Citizens’ Concert

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 784, 3 October 1929, Page 16

Citizens’ Concert

BAND PROGRAMME FOR i SATURDAY WAS CHOSEN BY PUBLIC

I : 200 PIECES SELECTED With the programme to be presented by the Municipal Band on Saturday evening there can be few complaints. Citizens selected it for themselves. The public was requested to select numbers, even to the extent of a full programme, and send it to the bandmaster. There was a satisfactory response, and the result is indeed interesting. The programme to bo presented, of course, represents but a small portion of the citizens' choice, which covered a range of over 200 pieces, a truly wide range. Yet even this range, wide as it is, represents less than a tenth part of the band’s repertoire. Twenty overtures were selected, equal favourites being “Poet and Peasant,” "Light Cavalry,” and “Pique Dame,” with “Oberon” and “Tannhauser” close up, and “William Tell,” “Mignon,” and “Stradella” next in demand. In the band’s library there are upwards of SO overtures. A very satisfactory feature was the choice of no less than 54 selections. "Lucia dl Lammermoor” was the popular choice, with “The Bohemian Girl,” “The Mikado.” “The Gondoliers,” Maritana,” and “The Desert Song” close up. Other Gilbert and Sullivan selections were also in popular favour. Twenty-one selections. were made in the suite and symphony class. Schubert’s "Unfinished” led the way, with “The Dance of the Hours,” “Scenes Plttoresque,” "Slavonic Dances,” “Peer Gynt,” “Faust” ballet music, and "Coppelia” ballet well in demand. The “Blue Danube” was the most popular of the twelve waltzes chosen, with Beethoven’s “Echoes” in second place. LISZT POPULAR It Is very interesting to find that in the class for rhapsodies and tone poems Liszt’s “Hungarian No. 2” was :\ most pronounced favourite —in fact, it received more votes than any other piece In r.ny class. “Finlandia” was also in great demand. The choice in marches ran to 19, with “Viva Auckland” well in the lead, and "Tannhauser” and “Holyrood” also much asked for. Of hymns, 14 were picked, "Deep Harmony” being a long way the most popular, with “Onward Christian Soldiers” second in request. Instrumental solos, duets, etc., were In good demand, with naturally the cornet and flute most sought for, and the clarinet frequently asked for. Miscellaneous Items to the extent of 35 were selected, with Beethoven’s “Minuet." “The Turkish Patrol,” “The Mill in the Forest,” and “Down South” most in demand, and “The Wee Macgreg'or,” “Old Folks at Home,” “The Phantom Brigade,” “Les Millions d'Arlequin,” and “Ramona” next in favour. It will only be possible, of course, to put a portion of the selections on one programme, but the others will lie used to build up programmes on ihe lines indicated by the voters. Such an expression of opinion from the public is doubly interesting. Not only does It indicate that a keen Interest is taken in the band, but also that its public is evincing an appreciation of the better class of music being given It. The programme for Saturday will be as follows: —March, “Viva Auckland” (Christopher Smith); overture, “Pique Dame” (Suppe); duet, “A Regular Royal Queen” (from “The Gondoliers”); tone poem, “Finlandia” iSibelius); duet for two cornets, “Cheerfulness” (Gunbert), Messrs. J. Davies and R. T. Morgan; song. “Maegregor’s Wedding” (Lee), Mr. Duncan Black; rhapsody. “Hungarian No. 2” tLiszt); song, "Nightfall at Sea” I Phillips), Miss Beryl Smith; waltz, “Blue Danube" (Strauss); grand selection, “Lucia di Lammermoor” i Donizetti); flute solo, "The Witches’ Dance” (Bucher-Paganini), Mr. Hal C. McLennan: duet. “Strange Adventure from ’The Yeomen of the Guard’ ” l Sullivan); patrol, “A Turkish Patrol” (Michaelis); selection, “The Desert Song” (Romberg).