MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 96, 14 July 1927, Page 16

MUSIC

By

Madame Frances Alda, who is to tour Australia and New Zealand, will open her tour in Sydney on August 6. Joseph Hislop, the Scottish tenor, will arrive in Australia in September and will visit the Dominion at the conclusion of his Australian tour. * * * In a recent interview in New York Alfred Hertz was quoted as saying that a tour of Australia by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, of which he is conductor, is a probability for the spring of 1928. “Australia has been without a symphony for some time, and is starved for symphony music,” Hertz said. “Plans for the tour of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra have not yet been completed, but we expect to conclude them shortly. We probably will give several concerts in Honolulu on the way to Australia.” Voting for the favourite Gilbert and Sullivan operas in Australia resulted: “The Gondoliers,” 4,708; “The Mikado,” 3.814; “Pirates of Penzance,” 3,762; and “The Yeomen of the Guard,” 2,679. All the Gilbert and Sullivan operas have subsidiary titles, but they are not always programmed. Here are some of them. “The Mikado,” or “The Town of Titipu”; “H.M.S. Pinafore.” or “The Lass That Loved a Sailor”; “Patience,” or “Bunthorne’s Bride”; “The Pirates of Penzance,” or “The Slave of Duty”; “Ruddigore,” or “The Witch’s Curse.” On August 16 Mr. H. M. Lund, of Christchurch, widely known as a teacher of music and a critic of musical performances, will celebrate his 80th birthday, when he will have completed 66 years as a music teacher, 00 years of which have been spent in Christchurch. At a recent meeting at which every musical organisation in Christchurch was represented, it was decided that the event should be fittingly celebrated, not only as a mark of the esteem in which he is personally regarded, but also that the splendid service he has rendered to music in the Dominion should be adequateliy recognised. It has been arranged that the presenation shall take the form of a purse of sovereigns, which shall be presented to him on his birthday, and a subscription list, which is in the hands of Mr. Sydney Williamson, hon. secretary, and Mr. H. S. Hobbs, care of the Bristol Piano Co., Ltd., has now been opened. The high repute of Mr. Lund is shown in a statement published in the “Musical Courier,” a New York publication, this year:—“The meeting with the eminent critic of the Christchurch “Press,” Mr. Lund, Backhaus cherishes among his most precious memories. Mr. Lund, now 80 years of age, is revered throughout Australasia, and Backhaus describes the entry of this quaint old gentleman into his green-room as one of the proudest and most touching moments of his life.”

F.1.R.)