ORCHESTRAL SOCIETY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2604, 11 September 1909, Page 5

ORCHESTRAL SOCIETY.

THE FORTHCOMING CONCERT.

The members of the Gisborne Orchestral Society are only now reaping the benefit of their long and patient efforts to educate the public taste. Time was when 30 or 40 persons composed the audiences at orchestral concerts in Gisborne, but even the disappointment of plaving to all but empty benches tailed to daunt the hearts of the members of the Society, and they kept steadily on in the praiseworthy endeavor to familiarise the publifc .with the compositions of famous composers. The placing of the Society on a subscription basis was a happy idea, and came at a time when the public mind had come to recognise the worth of the organisation. The high place the Society holds in the estimation of the community was shown by the rush to secure seats when the box plan opened on Thursday morning for next Tuesday night’s concert. The programme to be submitted on Tuesday evening is quite un to the standard always associated with the Society’s name. Two first-class vocalists in Mrs. F. P. Wilson, of Wellington, and Mr. J. Ryan, of Auckland, have been secured, and are certain to provide rare treats to . the Gisborne audience, whose opportunities of hearing first-class voices are onlv too few and far between. Mrs. Wilson, who arrives this morning, is the well-known Wellington, soprano, wife of the professor of physiology at Victoria College. For the past three years Mrs. WiLson has taken j all the leading soprano work for Mr. Robert Parker, conductor cf the Wei-, lington Musical Union. Mrs. 'Wilson will sing a bolero by Verdi, entitled “Merce, dilette amice” (“Dear friends around me all smiling”), which will give the lady an opportunity of showing the remarkable flexibility of her voice, as it abounds in florid passages. Mrs. Wilson’s second number will be the Flower Song from “Faust.” Mr. Ryan has long enjoyed the reputation of being the leading bass singer or Auckland, and has recently returned from studying under the best masters in England. He posseses, a deep bass voice of splendid tone and quality, snd. i#s certain to establish himself as 1 a warm favorite in Gisborne. . A happy choice has been made m the selection of the compositions for the orchestra, as the following bnet description of the different items will show: — ( , Overture, “Des Marionettes (Op. 105, Cornelius Gurlitt). This overture opens with a very pleasing andante pastorale movement, in which, 16 bars from the commencement, the tympam are introduced very effectively- It then breaks into an allegretto grassioso movement,, very dainty and graceful in from which in all probability the composer derives his title. ‘Valse, “Valse des Fleurs”-(Op. 71a, P. I. Tschaikowsky). Tschaikowiskv is one of the most esteemed of modem Russian composers, and the “Casse Noisette” suite of which the above Is the concluding movement, is one or his best known compositions, and is fall of delightful melody, and the orchestration is particularly effective; opening, with a strain by wood wind, the harp concludes the introduction with a florid cadenza. The waltz proper is opened by the horns, the various instruments having snatches of melody which are in turn taken up and elaborated. by other instruments, the whole culminating in a grand tutti. _ The working out of the piece is very interesting and decidedly pleasing. Slection, “Ernani” (Guiseppe Verdi). Verdi is one of the. comparatively modern school of Italian operatic composers. The distinctive feature of his compositions is a striving after effect and passionate outbursts of feeling, with, perhaps, less consideration for melody than others of the Italian school. “Ernani” was composed in the year 1844, and was a great _ success, which, however, has been 1 eclipsed by some of liis later works. Prelude, “Lohengrin,” Act 111. (Richard Wagner). Wagner, the greatest composer of tho 19 th century, has had the strongest influence on the trend of l music since Beethoven. Bus works are most revolutionary in character, and at one time he was almost universally condemned as a musical eharltan.' Time, however, _ has proved that he lived before his time, and he is now accepted as one of the greatest geniuses the world has ever seen. _ 'Die following is an excerpt from a criticism of Wagner in the “Musical World’’ of 1855: “Look at ‘Lohengrin,’ that ‘best’ piece. . . . Your answer is there written and sung. It is poison; rank poison. All we can make out of ‘Lohengrin’ is an incoherent mass of robbish, with 110 more real pretension to be called music than the jangling-" and clashing of gongs and other _ uneuphonious instruments.” Opinions have vastly changed since then, and Wagner’s works are now accepted *as masterpieces. (a) Dance, “Morris Dance,” from Henry-VIII. (Edward German); (b) Melody, “Chanson Triste,” song of sadness (Tschaikowsky). The “Morris Dance” is the first movement of a suite of dances from the incidental music of Henry VIII., composed especially for the production of Shakespeare’a Henry VIII. at the Lyceum Theatre by Sir Henry Irving in 1892. The ‘.‘Chanson Triste” is characteristic of Tschaikowsky’s music, through so much of which there runs a vein of sadness. The two opening bars give the whole theme, which, by . reiteration of the first note the melody, gives the impression of intense sadness very forcibly. The oboe, the tone of which is so characteristic of pathos and tenderness, is used to great effect in. this piece, especially in the concluding bars.

March. “Marche Militaire,” Op. 51, "To. 1 (F. Schubert). Schubert, one of . the most noted composers Germany ever produced, is chiefly famous for his songs. He nevertheless composed many orchestral works of which the above < march is a noted example. A conspicuous feature 8 of this march _ is the effective treatment of the wind instruments, particularly the wood wind. . From the exceptionally heavy book- • irtg that has been done, a packed Theatre is assured, and the Orchestral Society is to bo heartily congratulated on having at last reaped the > reward of its long years of patient toil and endeavor to popularise the best in music.