, showed their powers to advantage in fairly advanced age. On tho other band, we find Mozart turning out masterpieces in his 20's; Schubert doing the like even earlier, and Schumann, if not so precocious, revealing his gifts to remarkable effect, in his early 30's. Rossini's works' also were all written comparatively early. Although he reached old age (he diod at 76), he practically stopped composing in his 37th year. - Notes. Madame Melba, who returned to Australia from America during the week, lias engaged herself to return to America for the '1916-17 season. Her manager will bo Mr. Charles Dillingham. Alfred Kaufmann, the baritone, who v isited Wellington with John M'Cormack's Concert Company, was Recently engaged to sing in grand opera in Central America. , ' Lieut. Edmund Burke, tho grand opera baritone, who enlisted in the' Canadian forces, has been promoted to l>e a captain. Max Brucli celebrated his. seventyeighth birthday on January 6; coniisry to his usual custom he did not have a social gathering of his most intiivato friends at his home *in Friedenau. near I'erliu, because ho was 60,.- distressed over tho departure of his sons to the front. Extraordinary why Mr. Alfred Hill's patriotic sang "When tho Empire Calls," has not been revived during the present war. • Both in words and music it is one of tho finest patriotic songs ever written, and had a great vogue at the timo of tho South African camJjW®.