Dunedin Music Festival

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 738, 4 September 1953, Page 19

Dunedin Music Festival

UNEDIN'S second Festival of Music, scheduled to begin ‘eon September 19, will consist ‘of four concerts spread over nine. days. Two: orchestras, four choral groups and. seven soloists will provide the programmes. The first concert, on Saturday, September 19, will open with a performance by. the National Orchestra of Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a theme of Tallis; This will be followed by one of the major events of the festival, as the orchestra and the Dunedin Choral Society, assisted by members of the Royal Dunedin Male Choir and the Returned Services’ Choir, combine to present Dyson’s Canterbury Pilgrimsa musical setting of Chaucer’s prologue to The Canterbury Tales. Dyson chose the mofe interesting vignettes given in the poem, including those of the Knight, the Squire, the Prioress, the Franklin, the Doctor of Physic and the enormously experienced Wife of Bath. ‘ According to Robert Hull, "the martial fame and vigour of the Knight is vividly done in a chorus which, though mostly strenuous, concludes with a charmingly reflective passage in description of this warrior’s gentler virtues." By contrast, the portrait of the Wife of Bath is gaiety all the way. "It hits off that rollicking creature so brilliantly that it is impossible not to sympathise with the range and variety of her matrimonial exploits." Although Chaucer’s metre-and some of the more archaic words-have been lost in the choral version, Dyson has largely succeeded in retaining the humour and vigour of the original. The pilgtims who, at the end of the work, are heard setting out for Canterbury, with the Knight just beginning his tale, are in no way misrepresented by their translation into music. The solo parts are taken by the soprano Dora Drake. the tenor John Chew, and the baritone Ninian Walden. The conductor is Warwick Braithwaite. » As a forerunner to the Festival per-. formance, Mary Martin will give a talk

on Canterbury Pilgrims from 4YA at 3.15 p.m. on Sunday, September 13. The second‘concert of the Festival, on Monday, September 21; is by the National "Orchestra, with the Chines2 bass-baritone Yi-Kwei Sze as_ soloist. The latter will sing Mozart’s Per questa bella mano, Un bacio di mano, and Mentre to lascio. The orchestral items will include the Sibelius tone poem Tapiola. Haydn’s Symphony No. 99 in E Flat ("Schoolmastet"), Massenet’s ballet suite Le Cid, and two nocturnes Nuages et Fetes, by Debussy. Yi-Kwei Sze, who has frequently been likened to the Russian Chaliapin, has been lauded by critics during his recent tour of Australia en route to New Zealand. Said the Sydney Morning Herald: "Yi-Kwei Sze sang with beaytiful tone and commanding distinction of style." And the Adelaide Mail: "His superbiv controlled voice is enhanced by an intellectual penetration and’ musicianship which gave to each song he sang the hallmark of. distinction." The third concert, also by the National Orchestra, is on Tuesday, September 22. The New Zealand-born pianist Peter Cooper will be the solo artist. He will play Tchaikovski’s Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor, Opus 23. The purely orchestral items will be Respighi’s Trittico Botticelliano, Mozart’s Symphony No, 39 in E Fjat, and Liszt's symphonic poem Les Preludes. Peter Cooper has had an appreciative press after each performance of his tenweek tour of New Zealand. Owen Jensen’s comment in a recent \issue of The Listener _is perhaps representative: "Peter Cooper’s playing is . . . modest, thoughtful without being overwhelmed by conscious intellectualism, lively but not exuberant, assured but never bombastic." The Festival ends on Monday, September 28, with a concert by the 4YA Orchestra and the Teachers’ College Choral Society. The programme will include a number of part songs and Purcell’s Ode on St. Cecelia’s Day. The | soloists will be the contralto Lesley McIlroy and the pianist Maurice Till.