ROYAL AUCKLAND CHOIR

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 127, 19 August 1927, Page 14

ROYAL AUCKLAND CHOIR

SECOND CONCERT OF SEASON unfavourable weather, and th.° f ; Sff generally. Its Intonation was nn?!? i: ‘ : true, but the clean attack and were evidence of careful The quality of the works pS' was again rather disappointing must note, in fairness, that snmf mistakes of last nighr^ "Tr:„ ver; ; l , popular - But popuK?' n °t C' e, J thing. One number atl* 51 was worth performance, the •!?' t'onir. by Julius Harrison It i, ify, r ' r I C ?T; ? nd strongly coloured rJ* i of the highest originality: and it * ' very well sung, showing that thsLv* 5 capable of much more difficulty I than the rest of its programme r^' I ville Bantock s "Hunting wT' | beautiful effects of harmonic i is not, however, a choice examm, ■ this unreliable composer p' - Euck’s "Bugle Song" is compew’ j written, but an inadequate setbn i ! Tennyson's poem "The Splendour fUu On Castle Walls." Paliard's I Slight is quite wonderfully old f- k ioned. Everyone knows 'or know, the lovely Elizabethan gal by Morley. "Now i s the MonthV Maying. Its poem has been set an, by S. E. I.ovatt, but not well enourh ? oust the original from our The choir sang also "Dreaming" bv» R. Shelley, the value of which mar l guessed from these lines, fitted fectly to the music:— **•' I see a farm house, and the "old red mi I hear the song of the weird whin-no.. will; Tho’ long ago, the picture haunts still— Dreaming, just dreaming; a dr-Mr-that’s all. And we had “Nightfall” and and Day.” by a person (or perhaps syndicate) named Dard ... Mrs. Arthur Walton’s performance “Nymphs and Fauns,” by Bemberg.w , slightly lacking in freedom. She sa" very pleasantly a well-written lit-1 song. “When Rooks Fly Homeward by Alec Rowley; and her recall numbers included Massenet’s “Open Thy Blue Eyes.” Mr. H. Schofield’s voice is an attractive and sympathetic baritone, ar: he has a sense of humour; but he sat. “The Floral Dance” and “For the Green.” Mr. Francis Bate soon proved himself a violin-cellist of parts. His tor.* is not large, but it is generally both rich and clear, except on the A strir:. And, what is more important he phrased with excellent taste the A;: and Variations of Haydn. Cesar Cuis “Orientale”’ was rather too quiet and did not rise to its climax; but Popper ? "Arlequin” was adroitly handled. Mr. Bate will be heard again with pleasure if he plays the right music—but as little Popper as possible, and no Squire. The accompaniments were admirably played by Mr. Cyril Towsey.

There remains little doubt that British productions are rapidly takin. their place again with the works ot more experienced countries. This is most evident in the Master picture “Blighty.” It is a story of wartime, with all that vivid realism which is the keynote of British efforts of this

class. Practically every member ot the cast went through the war, the result being that each part is per trayed with a conviction that bespelh actual experience in the trenches.