MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 890, 6 February 1930, Page 14

MUSIC

(By

F.1.R.)

A NEGLECTED ART

MUSIC SHOULD BE MORE ASSERTIVE ARE WE DOING ENOUGH? "People in New Zealand make Sifts to many things. They sometimes leave money for some of the arts, but rarely to music. New Zealand will have to educate its people up to the fact that music is one of the country’s real needs.” Passing through Auckland on his •way back to the New South Wales Conservatorium, Mr. Alfred Hill told a Sun representative that he was greatly surprised at the strides Auckland had made since his last visit. “It is erecting fine buildings, and the fact that the City has erected for itself such a fine museum is a very encouraging thing,” said Mr. Hill. “But what about music—what is Auckland doing for music?” The periodical visits of musicians from other countries are certainly refreshing, and although the more insular members of our community are sometimes inclined to resent criticism, if it brings a fresh viewpoint, and emanates from one with the interests of the country at heart, right thinking people will always welcome it.

On this visit to his native country Mr. Hill has certainly provided us with food for thought. Although the Conference of Music Teachers decided in its wisdom that the time was not yet ripe for a change, his suggestion that New Zealand should conduct its own music examinations and save the money annually sent out of the country gave rise to a very healthy discussion. Certainly nothing definite was done, but from the support accorded the proposal, it is very apparent that the seeds of a new thought have been well sown.

One must agree with Mr. Hill that we in New Zealand should at least make a start in the direction of educating the public into a realisation of the value of music to the community. Music Week, thanks to the spirit of progress shown by several members at the recent Conference of Teachers, will be held in August, and this must result in the encouragement of a much healthier musical spirit throughout the whole Dominion.

What is needed is a more aggressive force behind music and it is iu bringing this to bear that the musical societies of Auckland and of every other city in the Dominion can play their part. Greater enthusiasm and more publicity are badly needed, and it is in supplying these that Music Week will be of such valuable assistance to the cause.

When music has been forced up into the place it should rightly occupy in the life of the community then music may expect a greater measure of public support.

OPERATIC CONCERT

PUCCINI SOCIETY AND ARTILLERY BAND Supported by Signor Costantini and the Puccini Musical Society, the Artillery Band will present an operatic concert at the Town Hall on Thursday evening next. The entertainment, which is in aid of the band’s contest funds, promises to be on a very lavish scale. With band accompaniment the choir will sing the consecration and prayer from Verdi’s “La Forza del Destine*” the Church Scene from Gounod’s “Faust,’ "Toreador’s Song’’ from “Carmen,” “Calf of Gold” from "Faust,” “Quartet” from Verdi's “Rigoletto,” and the Sextet from “Lucia di Lammermoor.” Contest selections will also be given by the band, and grand organ and pianoforte accompaniments will be used, in addition to the band, in the operatic numbers. The assisting artists will be Miss I. Lockwood (violin), Mr. G. Poore (flautist), Mr. A. McElwain (humorist 1 and Mr. S. Adams (pianist). The Puccini Society soloists will be Misses E. Herbert (soprano), W. Jenkins (soprano), E. Cousins (soprano), I. Frost (contralto) and Messrs. G. Fagan (fenor), E. Mitchell (tenpr), O. Johnston (tenor), H. Valentine (baritone), J. de Montalk (bass), A. J. Fisher (bass) and H. Hadley (bass). Miss K. O'Leary and Mr. S. Adams will be the pianists, and Miss L. Rae will provide the organ accompaniments.

No Snobbery Fritz Kreisler. great genius of the violin, pianist, composer, medico, scientist, etc, says that there is a good deal of "snobism” in the musical world. “I play much classical music,” he remarked, ‘‘but the secret of my success lies in my not being afraid of a simple melody. What can be more moving than a thing of lyrical beauty? Superior people arrange programmes, not of music, but of names. There is a musical comedy impresario in New York who seems to know more about the public taste (judging from his box-office receipts) than about music, states the musical journal “Top Notes.” He recently attended a rehearsal and liked a certain note sung by the leading lady. He stopped the rehearsal to tind out what it was. “That was high C,” the musical director informed him. “Well, that’s fine,” said the impresario; and turning to the chorus, male and female, he told them all to sing high C in unison with their prima donna. There was some demur, and it was explained that physiological difficulties would prevent a high C being sung by every member of the chorus. “That’s all right,” was Hie genial answer, “get'as near It as jfou can.”

r gramophones ]

The recording of the actual performance at the Berlin State Opera House of the finale of Act. 111. of Richard Strauss’s opera, “The Rose Cavalier,” is a fine achievement. This opera was chosen last season for the gala performance at Covent Garden, and a special production was also staged in New York. Its lyric beauty is unchallenged. In the recording, the atinospnere of the theatre has been successfully caught, and the singing is uniformly good. The timbres of the voices of the trio blend well, and the high soprano gives some very beautiful singing indeed. The orchestralba r ck S round adorns the scene. (H.M.V., D 1629.)

Du Bist Die Ruh (Schubert) and Adagio (Bach) are viola solos by Lionel. Tertis. (Columbia 03638.) * oremost among violists, Lionel Tertis gets over the difficulty of the scarcity of music written for his instrument by arranging appropriate masterpieces for himself. Schubert’s gracious melody lends itself admirably, and ’t ertis almost makes his instrument sing like a human voice. On the reverse he phrases a famous Bach movement with grace and feeling. He also plays Melody in F (Rubinstein). and Chant Sans Paroles (Tchaikowsky). (Columbia 01511 ) On a 10-inch dark blue label, Tertis takes two of the most popular airs in music, and treats them with his usual artistry. His tone has a velvety smoothness, which wraps itself caressingly round the music. Tertis shows a subtle refinement of mind even in treating these familiar airs.

. here is just a tinge of melancholy m Greig’s violin sonata in C minor The concluding allegio animato lias t“? , air of the famous landscape, Lnder Winter Sunshine.” Perhaps the most authoritative and most poetic reading of the work so far given is that by Fritz Kreisler-and Sergei Rachmaninoff. The eminent violinist’s tone is perhaps at its loveliest in the elegiac first movement (not for nothing is the key that of C minor). But one could go far for phrasing of such perfection as that with which the pianist states the theme of the Allegretto alio. Romanza. The whole performance is remarkable for its balance and glowing expression. (H.M.V., D.)

Mile. Feraldy, famous French soprano, sings Blanche Dourga and Tu M’as Donne le Plus Doux Reve. (Columbia 03640.) Now and again a good French record reminds us with a bit of a shock how inclined we are to leave France off the musical map. The exigencies of record production, rather than the quality of French music, has largely caused this injustice. But now that Columbia has opened the French market, so to speak, to British music lovers, we should look for a new delight among records. Mile. Feraldy has qualities we never find in Italian or British singers. Her method of sound production is the product of totally different training. She has a flutelike delicacy, and her voice slides with natural charm over the subtly spaced phrases of Delibes, who writes both numbers.

Menuetto, and Allegro Giusto (Boccherini), are played by the Quartetto Veneziario del Vittoriale. (Columbia 01513.) Choosiug two suitable extracts from Boccherini is like dipping into a box of sweetmeats for its most toothsome dainties. The Venetian Quartette has pulled out a pair of elegant sugar-plums. Listeners will enjoy relaxing in the soothing strains, whose neat little phrases are rattled off with a courtly elegance. The Venetian Quartette, one of the Italian bodies whose enthusiasm is so infectious, fiddle with smoothness and certainty, and if it might be inclined to sacrifice hard thinking to polish, Boccherini would be be the first to give it his light-hearted benediction.

The musical comedy, “Hold Everything,” is enjoying a long run of success on Broadway, New York, and is already billed as one of the attractions for this year in New Zealand. Its best feature, according to criticisms, is the bright and attractive music. There is life and colour in the chief songs and dances, and these have been made into attractive records by H.M.V. Jack Hylton and his orchestra are well to the fore with two records of foxtrots, “You’re the Cream in My Coffee” and "To Know You is to Love You” (85650), and “Don’t Hold Everything” and "Everybody Loves You” (85651), which have lilting vocal refrains. Jesse Crawford on the Wurlitzer organ imparts some clever variations into “You're the Cream in My Coffee,” and “My Sin” (EA6OI). The Light Opera Compai: y sings the vocal gems on one side cf EB4I, and gems from “Whoopee” on the other. They get every ounce of sparkle out of the melodious music.

Doris Vane sings for Columbia 1 “They Call Me Mimi” (from “La Boheme”—Puccini), and “One Fine Day” (from “Madame Butterfly”— Puccini). (Columbia 02864.) Doris Vane has a large following on the discs. She gives on her latest record a competent reading of two famous Puccini arias.. As a vehicle for her splendid voice alone they are welcome, apart from the value of having English versions of two such popular airs. When she conquers that bared hint of tremolo in the upper register, Miss Vane will have made a big stride, but even now the most captious critic will find much to please him in her clear enunciation her splendid breath-control, and the broad skilful shading of her voice.

An announcement of more than ordinary significance is issued by the Columbia people this month. Twentyone Alfred O’Shea records have been brought within the reach of the most modest purse by the wise expedient of issuing them on Dark Blue labels instead of Light Blue, as formerly. This Columbia policy of “great music by great musicians for a greater public” is heartily to be commended. It is to be hoped that the public, in responding to this gesture, will pave the w r ay for further concessions from the “Magic Notes”- people. The Columbia November supplement gives a complete list of the 42 songs on this score-and-one records. These are all prime favourites—the pick of O’Shea’s repertoire, in fact. This Australian tenor is too well-known in this country to make further comment necessary. His artistry is so apparent, his vocal powers so obvious, and his actual singing so apparently effortless, that to hear him once is to realise that in Alfred O’Shea we have a singer far above the average of even really fine singers. Taken as a whole, the O’Shea recordings are wonderfully done. Hear, for example, “Killarney” and “The Fairy Tales of Ireland” on Columbia 02900; and “Drink to me only” and “Passing By” on Columbia 01595. These two discs should be in every collection.

Bella Baillie—she now calls herself Isobel Baillie, which is much nicer—has been the rage of the musical season in London, and anyone who hears her latest record, of the aria, “Hear Ye,.. Israel,” from Mendelssohn’s “Elijah,” will readily understand why. Her beautiful voice is the ideal medium with which to express the inspired line of the aria. To a natural purity, and to an inborn sense of the beautiful in vocalism, she adds a deep understanding of the meaning and majesty of the work, and thrills us no less with her interpretation than with the silvery perfection of her soprano. The accompaniment reveals a clarity and richness of tone wholly astonishing. (Columbia 01706).

The output of records made from songs associated with talking pictures is now enormous, and it is difficult to keep track of everything that comes to hand. Most of these songs have been made into dance numbers as well, and for the benefit of those who desire something tuneful to guide their steps the following discs have been culled from this month’s H.M.V. parcel: “One Sweet Kiss,” fox-trot with vocal refrain, and “Now I’m In Love,” fox-trot, with vocal refrain, played by Gus Arnheim and his orchestra (EA6O4); “Lovable and Sweet,” fox-trot with vocal refrain, played by Gus Arnheim and his orchestra, and “My Dream Memory,” fox-trot with vocal refrain, played by the All Star Orchestra (EA608); “True Blue Lou,” fox-trot with vocal refrain, played by Ben Pollock and his Park Central Orchestra, and “The Flippity Flop,” foxtrot with vocal refrain, played by Coon Sanders Orchestra (EA610); “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” fox-trot with vocal refrain, played by Leo Reisman and his orchestra, and “My Head is Bluer Than Your Eyes,” waltz, with vocal refrain, played by the Troubadours. (EA612.)

The Lener players have recorded the B flat Quartet of Mozart that is listed in Kochel’s catalogue as Work No. 458. Mozart, the hoy prodigy, who was born after Haydn had become famous, and who died while Haydn was yet alive, is considered by many to be the supreme musician of all, time. His music is the music of eternal youth. Perhaps that is why we learn to love it so increasingly as we grow old. This B flat Quartet, strangely enough, has its minuet as second movement instead of third. After the vivacity and pellmell haste of the first movement, the minuetto forms a sort of half-way house in the matter of tempo, before the Adagio is introduced. Only those who love chamber music will realise what a gem has been released on Columbia discs 04305-04310. * * * Prank Crumit, the American comedian, who achieved a wide success with his renderings of “Abdul Abulbul Amir’ and “The Gay Caballero,” has added another popular number to his list, “Mountains Ain’t No Place for Bad Men.” The clever intonation of the voice is very effective. On the other side there is a catchy number, High Silk Hat and a Walkingcane,” which should also be very acceptable to Crumit’s admirers. (H M V EA586.)

Gil Deck. one of Columbia’s younger pianists, gives us his own private version of “When My Dreams Come True.” It is doubtful whether the talkie, “The Cocoanuts,” made this theme song such a success or whether the theme song made this talkie a success. Probably the latter. Anyhow, together with “Old Timer” theme song of the talkie, “Noah’s Ark,” you will find it on Columbia 01657.

The re-recordings of “Jeux d'Eau" by Ravel and “Rhapsody in E Plat” (Brahms), by Benno Moiseiwitsch, are equally welcome. The Ravel showpiece was a popular number on Moiseiwitsch’s programmes when he toured New Zealand about a year ago. He interprets with beautiful tone colourings the romanticism of Brahms. The reproduction in both cases is very clear. (H.M.V., D 1645.)

The Lions Quartet gives us a delightfully harmonised version of “O Dem Golden Slippers,” sung with fascinating richness; and as a complete contrast, on the reverse side, we have an old, side-splitting humorous song, “Vere is Mein Leetle Dog Gone?” suggestive of the bygone one-man German hand. This unique quartet, who are tremendously popular in the United States, are among the finest artists of their class. The appropriate effects in the record add greatly to its value. (Columbia 0f?05)