APOLLO SINGERS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 72, 22 September 1930, Page 4

APOLLO SINGERS

THEIR FIRST CONCERT

A new .star in Wellington's ..musical firmament ai'oso above the horizon on Saturday evening, when, in the Town Hall Concert Chamber, the Wellington -Apollo Singers, a new choral organisation for male voices, made its initial bow to quite a good audience. These dispensers oE harmony number at present twenty active or vocal members, and they sing under the baton of Mr. H. Temple White. The type of programme Which they presented is one which is a popular form ot! musical entertainment. That the Apollo Singers are in a sense rivals to similar organisations matters not: a little healthy competition in the sphere of music can do no harm, and may do much good. What the future history of the Apollo Singers is to be, whether they blaze up as new stars sometimes do, and then fade away into oblivion, or whether they will occupy a permanent place in our muical galaxy, depends upon two things—upon their own efforts and upon the auppoi-t accorded by. the public. The former at present certainly merits the latter, and it got it on Saturday evening to a marked degree. It would be idle to pretend that at present the Apollo Singers are a perfect choral organisation. There is a weakness, as is usual iii such organisations, amongst the tenors, and perfect balance has not aa yet been reached. But there was every indication on Saturday evening that much eat'efttl rehearsing had been -indulged'in: With more and with a strengthening of the choir, something very good may be looked forward to at the second concert in December next.

Saturday evening's programme was certainly highly enjoyable. The initial singing of the first two verses of the National Anthem gave* a false impression of the choir's ability, but thereafter they were very much at home grouped round the grand piano in the centre of the stage, and gave no fewer than twelve first-class items, grave and humorous, with the former preponderating. As encores to several numbers were given) their evening's work was arduous. In- the humorous items a little more abandon would not come amiss. The volume and tone produced by the twenty .voices, ten tenoi's and ten basses, was on the whole adequate, if not always balanced; and piano and pianissimo passages were good. The programme opened with Gounod's "Hymn to Apollo" most appropriately, and this was followed by "Sylvia" (Oley Speaks) and "To Thee, Great Lord," from Rossini's "Moses in Egypt." The next group of numbers included the old English madrigal "Now is the Month of Maying," "Queen of the Silent Night" (Cobb), and Robinson's humorous "Much Ado About Nothing." "Drake's Drvim," "In a Gondolu," "The Wood' Chuck," "Music When Soft Voices Die," "The' Soldier's Farewell," and "Concert Waltz" were the other numbers. "Sylvia," "In a Gondola," "The Soldier's Farewell," and the "Concert Waltz" were all repeated. At the piano was Mr. W< Billington, who proved

himself a sympathetic and efficient accompanist. In order to afford the singers necessary intervals of rest, and to add variety to the programme, Mies Myra Sawyer and Mr. Ernest Jonner wero called upon to flssi's't. The former's clear soprano was heard to advantage in the "Shadow Song" from Meyerbeer's "Dinorah" and "Adrift" from the Granville-Bantock "Songs of tbe Chinese." Encores were demanded and freely given. Mr. Jenner provided What was to many the greatest musical treat of the evening. His piano solos 5 included Hummers piano transcription of Bach'a church cantata, "My Believing Heart, Rejoice, Sing, arid Make Merry," which was most joyously played; Ravel's fascinating "Jeux D'eau," and quite a number of enenre pieces. There was no doubt about the appreciation of. the audience of his masterful playing.