MUSIC OF THE WEEK

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 17, 20 October 1939, Page 30

MUSIC OF THE WEEK

(By

Orpheus

SOMETHING WAR CAN'T STOP NE of the depressing by- () products of war is hostility in matters with which the war is in no way concerned; music, for example. Take Russia. Her path through history has been troubled and dark. But she has given great musicians to the world. .Every day this week there is some Russian music in the programmes. Here are some of the items: SUNDAY: "At the Tschaikovski Fountain" will be heard from 3YL Christchurch at 9.6 p.m. What kind of a man was Tschaikovski? He was certainly a strange child. He got great pleasure from a musicbox when the family went to distant places (his father had a mining business) where there was little art. He was set to studying law, but utterly disliked it. He had a distaste for mathematics, and even for Bach, and could not have liked his job in the Civil Service. But he gradually broke away from distasteful things, and composed the music the whole world listens to to-day. MONDAY: When Diaghileff was calling for new ideas, new

motifs, for. ballet, it .was _ Igor. Stravinsky, who supplied. the music. In his earlier works he fell back on the stores of Russian music; later he became more radical. "L’Oiseau de Feu" is one of his finest ballets, and excerpts from it will be heard from 2YH Napier in the classical hour start-' ing at. 9.20 p.m. ee TUESDAY: When the Covent, Garden Russian Ballet Company was in New Zealand this year, they presented Tschaikovski’s "Swan Lake." This immediately became a favourite. It in fact’ shows Tschaikovski’s romantic genius at its best. Many listeners will remember Irina Baronova (who appears on our cover) and Anton Dolin in these roles. The music of the ballet will be presented at 9.25 p.m. from 2YA Wellington. WEDNESDAY: Glinka was the founder of the Russian national school with his opera " Life for the Czar." Later he wrote. "Ruslan-.and Ludmilla,": intensely Russian in spirit, and with a broad dramatic sweep of melody. Listeners will hear the overture at 8p.m. from 2YA Wellington. THURSDAY: Five songs by Tschaikovski and Gretchaninoff will be presented by Vladimir Rosing at 8.10pm. from 4YA Dunedin. Gretchaninoff ' was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov, and has gained special repute as a composer of songs. FRIDAY: The folk songs of Russia, those which have been handed down for generations,’ are of moving simplicity and beauty. From 2YH Napier at 8.2 p.m. an orchestral fantasy on two folk songs, called " Kamarinskaya," will be heard. : SATURDAY: Banned in Russia _ in 1931 as representing the "de- — cadent attitude of the lower middle classes," . Rachmaninoff’s works still enchant those who are | not class-conscious. His songs are’ gems, and many of his piano compositions will live. Few who have heard the wistful tenderness of his second piano: concerto in C Minor could ever forget it. It will be presented at 840pm. from 3YL Christchurch, | aa i