THINGS TO COME A Run Through The Programmes

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 44, 26 April 1940, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run

Through The Programmes

O a courageous northern democracy, the National Broadcasting Service is to pay tribute, as it had done to France and Finland, in a programme " Tribute to Norway," on Sunday afternoon, April 28, from 2YA, Wellington. Featured will be a summarised presentation of Ibsen’s play "Peer Gynt," with Grieg’s music played by the Danish pianist, Haagen Holenbergh. Isobel Baillie, the visiting English soprano, will sing "Solvieg’s Song" and other Norwegian songs, and the visiting English contralto, Gladys Ripley, will present songs by Grieg. Other features will be an imaginary visit to Norway, describing something of the history, countryside and people of this land, and the programme will finish with Grieg’s wellloved Piano Concerto in A Minor. A Matter of Gender A bull, as a true Hibernian would say, is a cow of an animal. Perhaps that is where Francis O’Connor found the title for his talk from 1YA at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 3. Perhaps in his talk he will explain the origin of the term. Perhaps this, perhaps that. These are matters beyond our jurisdiction. But we can be sure there will be no perhaps about

the interest of Misther O’Connor’s discussion of "some ludicrous blunders in speech." While they are about it, 1YA’s programme organisers may get their agricultural experts to tell us whether Hibernian bulls really do look like the bulls Russell Clark has drawn for us. They seem to illustrate the point, whatever it is, but we hope they don’t raise any Eire among local Irishmen. Gaul-In Two Parts When Bellini decided to write a tragic opera, he chose for his setting ancient Gaul, so memorably divided at an earlier date by

Julius Cesar into three parts. Bellini wrote his opera, however, in two acts. "Norma" is the story of a high-priestess named Norma and her love for a Roman Pro-Consul in Gaul, named Pollione. Pollione is a fickle man, and divides his love in two parts, ardently wooing another chaste maiden, Adalgisa. Norma is naturally furious, and it looks as if bodies are going to litter the sacred grove. But she decides to take her own life in the end, and Pollione, repentant, goes to the funeral pyre with her, "Norma" (Part 2), will be heard at 9.25 p.m. on Sunday, April 28, from 4YA Dunedin, and despite the slight flippancy of our paragraph, you will find it a very fine opera. "Waters of Sorrow" "Waters of Sorrow," scheduled for early release from 1YA, is a play by the New Zealand writer, Merrick W. Horton, who takes as his story the effect of a Maori curse on land owned by Europeans. It is a powerfully written study of the New Zealand scene, and -should have a wide appeal to listeners. Merrick W. Horton, by the way, is a nephew of W. Graeme-Holder, possibly the best known of New Zealand radio writers, and responsible for many successful features over the NBS stations. Careful With That Gun! Although we do not object to letting people shoot themselves for a principle, we hate to have it happen accidentally, and we know, at the bottom of our hearts, that a charge of shot in the seat of the pants is not the laughing matter which comic papers would suggest. So the opening of the shooting season is to be celebrated from 2YA with a talk entitled "Be Careful With That Gun-Some Advice for the Shooting Season." It is to be given at 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30, by J. W. Brimblecombe, an Englishman who finds shooting here much more free and interesting than when he had to depend on the English pheasant for his sport. Celebrity A first taste in the Centennial Music Festival will be given to listeners through New Zealand and to lucky Wellington people, when the celebrity singers engaged to tour with the Festival Symphony Orchestra and Andersen Tyrer, will appear at a concert in the Wellington Town Hall on Saturday, April 27, and Wednesday, May 1. This will be the first public appearance in New Zea-

land of Heddle Nash (tenor), Isobel Baillie (soprano) and Gladys Ripley (contralto). Fourth artist will be the New Zealand bass, Oscar Natzke. The orchestra will also make its maiden appearance under Mr. Tyrer. On Wednesday next, 2YA will broadcast the first hour of the concert, and 2YC the second. The day following, the artists and orchestra will leave for the South Island, to rehearse first with local Christchurch artists, then with a Dunedin company assembled by the local Centennial Committee, and then to give their first performance of "Faust" in Dunedin on May 13. Improve Your Photography Everybody takes photographs these days. It is almost as much of a habit to pack your camera when you go travelling as it is to put in your toothbrush. Yet how many really good pictures does one see? Some photographers seem to think that all that is required of them is pressing the button; the camera does the rest. Listeners who wish to improve their photography are notified that Miss Thelma Kent, whose series of talks on photography at 3YA some little time ago attracted a good deal of attention, is giving another series from 3YA, beginning on Friday, April 26. The sub- jects will be "Landscape Photographs," " Portraiture," " Toning Bromides and Enlarging Hints in Photograph," and "Snow Pictures. " Nickname A number of Beethoven’s piano sonatas have received nicknames-perhaps the most famous being the " Moonlight," so labelled because a critic said the opening movement reminded him of moonlight on the Lake of Lucerne. Then there are the " Appassionata, " the "Pastoral" and the "Hammerklavier." In most cases, Beethoven did not bestow these names himself. That was the case with the "Waldstein." The composer dedicated this sonata to his friend, Count Waldstein, and that gentleman’s name has stuck to the work. If you like Beethoven’s piano works, be sure to listen to Nancy Reed’s playing of the "Waldstein" Sonata at 8.35 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1, from 1YA, Auckland. Back to Childhood For the very reason that they are so well known and so much a part of everyone’s childhood days, the true worth of nursery thyme music is often overlooked. So that for many people it takes such a work as Roger

Quilter’s "Children’s Overture" to show them how lovely and tuneful some of: those old songs of forgotten days really are. Quilter is a thoroughly English composer. He was born in Brighton in 1877, and studied music in Germany. He has written many attractive songs with an adroit lightness of touch, and his light opera, "Julia," was produced in London in 1936. Sir Henry Wood conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Quilter’s "Children’s Overture" at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 3, from 3YA, Christchurch. Monarch’s Tragedy Like his compatriot, Ibsen, the Norwegian playwright, Bjornstjerne Bjornson was much occupied with political and social problems. In his play, "The King," he studies the institution of monarchy from a _ sensational new angle. Briefly, we can tell you here that ,the play involves a king who wanted to be

a commoner, his subjects who didn’t quite know what they wanted, and a gun which solved the problem and shattered more than convention. If that is enough to whet your appetite, tune in to 2YA Wellington, on Sunday, April 28, at 9.25 pm., when this provocative play will be presented. For Music Only Proceeds of concerts given by the Aeolians in Wellington, over and above expenses, go entirely to charitable causes. This choir of 50 to 60 voices was formed four years ago, mainly to encourage musical interest among its members. Maxwell Fernie conducts, John Randall is accompanist. Both are young men. Mr. Randall says the choir survives the supreme test of. singing without an accompaniment, so listeners can look forward to their broadcast from 2YA at 9.25 pm. on Thursday, May 2.