A HANDEL EVENING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 210, 24 November 1927, Page 18

A HANDEL EVENING

GRAMOPHONE SOCIETY CONCERT

In view of the forthcoming presentation of Handel's “Messiah,” by the Auckland Choral Society next month, a lecturette by Mr. A. Fairburn, honorary publicity officer, of the society, given at the Auckland Gramophone Society’s fourth gramophone evening held on Monday last, proved very appropriate. In an interesting address, Mr. Fairburn dealt with incidents in the life and work of the master, illustrating his lecturette with the following programme of Plandel records by cele-

brity artists: —Chorus, “And the Glory” (Messiah), Handel Festival Chorus (Columbia); Soprano solo, “O Sleep Why Dost Thou Leave Me” (Semele). Alma Gluck (H.M.V.); harpsichord solo, “Passacaglia,” Anna Linde (Parlophone); tenor solo, “Love Sounds the Alarm (Acis and Galatea), Tudor Davies (H.M.V.); piano solo, “Harmonious Blacksmith,” Mark Hambourg (H.M.V.); contralto solo. “Ombra mai fu ” Dame Clara Butt (Columbia); tenor solo, "Where’er You Walk” (Semile), Alfred O’Shea (Columbia) ; chorus, “Hallelujah Chorus” (Messiah), Royal Choral Society (H.M.V.). The second half of the programme was devoted to the demonstration of a number of the latest records by Mr. C. B. Plummer.

Much has been done by lectures and propaganda to revise the lost English art of part singing, but nothing will achieve the desired result so well as the example of those who excel in the art. The Salisbury Singers are to be congratulated on the musical excellence contained on recent Columbia issue (4298) an,d also on their agreeable choice of songs. “O Peaceful Night” is one of German’s best songs, and is nearly as good as Sullivan’s betterknown lullaby, “Hush Thee My Babe” on the other sid-e. Both are sung with a highly-trained sense of discipline, and both reveal not only excellent individual singing, but also, what is more important, an almost perfect combination. Everybody who loves good singing will enjoy this record.

“The Hero, the Heroine and The Villain,” and “The Murder in the Forest” (Columbia 2645), are two clever burlesque sketches by Bransby Williams. Bransby Williams has proved such an ornament to the stage for so long, notably in his incomparable Dickensian studies that he is surely as much entitled as anyone else to take a “busman’s holiday,” and poke a little innocent fun at his own profession. These burlesques are delicious. With a grotesquely coinic orchestral accompaniment, he mimics the horrors .of the barn-storming company with fine gusto. The humour is laid on with a trowel, and the man or woman who cannot laugh at this record stands in sad need of a doctor.

Two rollicking songs, “All the Fun of the Fair” (“Songs of the Fair”), (Easthope Martin), and Lohr’s “Nelson’s Gone A-sailing,” are sung by Percy Hemming. Percy Heming’s fine voice catches the very spirit of these two bluff and hearty sdngs. * ITis voice records exceptionally well, and the good-humoured deliverance of these ditties will make a very wide appeal indeed. H.M.V. 82473.

Cortot presents a fanious waltz in “Invitation to the Waltz” (Weber). (H.M.V. D.A.855.) In the days when Weber wrote his altogether charming “Invitation to the Waltz” (1817), the waltz was something quite new and (like the Charleston nowadays) was denounced by sedate matrons as “immodest.” But it was in those times a gay and sprightly dance, and went with a swing which makes our modern waltz seem a melancholy affair. So in this piece we may easily imagine the young gentleman carrying on a decorous conversation with the young lady with an “Empire” waist, and later leading her from the conservatory (surely full of aspidistra?) to the gaily crowded ballroom—there to enter into the dance with tremendous gusto, quite undismayed by the rows of chaperons lining the walls. * * * A fine new jertiza disc contains “II est doux, il est bon” (ITe is kind, he is good), in French (Massanet), and “Adieu, forets (Farewell, ye Forests), in French (Tchaikovsky). H.M.V. DB 1941. For this fine record Madame Jer-

itza has chosen two surpassingly beautiful airs. The first comes from Massanet’s opera “Herodiade,” and is sung by Salome herself. The creed of meekness and love preached by the prophet has reached Salome’s heart and moved her deeply. In the famous air she sings of the divine qualities which she knows the prophet to possess. The air on the reverse side of the record is even lovelier though it comes from an opera of Tchaikovsky’s which is practically unknown (“Jeanne d’Are”). The remarkable gift for melody Tchaikovsky shows us at evry turn is well displayed here. “Les Rameaux” (“The Palms”), (in French) and Faure —“O Salutaris IT ostia” (in Latin), are sung by Marcel Journet (bass). Marcel Journet, the famous bass who has been so long a favourite both at Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera, New York, here gives us two most attractive songs of a popular character which should have a wide appeal.—H.M.V., D.B. 923. The Philadelphia symphony orchestra is heard in “Rienzi,” Overture (three parts) and “Twilight of the Gods” Wagner). Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra of over one hundred players have made a fine electrical recording of the overture to Wagner’s first successful opera, “Rienzi.” The opening theme of Rienzi’s prayer, played by the lower strings, reveals a quality and richness that, i surely, brings something new to recorded music. In the in-spring concludj ing scene of the “Twilight of the ■ Gods,” Brunnhilde has leaped into the | funeral pyre of the slain Siegfried. The ; castle of Walhalla, paid for with stolen j Rhinegold treasure, is burning, with its ! gods and heroes. The Rhine has overI flowed its banks, and the three Rhine (maidens come to reclaim the Kings of : the Nibelungs. The tottering majesty ;of the Walhalla motive, the floating I song of the maidens, the curse of {Alberich, die out beneath the pure and exalted strains of Wagner’s greatest i motive, the “Redemption of the World liw T-ova”