THINGS TO COME A Run Through The Programmes

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 31, 26 January 1940, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run

Through The Programmes

HEN Bishop Pompallier was appointed Vicar-Apostolic of Western Oceanica, he left France in December, 1836, with seven companions, and sailed via Valparaiso and the Pacific Islands. He did not reach Sydney until December, 1837. Of the seven priests and brothers, one had died, and four had been left as missionaries in the Islands. Bishop Pompallier arrived in New Zealand in January, 1838, and began his mission in the North Auckland district. He celebrated his first Mass in Wellington on Christmas Day, 1840. The character and career of this missionary Bishop are to be the subject of a talk at 2YA on Sunday, January 28, at 2.45 p.m. by the Rev. Dr. Walsh. Ballet Shortly before the end of last year, Colonel de Basil's Covent Garden Russian Ballet arrived in ‘Australia..On December 30, the company, with a group of 80 dancers, and with the orchestra conducted by Antal Dorati, opened the season at the Theatre Royal, Sydney. One of the most popular

ballets in their repertoire is Tchaikovski’s "Swan Lake." The Dance of the Little Swans and Hungarian Dance from this ballet will be presented at 8.15 p.m. approximately, on ‘Tuesday, January 30, from 4YA Dunedin by the Kaikorai Band. It will be interesting to hear what Tchaikovski’s ethereal music sounds like played by a brass band. Mr. Cooper of Christchurch One of New Zealand’s most promising pianists is young Peter Cooper, of Christchurch. Although still in his early twenties, he has already had successes at Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Ashburton competitions; and recently he was awarded. the 1939 New Zealand Scholarship for study at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

Owing to war conditions, the tire for the scholarship has been extended to one year. Reports of the critics say that the young southerner plays with an understanding and assurance that bodes well for his future as a pianist; Dr. Edgar Ford has commented upon the surprising maturity and depth of expression in Peter Cooper’s work. So more should be heard of him. He is to present a recital of compositions by Scarlatti, Poulenc, Debussy and Rachmaninoff at 8.38 p.m. on Friday, February 2, from 3YA Christchurch. Soldiering and Biscuits You have heard the Two Leslies over the air many times; here is how they began. Sarony went from soldiering to songs, Holmes from biscuits to broadcasting. During the last war Sarony was invalided to Malta, and his first songs were composed for hospital concerts. He had no idea that he would one day write such hits as "I Say Tweet-Tweet." Holmes got round to travelling in biscuits, after working on a farm and playing the piano in a cinema. Later he became Henry Hall’s drummer, and later still, discovered that he had a voice. Both having found themselves, the two Leslies linked up, and the results of their partnership have been many popular radio presentations. They will be heard from 2YA Wellington at 8.33 p.m. on Thursday, February 1. Their item: "Now You’ve Been and Gorn and Done It." Understanding Europe Our Bill says they should have put "Trying to" in front of the title of Mr. Bagley’s series of talks on "Understanding Europe" from 3YA (see programme January 31, 7.35 p.m.). For even with Mr. Bagley’s assistance, he finds he simply can’t make it all out. His proposition seemed to have points, so we consulted our very own artist, who said he could put things right. To hand this week came one of his best drawings: a combination of power politics, Salvador Dali, poached umbrellas and boiled top hats. It’s so good that we are holding it to look at ourselves for a week or so, but can’t helping telling readers to look forward to seeing it soon. Meanwhile, let them listen to Mr. Bagley. Banned Because his music represented the "decadent attitude of the lower middle classes" and was "especially dangerous on the musical front in the present class war," Rachmaninoff’s compositions were banned in Russia in. 1931. Rachmaninoff, who since 1909 has

lived in U.S.A., probably does not worry unduly about it. If the Comrades do not like him, even if they call his "The Bells" the mystic rallying call of the White Russians, elsewhere he has been acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest living pianists and composers. One of his most widely-performed works is the second Piano Concerto in C Minor. It was first performed at a concert of the Philharmonic Society of Moscow, October 14, 1901, and was published in the same year. It gained for the composer in 1904 the Glinka prize of 500 roubles, founded by the publisher Belaieff. The concerto will be presented at 2 p.m. on Sunday, January 28, from 2YA, Wellington. Whoops! For the last three months something has been missing from the common round of life in the wide open spaces of the smallest and emptiest member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. And we are not talking about the war. We are talking about Station 2YD, and a place called Snake Gully. " Aw, cut it short, Dave." Well, to tell the whole truth, new releases of Dad and Dave from Snake Gully have been withheld for the past three months, but now, in response to vociferous inquiries from the multitude, they are to be resumed. For the facts of the glad news, see 2YD programme for Sunday next, January 28. Beginning In the year 1839, Edward Gibbon Wakefield completed his plans for the colonisation of New Zealand. A man with a vision, he saw what he called a Britain of the south growing up in the southern ocean. But, as Governments sometimes are, Her Majesty’s Government, under the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, was uninterested, antagonistic, and did not share his hope for a future colony. With colonial troubles already on their hands, the English politicians thought the scheme hare-brained and wild. That is how the "Tory" came to flee from Plymouthand that is how the story of New Zealand’s colonisation began. The story has never been told more vividly or interestingly than in Agnes Henderson’s "The Honour is Theirs," a play which won a prize in the 1937-38 Radio Play competition conducted by the

NBS. "The Honour is Theirs" is to be presented at 9.25 p.m. on Sunday, January 28, from 2YA, Wellington. New War Dance It is strange what a soldier will do if you suggest it to him musically. Last war he put his troubles in his old kitbag, kept the home fires burning, wound along lots of long trails; this war he went straight off the mark, and in the first flush of honest artistic endeavour, managed to clap hands, knees, and boomp his Daisy with the best of them. Then the realisation came that cleanliness was im-

portant, and he proclaimed his proud intention of hanging his washing on the Siegfried Line. And now, strange, inconsequential creature that he is, he is rolling the old beer barrel about. Latest hit tune, the "Beer Barrel Polka," is proving most popular of all that have been boosted since war began. Not only soldiers dance it, of course. Our artist, swayed by his chronic taste for the ludicrous, gives his idea of the "Beer Barrel Polka." The number will be played at 8.36 p.m. on Monday, January 29, from 2YH Napier. Friedmann Escaped Admirers of the Polish pianist, Ignaz Friedmann, will be happy to learn that he escaped the German-Russian invasion of Poland, leaving his country just before it began. Madame _ Friedmann, ironically enough, is a grandniece of Tolstoy, who would certainly not have approved of the Polish partition. Ignaz Friedmann is the soloist with the orchestra conducted by Phillipe Gaubert, which will play Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor at 9.31 p.m. on Thursday, February 1, from 4YA Dunedin,