MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 594, 21 February 1929, Page 14

MUSIC

(By

F.1.R.)

It is understood that it is the in- | tentton of the Royal Wellington Choral J Union to give their rules a general i overhaul at the annual general meet- ! ing on February 26. The Christchurch Musical Society j commenced practices last Tuesday j under the couductorship of Mr. W. H. Dixon, who recently arrived from Ips- j wich, England. Elgar’s "Caraetacus” j is the work under rehearsal. Mr. Victor Peters, conductor of the ] Christchurch Harmonic Society, in- j tends leaving for England in May to further his musical studies. Mr. Peters expects to be absent from the i Dominion for some time, and during j his absence Madame Josephine Ottlee j will w ield the baton. .Mendelssohn's ‘‘Elijah'' is the work I selected by the Christchurch Harmonic Society for its first concert of j the 1929 season. This will be Mr. ; Peters’s last concert before he takes his departure for England. * * * The London critic, Harvey Grace, writes of Berlioz: ‘‘Edgar Allan Poe was described by an American critic whose name I forget as three parts genius and seven parts fudge. (I am nor. certain about the proportions, but these will serve.) Berlioz is the Edgar Allan Poe of music, with this difference; that, whereas the author’s best pages have still the authentic touch of horror, the composer’s have lost what of it they had. They now do no more than remind us of Joe, the Fat Boy, in Pickwick, with his constant threat, ‘l’ll make your flesh creep!’ Easier said than done, Joe, now that most of us have hides instead of skins.” . » * * Mr. Sidney Williamson, the Christchurch conductor who has a Ladies’ Society in the City of the Plains, has formed a new society, and is now rehearsing Elgar’s “King Olaf,” which he intends to perform about the beginning of June. * * * The engagement is announced of Benno Moiseiwitsch, the Russian pian-

ist, who toured New Zealand last year, and Miss Annie Gensburger, of Shanghai. In 1914 Moiseiwitsch married . Miss Daisy Kennedy, the Australian violinist, and was divorced from her in 1924. There were two children. Miss Kennedy is now the wife of

John Drlnkwater, the poet. At the end of the New Zealand and Australian tour Moiseiwitsch left to play in the East where, apparently, he met his new fiancee. “Talkies” and Musicians “Wipe away the tears,” urges ‘ Variety,” theatrical paper, pointing out that a year ago there were 1,500 musicians engaged in Chicago theatres, that only 65 of them have since lost their position because of sound* movies, and that more than that many w’ere absorbed during the time into radio work. BRAILOWSKY New Genius of the Piano COMING THIS YEAR The forthcoming concert season will see a new pianist added to the list of pianistic geniuses that have visited us, for Alexander Brailowsky has played in practically every country of importance since his debut in Paris in 1919, excepting Australia. Brailowsky was born in Kiev in 1596, and received his first lessons from his father, a reputed professor of music, amplified witti studies at. iu Kiev Conservatoire. Later he went to Vienna and studied with the famous Leschetvzky. during the war he lived with his family in Switzerland, and furthered his studies with Busoni. Later in Paris he had the benefit of lessons from Moszowski and Francis Plante. His first appearance in Paris created a furore, and he eventually played the whole of Chopin’s works in a series

of six concerts. Brailowsky’s fame quickly spread and he toured Belgium, Holland, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Poland with enormous success.

The new world, the Mecca of the musician to-day, began to call Brailowsky. He was first attracted by South America, where he toured in 1922, 1925 and 1927 with phenomenal success. From South America he went to the United States and Canada, and sintre 1924 he has had to visit those countries every year.

Brailowsky is a great favourite in England and has played repeatedly in London and the principal towns of Great Britain. Last year he toured the whole of Germany, and is at present engaged on his fifth American tour. He is one of the few artists that can draw a crowded house at the National Opera House, Paris. The London ‘Westminster Gazette” says: ““He is beyond question one of the greatest living pianists.”

He makes his first appearance in Australia at the Sydney Town Hall on Saturday, May 18, under the direction of E. J. Carroll.

ALDAS DIVORCE Husband Who Was a Hindrance WILL STAY SINGLE Marrying a theatrical manager hinders a wife’s ambitions. 'jpHUS Frances Alda., opera star, divorcing her husband, Signor Gatti-Casazza, director of the Metropolitan Opera In New York, richest opera in the world. So, after an ostensibly happy IS years of childless marriage, Frances

Alda, the lark, trills into the blue skies of an untrammelled future! According to the New York “News,” Alda, an extremeiy temperamental singer, says she’ll never marry anyone else. She will spend the rest of her life single, with the two children she adopted. Frances Alda, like everyone else, Is entitled to her view on marriage. Being a star, she is allowed to make statements which more mundane folk would regard as being in bad taste. “For two whole years I wasn’t allowed to sing a role In the Metropolitan. Being the director’s wife held me back Instead of helping me. But now I’m out on my own.” A diplomatic woman! Actually, the eminent Gatti-Casazza was led around the stage of the Metropolitan by his dignified Italian nose. A buxom, strong willed woman, Frances Alda, with more vim than voice, gave him such a strong course of Coue-ism that the poor fellow could not but record on his battered brain: “Every day and in every way her voice is getting better —and better—and —well, louder and more Insistent, if nothing else.” Would Be Queen So Frances Alda, never in the grandstand of singers, got her roles. And she held them! There could be no star near the throne of her creation. If Geraldine Farrar had an ermine coat more glorious than that Gatti could buy, then Geraldine had to be omitted. If Signora Blanki had a nicer marcelle, woe betide Signora Blanki. In the Opera, undoubtedly a musical Mecca in America, was discord and chaos. Gatti-Casazza gradually became resigned to the wife-who-would-be-Queen. Hindering her ambition!

CHOIR APPOINTMENT MR. LEO WHITTAKER AT ST. PATRICK’S Mr. Leo Whittaker, who is well known in Auckland as a solo pianist and accompanist, has taken over the conductorsliip of St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir. Mr. Whittaker is by no means a stranger to ecclesiastical music, having controlled the St. Patrick’s choir lor some time during the war period, and also the choir of St. Francis de Sales at Devonport. A number of enrolments have been made to an already large choir and, judging by the enthusiastic support accorded Mr. Whittaker by the members, a very successful year’s work should result. Mr. John Bishop, conductor of tlie Royal Wellington Choral Union, com menced a re-test of his chorus at the beginning of the month, says the “Dominion.” To get through his heavy task of testing 270 voices meant some hard work, but the re-testing was completed in a week.

Helping Young Artists According to Leopold Auer, the famous teacher of the violin, in a letter to the San Francisco “Chronicle,” the Curtis Institute of Music is in the habit of lending out valuable string instruments to young violin, viola and violoncello players when making concert appearances. Among the finer string instruments loaned by the institute are: An Amati violin (17th century); a Guarnerius violin (IStli century); a Guadagnini violin (ISth century); a Pique violin (18th century) ; three Gagliano violins (18th century); a Gasparo da Salo viola (16th century); a G. Gabrielli viola (ISth century); a Giovanni Grancino ’cello (ISth century) a Jean Baptiste Vuillaume ’cello (19tli century); an Amati double bass (18th century); a Gagliano double bass (18th century); a Testor double bass (ISth century); and a Darche double bass (19th century).