MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 204, 17 November 1927, Page 16

MUSIC

(By

F.I.R.

In connection with the two performances given by Chaliapin at the Albert insurance was taken out by Mr. C. B. Cochran, the London theatrical “manager, for about £6,000 against the non-appearance.

Ignace Paderewski, famous pianist, Swill probably give a recital in San -Francisco in April of next year, according to Selby C. Oppenheimer, who "is carrying on negotiations for the Arrangement of this event.

That music was as valuable an adjunct as medicine in promoting the Convalescencejof patients was the opinion recently expressed by Dr. R. C. H. 'TEnsor, of Guys Hospital, London, in -Appealing for funds for the restoration x>f the hospital organ.

r. >i r . Adrian Holland, of Prahran, Victoria, a well-known Australian pianist, ;has secured engagement as accompanist to Dame Clara Butt on her provincial tour through England, Scotland >ind Ireland from September 21 to November 26. He will probably go to Canada, New Zealand and Australia Vith Dame Clara Butt and Mr. Ken'lierly Rumford on conclusion of the -English tour. * * * Z There is some really beautiful music •in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera '“Ruddigore,” coming to Auckland on November 29. The concerted work is particularly impressive, and it is said Xhat Sullivan looked upon his efforts in this opera as equal, if not superior, to anything he had previously done. Aucklanders, who have a “pretty ear” for G. and S. works, will soon be urbiters on this point. m * * ' Buddy Doyle, tenor, and A 1 Seigel, /it the piano, in “How Could Red Riding Hood?” and “Could I—l Certainly Could.” provide a lively tfacket. '(.Zonophone 2850.) This is a very specially delightful record of the intimate type, and extremely humorous, sung in -the unique style of this exclusive comedian. On no account should this record be missed, as it is a certain entertainer. A special point of recomnxenjdation is that the famous A 1 Seigel accompanies the singer with brilliant piano work. • • * Toward dusk, one summer’s evening, last year (says a gramophone enthusiast), I gave a “Military Tattoo” recital in a garden, using Aldershot, Wembley iind sundry records by the Guards’ bands. I have reason to believe it was appreciated, although a rising wind compelled an adjournment indoors, where the recital was concluded in the gloaming with the aid of an electric torch. Sometimes fairy lamps may be used for Venetian music, or, say, “Melodies from Paris.” Fibre needles, of course, are generally ineffective in the open air; loud steel ones with the latest electric recordings sound uncommonly well under the trees. • * * A bright galaxy of artists will appear with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra this season. Among those appearing with this famous combination during the next few months will be Ignaz Friedman, Benno Moiseiwitch and Leone Nesbit, pianists; Albert Spalding, Mishel Piastro and Frances Berkova, violinists; Horace Britt and Michel Penha, cellists; Edward Johnson, tenor, and Maurice Ravel, the renowned French composer and conductor. • * * The success of the first Beecham concert of the season given last month augurs well for his forthcoming operatic venture, state English papers. It ia stated that . the brilliant conductor has never been more popular and his concert attracted an immense audience. The two principal soloists at the concert were both Australians. Miss Florence Austral was stated to be in her finest, form and Mr. Tom Burke, husband of Miss Marie Burke, was described as a “first-rate Puccini tenor, resonant and passionate.” • * * A very successful performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera, “H.M.S. Pinafore” was given by the Te Kuiti Operatic Society recently. The cast was as follows: —Josephine, Mrs. A. G. Lavington; Buttercup. Miss C. Sparks; Sir Joseph Porter, Mr. A. Blackman; Dick Deadeye, Mr. W. S. Cato; Ralph Rackstraw, Mr. A. G. Hynes; Captain Corcoran, Mr. A. F. Howarth; boatswain, Mr. L. W. B Franks; Hebe, Mrs. Stansfield. Mr. J. Sparks produced the opera, and Miss R. Hogan was the solo dancer. PLAYINGJU LIVE PACKMANN’S RETURN RETIREMENT MEANS DEATH Vladimir de Pachmann, the pianist, who is 79, retired two years ago to his villa on the sunny slopes of the Roman hills, but he is back in London. to play again to English audiences.

He has returned to the concert platform because he was pining away

through inactivity. Gone were the faces of his admirers; gone were the echoes of applause from great audiences; gone was the necessity to practise hour after hour at his beloved piano. He became ill. A strange lassitude overcame him. Doctors could find nothing organically wrong with him. Then one day a young Italian physician said to Pachmann’s manager: “He misses the faces, the applause, the music that enchanted his ad-

mirers. He must play again.” A woman friend asked him one day if he would not emerge from his retirement to play at her house in commemoration of Chopin. He played, and his strange sickness was banished. Now he is to play in public in England, and he hopes to play until he dies. Pachmann rises every morning about eifchf o’clock, has a hearty breakfast, iind then he has a cigar, and plays till luncheon time.

He newer takes any exercise—except at the piano.

ROYAL MALE CHOIR TO-NIGHT’S CONCERT To-night the Royal Male Choir will have given its 164th concert. The season is the thirty-sixth. The programme for this evening should provide an interesting entertainment. Choir items have been selected with an evident desire to please more than one section of the audience, additional variety being also obtained through the medium of two soloists, mezzo-soprano, and baritone, and an instrumental trio. The choir numbers include an appropriate opening item, “lle That

Hath a Pleasant Pace.” Schubert’s “Serenade.” “Bedouin Song” (Foote), "Still in My Dreams’ (Hall), “King of Worlds” (Jardin), “To the Stars” (Kucken), and “Estudiantina” (Lacome). A vocal combat, in which tenors and basses enter into friendly competition, should also prove of interest. The numbers selected for the purpose, two characteristic tenor and bass songs, are “Then You’ll Remember Me” (Balfe), and “Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep” (Knight). Mrs. Cyril Towsey (mezzo-soprano) will be heard in “Plow, Waters, Flow” Walters), “A Birthday Song” (Cowan), and “A Memory” (Goring Thomas), and Mr. W. Gemmell (baritone) in two selected numbers. The instrumental trio, consisting of Miss Ruby Brame (flute). Miss Marion McMurtrie (violin), and Mr. Peter Black (piano), will play “Serenade” (Titt), “Spring’s Awakening” (Bach), and "Sing, Sweet Bird” (Ganz). The choir will be under the direction of Professor W. E. Thomas, Mus. Doc., and the accompanist will be Mr. Cyril Towsey. “TAWDRY HYMNS” DR. MOODY’S PROTEST INVERTEBRATE MUSIC Criticisms of the “vulgar” and “mawkish” character of much church music have been made by Dr. C. H. Moody, organist of Ripon Cathedral. He said that the great spiritual awakening brought about by the Oxford Movement was followed by the introduction of much decadent church music. He continued:

Old ideals were tarnished by the wholesale introduction of tawdry hymns and anthems. Composers busied themselves with more or less feeble imitations of Mendelssohn. Strength was put aside for sentimentality. Church music was drifting with a mawkish tide, and old-time vigour was superseded by vulgaxdty. The sentimental tide is said to be at the ebb, but it requires very careful watching. INVERTEBRATE TUNES

“A good many popular hymn tunes,” he added, “are invertebrate, weak in melody, and bolstered by flimsy harmonies.”

Dr. Moody said that occasionally the organist's life is brightened by an enlivening juxtaposition and sometimes he has been compensated for having to play humiliating tunes by hearing “Christian, Seek Not Yet Repose,” as a prelude to the sermon, and “Art Thou Weary” at the end of it. He advocated the holding of congregational rehearsals as a means of introducing unfamiliar tunes.

Mr. Horace Stevens, the Australian bass-baritone, who is the British National Opera Company’s new Wotan, is stated by English critics to be a distinguished and telling singer.

That music in England cannot be altogether decadent as suggested by many of that country’s leading musicians is apparent from the fact that Mr. Jack Gordon, who for some time was intimately associate! with the Royal College of Music, has been appointed assistant-producer to the Opera House in Cologne. Mr. Gordon was prominent in musical circles in Oxford some years ago, and is a protege of Mr. Edward Dent, who has done so much for English music abroad. * * *

A good ’cello bracket is provided by Alfred Wallenstein, in “Simple Aveu” (Thome), and “Serenade” (Piern), Zonophone 2847. Two universally popular titles played in exceptionally sympathetic style by Alfred Wallenstein, one of the most popular ’cello soloists in America. To lovers of the ’cello these records can be highly commended. He is first ’cellist under Frederick Stock, with the Chicago Orchestra, and has been soloist before concert audiences in Europe and the two Americas. His records exhibit a phenomenon not heard plainly with the old recording—the “bady-resonance” of the old violoncello, as distinguished from its simple string-quality of tone.

Among the dance hits in the H.M.V. list Nat Shilket’s Victor Orchestra has a good double inr“Look Up and Smile” (fox-trot) and “School-day Sweethearts” (E.A. 176). This orchestra is also bracketed on E.A. 167 with Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra, in fox-trots entitled respectively, “Ain’t She Sweet,” and “Muddy Water”—a good disc. This idea of bracketing different bands on the same disc is a new one, and makes for variety. Pollack’s Californians, for example, are recorded on the same disc with George Olsen’s Orchestra, respectively, in “When I First Met Mary” and “Thinking of You” (fox-trots); Kahn’s and Goldnette’s Orchestras, respectively, in “Tenderly Think of Me” and “Sunny Disposish” (from “Americana”), fox-trots; Whiteman’s and Goldnette’s Orchestras in “It All Depends On You” and “Sunday,” respectively (fox-trots). Waring’s Pennsylvanians have a whole disc to themselves in “I’ve Never Seen a Straight Banana’” and “I Wonder How I Look Whfin I’m Asleep.”