MUNICIPAL MUSIC

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 229, 22 June 1921, Page 8

MUNICIPAL MUSIC

MR. BERNARD PAGE REPLIES

TO CRITICS

SAYS WELLINGTON ORGAN RECITALS ARE NOT HEAVY

"It ia most unfair that people should make statements for publication that they cannot substantiate," said the city organist (Mr. Bernard Page) to a Dominion reporter yesterday. Ho was referring to recent correspondence in the columns of Thf. Dominion regarding the standard of music presented by him at municipal organ recitals. "I quite realise," continued Mr. Page, "that my choice of programmes has been criticised by many people as being too ‘heavy,’ but I can only say this: that compared with recitals given by city and ether organists in England and in Australia, my recitals can bo said to have been made up, on the whole, 'light' pieces.” Mr. Page gave several explicit examples of misapprehension. "I was spoken to the other day," ho said "and told I never played works by Lemare (city organist of San Francisco, one of the bestknown organ composers). When I count ed up the number of times I had played his compositions during a period of 160 concerts, I found he almost headed the bill!" v u U Reiterating that ho did not submit "heavy programmes”—special recitals of Wagnerian music and of Tschnikovsky's works excepted—Mr. Page produced the following table, made out for a period of 100 concerts, showing that generally the music played was not of too heavy a type. Tho table shows the number of times the composers’ works figured on programmes: — Bach 70; Cesar Franck, 154; MacDowell, 71; Wagner, 114; Wolstenholme, 25; Beethoven, 24; Mendelssohn, ’24; Lemare, 130; Handel, 26. The city organist added that persons had complained that he had not played the Poor Gynt Suite (Grieg). "I played it 19 times over the period referred to, he said. ... "I noticed in the columns of Thb Dominion the other day a complaint that'at a certain recital some specified pieces were played ‘too loudly, the opinion coming from a correspondent, not from tho paper’s musical critic. Tho programme presented was as follows:—Sonata (No. 1), Borowski, consisting of an Allegro non Troppo, au Andante and an Allegro con Fuoco; Pastorale (Op. 19), Cesar Franck; two Debussy preludes, a Coates work, ' Pha.ntasie, Op. 24 (No. 3), Dunhill; Walthers 'Prize Song’ from Act HI of the 'Meistersingers’ (Wagner), and the Karg-Elert variations upon a theme of Handel. Iho complaint was made about items one and five. Now, in that programme, soft pieces "were predominant. With tho exception of a few bars of the ‘Con Fuoco the first piece is a whisper, as far as organ works go. The other work complained of, Dunhill’s ‘Phantasie,’ is at no time loud. . . . And the funny part is that No. 7, which the correspondent said was very good, is one of the noisiest of organ works. I jpibmit that such criticism is hardly fair to me.” Referring to programmes given in Sydney by Ernest Truman, Mr. Page showed the interviewer the following typical programme at a 3.15 p.m. recital i.n Sydney:—Sonata in C Minor (Op. 27), (Rheinberger), (a) Prelude, (b) Andante, (c) Finale and Fug,a; Dubois’s "Cantileno in A. Flat”; Rheinberger’s Fantasia Sonata in A Flat Major (Op. 65), (a) Grave, (b) Adagio Expressive, (c) Finale and' Fuga. "The heaviest of heavy pieces,” said Mr. Page. "Such a programme would never be played hero.” Several equally heavy programmes were selected from London recitals, given within the last few months, and com- I pared with local programmes, the English recitals were decidedly heavier.