Reviews of the 31st concert

Reviews of the 31st concert, 16th January, 1924.

Yorkshire Gazette , January, 1924

YORK SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Admirable Evening's Music at Tempest Anderson Hall.

The York Symphony Orchestra gave their second concert of the season (for strings only), under the direction of Mr. H. A. Bennett, in the Tempest Anderson Hall on Wednesday evening. There was a large audience, although some seats still remained to be filled. This was a pity, for the orchestra is an organisation deserving of the fullest support.
The programme was extremely catholic, so far as dates are concerned, the composers ranging from Byrd and Farnaby to Elgar and Holst. English works predominated, the only orchestral composition of a foreign writer being Bach's Concerto in D. The orchestra is to be congratulated on the technique attained in the varying styles which was far above that attained by most amateur organisations of a similar kind.
Parry's "English Suite" opened the programme. The most effective items of this were the lovely "Air" and an exceedingly lively "Frolic." With the next item, a suite by Giles Farnaby, arranged for the orchestra by Granville Bantock, we harked back to the golden Elizabethan age of English music, and some of the pieces, notably the "Dream," "His host," and, in a more cheerful mood, "Tower Hill," more than maintained the standard we expect from music of this period. A fantasia by Byrd provided another illustration of Elizabethan compositions.
The Elgar "Serenade" did not seem to be so much to the liking of the orchestra as most of the other items, but this is not to say that the rendering was in any way faulty. And it may be that the comparative indifference was on my side!
The Bach Concerto, with Mr. C. G. Padel at the piano and Mr. Lupton Whitelock and Mr. Edward Maude as solo flautist and violinist respectively, was a great success. Mr. Padel is a very old friend of the York music public, but his natural force has not abated, and his solo in the first movement of the concerto was very fine. The team work of piano, flute and violin was also first class, there being no tendency on the part of any one instrument to drown the others.
Mr. Padel later played Chopin's Fantaisie in F minor (opus 49). The only adverse criticism to be made of this is that the pianist appeared to make a little too much use of the sustaining pedal; otherwise the rendering was most acceptable, and Mr. Padel had to respond to the applause by playing a Schumann "Romance."
Mr. Whitelock's flute solo "Offertoire" also led to a demand for an encore. The flautist drew a very mellow, round tone out of his instrument, which was much to the liking of the audience.
I have purposely left to the end any mention of what was, to me, the "tit-bit" of the evening—Holst's St. Paul's Suite. A little modernism after a succession of classics is good for the soul, and the atmosphere brought in with this suite was very refreshing.
Beginning with a lively jig, to put hearers into a good humour, the composer proceeds to a second piece, entitled "Ostinato," with a little phrase on the violins persisting throughout. Then comes an "intermezzo" containing a masculine middle section, and lastly an attractive finale. Altogether, it was an admirable ending to an admirable evening's music.
C. R. A.

Yorkshire Herald , 17th January, 1924.

MUSIC AT YORK.

THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'S SECOND CONCERT.

A BRITISH PROGRAMME

A large and appreciative audience listened to some pleasant and well-interpreted music at the second concert of the York Symphony Orchestra in the Tempest Anderson Hall last evening. The programme was well chosen, and the selections of the orchestra, with one exception (a Bach concerto), were all by British composers, ranging from the Elizabethans, Byrd and Giles Farnaby, to Elgar and Holst, and for strings only.
The concert opened with four numbers from a collection of pieces by Sir Hubert Parry, published posthumously under the title of "English Suite." Those played last evening were a Minuet, Pastorale, Air, and Frolic; particularly enjoyable were the Air, the violin solo in which was artistically played by Mr. Edward Maude, leader of the Leeds Symphony Orchestra, who acted in a similar capacity on this occasion, and the hilarious Frolic. A suite by Giles Farnaby, a sixteenth century composer whose greatness is only now being realised, comprised a set of six pieces, arranged according to modern pitch by Granville Bantock. These are little cameos delightfully conceived and with, quaint titles.
Possibly the outstanding item of the programme was the Concerto in D, for pianoforte, flute, violin, and strings, one of the great number of chamber works the great writer produced whilst holding the position of musician-in-chief to a German prince—a work of simple character, but possessing a limpidity and sincerity of its own, which were admirably demonstrated by Mr. C. G. Padel (piano), Mr. Edward Maude (violin), and Mr. Lupton Whitelock (flute). In the first movement appears a lengthy solo for the piano, and this was finely played by Mr. Padel, who was for so long identified with the music of York, and who received a very warm welcome. The second movement is sustained by the three solo instruments only, and the orchestra is silent until the finale. The concerto was presented in an admirable manner.
Byrd's "Fantasia" from his "Psalms, Songs, and Sonnets, 1611," edited by Canon Fellowes, is really an enlarged quartet, as the double-basses are not used; this was played by four of each section of the orchestra, and we thought was the most uniformly good performance of the evening, whilst Elgar's "Serenade, Op. 20,&quo; the least good. Of course, the idiom of Elgar is not easily translated by amateur players, and there was some unsteadiness and lack of the finish which marked the rest of the playing.
Mr. C. G. Padel contributed Chopin's "Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49," in an artistic and convincing manner. His tempo was on the slow side, but this enhanced the clarity of detail and careful phrasing of his interpretation, which was accurate and 4 polished. In response to a distplay of deservedly inspired enthusiasm, Mr. Padel played Schumann's Romance in F sharp minor.
Variety was also provided in tbe shape of a flute solo by Mr. Lupton Whitelock, an "Offertoire" by Donjon, accompanied by a selection of strings. Here again the audience were not slow to appreciate his playing, and Mr. Whitelock gave as an encore an "Etude" by Boehm.
The concert concluded with Holst's "St. Paul's Suite," dedicated to the orchestra of St. Paul's Girls' School. It has no opus number, but was published in 1922 and consists of four numbers, Jig, Ostinato, Intermezzo, and Finale, each of distinctive, character and of modern type of composition. This is by no means an easy work, and its treatment showed that the orchestra, under Mr. H. A. Bennett, had given it adequate study, and, except for one slight accident, a thoroughly good performance resulted. Mr. Bennett (who conducted with firmness and insight) and the orchestra. are to be congratulated on the artistic concert they gave. There were many admirable features in evidence, two of which were the uniformity of bowing and general accuracy of intonation; these are not, as a rule, noticeable in orchestras composed of amateur string players, and we congratulate them again for this.