PIANOS FOR TWO AT THE TOWN HALL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 350, 8 March 1946, Page 11

PIANOS FOR TWO AT THE TOWN HALL

HE visiting duo pianists Frank Hutchens and "Lindley _Evans joined the NBS Orchestra in a concert in the Wellington Town Hall on Saturday, February 23. The > programme comprised some items by the orchestra alone (conducted by Leon de Mauny and Lindley Evans), some for two pianos alone, and two works written for two pianos und orchestra, one by Mr. Hutchens and one by Mr. Evans. The programme was a popular one, with a certain amount of purely light music, and was well received by a big Audience. First there was Rossini’s overture to The Barber of Seville, a surefire proposition when it comes to setting the mood for a couple of hours’ agreeable entertainment. It went with a dash and sparkle, and the audience found itself hearing some real orchestral sound in those crescendos, always obvious but always fun. Then the two pianists played a transcription by Bauer of the organ Fantasia and Fugue in A Minor by Bach. In the Wellington Town Hall a great deal of detail in a work of this kind is bound to be lost by all but those in certain acoustically favourable areas, but the audience enjoyed the work immensely. It was followed by Night and Love, by Rachmaninoff, which proved more suitable to the place. The third and last of the two-piano works was a piece called "The Whirlwind,’ ‘by Melan-Gueroult; it is not unlike the composition named "The Aeroplane" which one used to hear

at school, break-up ceremonies some years ago. No Nine O'clock Chimes Then followed an uninterrupted performance of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony -uninterrupted, that is, for the audience in the hall; radio listeners were evidently less fortunate. Here was Mr. de Mauny’s special skill at its best. He was faced with one of the most exacting of all classical symphonies and an orchestra which by the nature of its sporadic existence can never be entirely at ease with such a work. Yet somehow he modestly proved that he had got from the orchestra as much as he knew he could expect. ™ After the interval came two pieces for strings by Frank Hutchens, -and two pieces for orchestra ‘by Lindley Evans, all conducted by Mr. Evans. These were "The Lotus Eaters" and "Gavotte" (Hutchens) and "Berceuse for a Sleeping Sandbaby" and "Waltz for Orchestra" (Evans). They made agreeable light listening of the Eric Coates-Haydn Wood calibre. M:, Evans’ "Idyll" and Mr. Hutchens’ "Phantasy Concerto" (both for twe pianos and orchestra) have been heard fairly frequently on the air in the recordings made by the composers with an Australian orchestra. They proved very popular with the audience. The concert ended with the three dances from Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, "Polka," "Furiant," and "Dance of the Comedians," which went off very well indeed and left everyone in a happy mood. :