HIGH-CLASS MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 125, 28 May 1937, Page 11

HIGH-CLASS MUSIC

APPRECIATION AT HOME CONDUCTOR'S VISIT "When I left Home good music, was being appreciated by the public more, and this is largely due to the influence of the 8.8.C.," said Mr. K. Murison Bourn, musical director and conductor of London, who, with Mrs. Bourn, arrived from Sydney today by the Maunganui. ' ' , "About ten years ago," said Mr. Bourn, "if a Bach concert was arranged only ,a handful of people would be present. The 8.8.C., however, has persisted with this type of musiC, particularly during the Sunday sessions, and the position today is that, if there is a Bach concert in the Queen's Hall it Is difficult to obtain a seat." A similar position obtained in connection with the Philharmonic Orchestra and other high-class musical performances. The 8.8.C. had really caused a revival 5n music. It sponsored the young composers, such as William Walton, who was one of the outstanding composers in the young school today. Wai-, ton recently composed a symphony, and three movements of it were played before he had completed it. Later, when it was finished, another performance was given: Walton, like the New Zealander, Arnold Trowell, 'cellist, was a genius. His first outstanding work was "Belshazzer's Feast," a barbaric work which fired the imagination of the people. '•> Like everything else in modern music it tended to be rhythmic. Trowell, said Mr. Bourn, was one of the finest 'cellists in England. He was also a composer. Mr. Bourn has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and the New Symphony Orchestra, formerly the Albert Hall Orchestra. He has just completed a visit to South Africa and Australia, where he conducted a series of concerts for the broadcasting authorities. He is also a conductor of string orchestra music and he has his own chamber. orchestra and string orchestra, both ..of which have received glowing praise 'from the critics in England. Mr. Bourn has brought to New Zealand a number of new works, including two by the young English composer, Barclay Wilson. One of these works, a symphonic picture, is. having its first world performance. Mr. Bourn's wife was formerly an actress playing character parts at the St. Pancras People's Theatre. Mr. Bourn is anxious to hear Maori music while in New Zealand and endeavour to pick up the idiom and arrange the songs.