MUSIC

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2964, 30 December 1916, Page 12

MUSIC

, (By "Trebie-Clcf.")

SclinsUy-Amadio Concert Company,

The members of the Selinsky-Amadio . Concert Company, who are to open a Wellington season on Monday at the Town. Hall, have mado the most of their few days in Wellington seeing the sights of tho City and-suburbs. M. Selinsky speaks enthusiastically of what ho has seen of tho City and its surroundings. Mr. Amadio, who is a native of Wellington, has noticed many changes since ho last saw the City. tVhilc Melbourne lias been Mr. • Amadio's headquarters, lie has made many tours throughout Australia in company with such celebrities as .Melba.. Calve, Amy. Castles, de Vere Sapio, etc., in addition' to' numerous appear- : ances as concert soloist with the Marshall Hall Symphony Orchestra. "A tempting offer was made to me some time ago by Madame Melba to tour the English provinces in company with herself, Ysayc, tho celebrated Belgian violinist, and Backhaus, the eminent pianist,". said Mr. Amadio, "but owing to a previous contract for an Australian tour I was unable to accept." M. Selinsky comes from North-west Russia, which he left at an early age to continue his musical studies . in Petrograd. From his youth he had a great fondness for music, and at tho age of five his grandfather, who \uis a violinist, made for him a toy violin, with tho aid of a pocket-knife and piece of wood. "When the strings were stretched across the crude bridge," said M. Selinsky, "my joy was unbounded. • I don't know if the quality of tone produced.could be called musical, but the idea of starting to play a violin took hold'of inc. The next year my father, who is an excellent violinist, and a great conductor, took my training in; hand, and L made my first appearance in his orchestra at the ago of eight years. Since then I have studied with Professor Auer, who has also had the training of Mischa, Elman, and Chorniavsky." When did you'leave Russia?—"ln 1906 I left for a tour of Germany. United States, and Canada. Before I left, in 1904, I had the honour of a command from, the Czar to play before him. When in Canada, after the outbreak of war, I gave live vory successful concerts in aid of the Red Cross, of which I felt very proud. Uppermost in my mind, however, was the feeling which dominates us one and all, that feeling to do all in our power, bo it ever so little, to help the Allies in their glorious struggle for freedom and liberty. One of my concerts was given by special request of the Duko and Duchess of Cdnnaught in' Ottawa. Be- • fore leaving for Australia, my last concert was given in Montreal in aid of the 148 th Overseas Battalion, at the conclusion of which the Governor came on to the stage and presented mo with a'handsome-eitraretto ease as a souvenir of tho occasion. On my way out to Australia on the R.M.S. Niagara 1 had the good fortune to meet Madame Melba. and with her pave two more concerts in aid of the Red Cross—one at Suva and the other on the boat. The members of this company joined me in- niakinc a concert on tho way to New Zealand a big success. We were fortunate to have the Hon. C. G. Wade, M.L.A., the ox-Premier of New South Wales, on board, and he consented to take tho chair. Wo auctioned tho programmes, with tho result that.wo raised £53 10s., wjiich wo d&ided to divide equally between the Wellington and Auckland branches of tho Wounded Soldiers' Fund. Miss Jessie Masson, tho pianist of the company, is a Victorian by birth, but spent her early childhood m Now Zealand. Miss Masson, was -duo

for a recital in Berlin in October 191'J, with Erna Laux, the well-known soprano. Slio had left Germany for a few months' holiday in Italy, Switzerland, and France, and was settled in Paris when war was declared. So that ended hor recital in Berlin.

"The war to me," slio said, "was very, very real, being, as I was. among the wounded in France day after day, and watching the chnso v after Taubcs almost every evening I remained in Franco till the end of 1914, when I returned to Australia, via the States and Canada. It is my intention to return to the States when things are more settled, and make San Francisco my headquarters.

Miss Elsy Treweok, the soprano, of the company, is not a stranger to 'Wellington, having appeared in "Faust" in June last,, in conjunction with the Royal Wellington Choral Society, and previously with the same society in "Cnvalleria P.usticana." On account of the war Miss Treweek bad to cancel a trip to Europe. German Music in English Churches. Sir Walter I'arratt, "ifeister of tlio Jung's Musick," declares in the "Weekly Dispatch," that if German music is banished from English theatres and concert halls, it surely must also be excluded from the churches. "If," lie says, "this music is not worthy to enter our house of pleasure, then surely it cannot be lit for our house of devotion." Hu goes on to say:

"I decline to be denied any music on any other but artistic grounds. I cannot allow considerations cither of pojitics, race, or nationality to deprivo me 'of the pleasure and profit 1 get from it. I look .upon. tlio works of great literature and artas the property of the entire human race. Because Prussian militarism has been forced upon ths German peoples and upon the Austrians and has brought them to their present degradation, I see no reason why ivo should not enjoy thovtioblo compositions of tlio old German and Austrian composers whose ideals were not. contaminated.

"Are the people who will not listen to German music aware of the extent to which our hymnody is permeated by it? Do they realise'that'many of tlio most familiar, beautiful, and soulful tunes that are- sung with fervour in our places of worship were composed in Germany by Germans, and are no more English in origin than the 'Elcctra' of Strauss? •' . . "Take perhaps the most familiar instance of all, tho stirring tune of tho hymn: 'Praise the Lord! •yo heavens, adoro Him, ' . . , Praise Him, angels, in th* height. "Thero aro not many hymns sung moro frequently in .England than. this. But the tuno is the tune of ''Deutschland über Alles' ("Germany over all ), the great German national battle- hymn I Thousand's of Germans must have gone to tho slaughter singing this music. In the N descriptions of tho terrible struggle- for Ypres we reatl of mass after mass of Germans advancing to certain death chanting this hymn in tho ears of. the hateful English soldiers to music played bv German bands. Many of our men wcro astonished to hear this tune they had' sung so often at Sunday" l school."