MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 524, 29 November 1928, Page 14

MUSIC

(By

F.1.R.)

Mr. Claude Tanner, of Wellington, who has been in London for the last four years studying music, will arrive back by the Maheno this morning. Mr. Tanner is an able ’cellist,, and rose to be a sub-professor at the Royal Academy. * =i* * The King of Sweden has conferred on Joseph Hislop, the well-known Scottish tenor, the decoration of Knight of the Royal Order of Vasa. * * * The soloists for the Royal Wellington Choral Union’s performance of “The Messiah,” on December 15, will be: Soprano, Miss Christina Ormiston, Auckland; contralto, Miss Mina Caldow, Auckland; tenor, Mr. Hubert Carter, Wanganui; and baritone, Mr. William Watters, Palmerston North. Arrangements had been made for the choir to visit Nelson and assist the Harmonic Society in “The Messiah” at the opening of the Majestic Theatre, but it is understood that owing to delay in the completion of the theatre the visit will not now eventuate. * * « A violin dated 1732, one of the finest Strads known, was purchased a few weeks ago by Jaques Gordon, founder of the Gordon String Quartet (well known in America apd the Continent! for a figure somewhere near £7,500, and it was remarked that possibly the same fiddle, in years gone by, was bought for ten or twenty pounds. But such is the life of a Strad, for they are eagerly coveted by artists, enthusiasts and collectors. In the year 1690 Antonious Stradivari made some instruments for the Grand Duke of Tuscany and one of these mysteriously disappeared. It turned up again when a Mr. David Ker. of Portavoe, Ireland, purchased it on the advice of a friend for £24. The violin was left unnoticed for many years, when, after Mr. Ker’s death, his son sold it for £240. Hill and Sons, later, paid over a thousand pounds for it. They had recognised it as the great “Tuscany Strad” and had watched its whereabouts for years before being successful in acquiring it.

The English prima donna, Eva Turner, whose singing at Covent Garden was one of the outstanding events of the opera season, has left London on her return to Italy, where she first appeared on the operatic stage. She has signed a contract to sing in German opera in Chicago in the autumn, and will soon go to Germany for special language study. "We are continually being told that this is a young man’s world, and that we are “too old at forty.” That this does not apply to music or politics, would seem to be demonstrated by recent events. The political reference is, of course, to Sir Joseph Ward’s recent success, while the musical one is to Mr. Arthur Towsey’s enjoyable recital on St. Paul’s organ last week,” states C. Sharp in the Wanganui “Chronicle.” “Coming close upon Mr. Robei’t Parker’s jubilee celebration as organist at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Wellington, it would appear that the activity of hand and brain called for in the musical profession is conducive to general good health and longevity. Circumstances prevented my attendance at the recent organ recital, but 1 gather from some of those who were present that Mr. Towsey’s hand—and foot—have not lose their cunning. That Mr. Towsey, at the age of eighty odd, should be able to undertake the preparation, travelling, and performance, incidental to such a recital, without any interference with his regular duties as organist at Cambridge is an indication of health and virility upon which he is to be heartily congratulated.

The Fuller-Gonsalez Opera Company has sailed from Wellington to open a season of grand opera at Brisbane.