MUNICIPAL BAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 81, 27 June 1927, Page 13

MUNICIPAL BAND

TOWN HALL CONCERT staccato of the trombones in the “Pilgrims’. Chorus”; and Mr. Smith’s tempo might have been a little more elastic in the “Venusberg” section. The want of strings is felt, naturally, when a great orchestral work has been transcribed for a miiltary band. It is better that the music should be played, however, even in this unusual shape, if an orchestral rendering cannot be heard. Another useful performance was that of a seelction from Boito’s “Mefistofele,” an important Italian opera which has not yet been produced in New Zealand. This selection showed chiefly the lighter side of a quite substantial and impressive score—much tougher meat than the early Verdi and Puccini, the Mascagni and* that have been staged 4n our Islands. The band played also a selection from “Lilac Time” (“Schubert-Clut-sam”) and a fantasia on Offenbach’s operas. As for “Lilac Time” ... A few converts may have been led toward Schubert by Clutsam’s patchwork arrangement of the beloved melodies. But it is hard to refrain from some slight ejaculation of woe and amazement when “Ungeduld” is heard as a euphonium solo, or when the first song of the “Winterreise” is done in waltztime. Not the players, of course, but only Clutsam must be blamed for these things. The Offenbach fantasia reminded us that he' could make * most enjoyable light music. These well-shaped and witty tunes, once universally popular, seem to have been not wisely exchanged for the noises called jazz. Concerted numbers were sung with varying success by Miss Alma Me-. Gruer, Mr. A. H. Ripley and Mr. Ernest Thomas. Miss McGruer sang charmingly with Mr. Ripley in the saccharine duet, “O Night of Hymen,” from the same opera; and she did well again in the “Hindu Merchants Song” from “Sadko” (Rimski-Korsakov), but not so well in Liza Lehmann’s “Cuckoo”—a tiresome little ballad, unworthy of Miss McGruer’s pleasant gifts. —R.J.B.