BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 23, 27 July 1945, Page 9

BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY

A programme of quality and varietywas submitted by the British Music Society in the Concert Chamber last evening. This was the final concert of the 1944-45 season, and it consisted of an instrumental trio, pianoforte numbers, and songs, including works by Mozart, Schubert, and Schumann, and composers of a later period. Miss Bessie Pollard, who but recently and in Wellington made a most favourable impression as pianiste, opened her concert with two works of Mozart, Fantasia and Sonata in C Minor (K475 and K457), and she closed it with the Etudes Symphoniques (Op. 10) of Schumann. Miss Pollard played with confidence and insight, and, markedly in the etudes, with flashes of brilliancy. She was warmly and deservedly applauded at the close of both her numbers. Mr. Ken Macaulay, baritone, selected a group of four songs from Schubert, "Stormy Morning." "I he Sign Post," "Courage," and "The Hurdy-Gurdy Man," all in English, and by way of variety he later gave songs by Hoist, Warlock, and Buononcini. His Schubert group was remarkable for the feeling infused into each song, as was the dramatic force which he put into the well-known song "When the King Went Forth to War" iKoeneman), and for the descriptive manner in which he sang another well-known song, "Sea Fever," the words of which are by John Masefield.

Unfamiliar as it may have been to many of the large audience, the trio in B flat of Alfred Wall proved a highly acceptable feature in the programme. , The performers were Rees McConachy (violin), Frieda Meir (viola), and Ormi Reid (pianoforte). The players gave an admirable exhibition of team work, being animated by the one desire to give of their best in the presentation of the work as a whole. They were most successful in their exquisite playing of the lovely second or middle movement of the trio.

Mr. Clement Howe's accompaniments to Mr. Macaulay's songs, especially those from Schubert, were remarkable for their perception and understanding, and in themselves were a joy to hear.

Miss Valeric Corliss, hon. organiser of the British Music Society, gave details of its active work over the past year, not only in Wellington but in other North Island centres, and she instanced progress made in Wanganui (with 170 members and three groups) and the steps being taken in Gisborne. There ; were piano, song, and gramophone groups flourishing in Wellington, and a large membership. From other remarks on the society's activities made by Miss Corliss it was to be gathered that it endeavours to display music as a creative art and a vivifying force in New Zealand, and that with success as the membership rolls will show.

Commenting on the way the wet weather of May and June had prevented wheat sowings, a Waikari farmer said that never in the history of the distinct could a worse season be recalled, reports a Taranp.ki correspondent. "We have had bad autumns before, but old settlers cannot remember a year" when the, crop was not in before the end of June,'1 he said. "This year little or no wheat was sown,"