THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 61, 23 August 1940, Page 7

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

6 EW ZEALAND’S best export is her brains," someone once remarked, and you have only to listen to the series, "New Zealand Brains Abroad" to gain an inkling of the truth of this. "New Zealand Brains Abroad" is an interesting series of talks at present being broadcast from 2YA on Sunday afternoons, and next Sunday’s presentation contains the names of a number of New Zealanders whose achievements are interesting not only in themselves but also in their variety. There is Joseph Mellor, for instance, whose life reads like a romance, When he died he was a world authority on chemistry, but he began many years ago in Dunedin as a boot-clicker. Then again there is Dr. A, C. Aitken, a mathematician whose phenomenal powers of memory make him something of a worldwonder. Shadows Before How many times, sitting in a movie theatre, have you seen the words flash up on the screen, " Neurasthenia Studios take pride in announcing the comedy hit of the century," etc., etc.? Technically known as "trailers," these preliminary announcements often make or mar the success of the coming picture. No super

" build-up," however, is the NBS trailer for " The Mikado," which will be broadcast at 2.45 on Friday afternoon, August 30, but it should serve the same purpose as the Hollywood article-whet your appetite for the real show. Eight o’clock on the Friday evening will see the opera itself presented. Green Sunsets and Purple Cows A lady who was once gazing at a startling landscape painted by the great artist, Turner, suddenly said to him, "But, Mr. Turner, I don’t see a sunset like that." Turner replied, " No madam, but don’t you wish you did?" Similar retorts are sometimes made now when laymen protest that nature doesn’t make clouds like square blocks of stone nor give women elongated necks. This conflict between layman and artist seems to be eternal, but that is all the more reason why it should be mitigated by a

little explanation and understanding. Well, there’s a very good chance of the layman learning something that may help him to understand modern art a little better from a discussion at 3YA entitled " Things as Seen by a Painter." It is to be broadcast on Wednesday, August 28, at 7.32 p.m., and the speakers will be Sydney Thompson and F. A. Shurrock, two well-known artists. A Little Variety "A little variety now and then is relished by the wisest men" is a misquotation which serves to introduce a variety show that is scheduled for 9.15 from 2YA on Monday night next. The title of the show is " Variety in Miniature," and it promises to be something more than just a little variety, for it features those popular musicians and vocalists, " The Swingtime Harmonists." .They need no introduction to listeners, for their tuneful melodies have already won them a wide circle of listeners. Then there is something in this little show, too, that should keep listeners’ ears glued to their loud-speakers-a "thriller" in miniature entitled "The Hand of Fate." Brahms the Spartan Had you lived in Vienna, in the middle of the last century, you might sometimes have noticed a bewhiskered, heavily-built gentleman, by the name of Johannes Brahms, taking the air in the Viennese streets. This gentleman, a confirmed bachelor, lived with spartan simplicity in a small apartment in the Carlgasse. Each morning at 5am. he rose and brewed himself a cup of steaming, strong coffee-using a little machine for the purpose, as he could find no one

else to make it strong enough. Then he would fortify himself with an equally strong cigar, and his day would begin. During the succeeding hours, their course marked by cigar after strong cigar, what beautiful music Brahms wrote! At 8.34 p.m. on Wednesday, August 28, from 1YA the Trio for Viola, ’Cello and Piano in A Minor by Brahms will be presented by Lois Walls, Lalla Hemus, and Dora Judson, " Democratic Autocrat " It is over forty years since Sir George Grey died, but we have not yet got finality in our judgment of him. What William Pember Reeves said is still applicable: "I have known those who thought Grey a nobler Gracchus and a more practical Gordon; and I have known those who thought him a mean copy of Dryden’s Achitophel. His islandretreat, where Froude described him as a kind of evangelical Cincinnatus, seemed to others merely the convenient lurking-place of a _ political rogueelephant." Many listeners will be interested to see what view of Grey is taken in a talk from 1YA on Thursday, August 29, at 7.30p.m., in the series, "History for Everyman." The sub-title, " Democratic Autocrat," may give a clue. "All Aboard!" Even in these days of "fast and commodious" ferries, a short journey by sea can be a nightmare for some people and a picnic for others. Those whose stomachs heave at the very sight of a ferryboat will not be sorry to hear that such passenger services around our coasts are declining, due largely to the extension of railways and the improvement of roads fer motor services. It was stated the other day that the passenger service from Auckland to the Great Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf was being: withdrawn, and many other such services have been replaced

in recent years. In the early days, such transportation was slow, erratic, and apt. to be exceedingly uncomfortable. A traveller took what accommodation he could get from a whale boat or a cutte: to a brig, and he might spend days in travelling a distance now covered in a few hours. You'll hear something of those days, and of a later period when steamers appeared and regular services developed, in a talk in the " Background to New Zealand" series from 2YA on Monday, August 26, at 7.40 p.m. The Past Revived An interesting broadcast will be featured from 2YA Wellington on Tuesday evening, August 27, when, at 9.15, Zillah and Ronald Castle will present

a programme, "Echoes of the Past," featuring early music played on period instruments. Purcell, Bach, Granom and Handel are the composers, and their music interpreted on these simple, old instruments brings back an authentic atmosphere of village green, of traditional folk-songs and dances, of the religious fervour of Cathedral, and the grace of long-vanished ballrooms, Miss Castle will play unusual violin solos accompanied by Mr. Castle on the virginal, which is a keyboard instrument dating from Elizabethan times. Blake and His Poetry William Blake is one of the poets whose reputation has steadily risen in the last century. It is significant that whereas Palgrave’s " Golden Treasury " contains three poems by Blake, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s "Oxford Book of English Verse" contains ten. To-day Blake is one of the most quoted poets, whether one is working to protect animals or seeking to rebuild England. All over the English-speaking world one is apt to hear the setting of the famous " Jerusalem." O. L. Simmance, whose weekly readings are a feature of 3YA’s programmes, is to read from William Blake on Wednesday, August 28, at 8 p.m. 2