THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 73, 15 November 1940, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

next week be playing in the North Island, with a studio recital and public performance in Wellington, and "studio recitals in Auckland, South Island listeners will not feel they have been deserted after what must have seemed a short visit by the great pianist. From 3YA on Monday, November 18, Max Pirani, who plays by arrangement with the Associated Board of Examiners of the Royal Schools of Music, will be taking up the tale. He has 20 minutes of the progtamme time from 9.25 onwards, and will play, as the programmes indicate in more detail, Bach, Bartok, and Theodore Holland, with four of Rachmaninoft’s preludes, Pe wie Friedman will Dance Some people just do not understand what music is all about. Some goa little better and recognise a pleasant sound when it is made. Some -go too far altogether for the average listener and claim to see in music the sort of thing Salvador Dali saw when he set some raw chops on his wife’s shoulders and found inspiration for a surrealist painting in the play of shadows (see last week’s issue). It takes all sorts, etc. But any of these people would be dumb, deaf, blind, and generally senile if an item which 2YA will broadcast at 7.45 p.m. on Monday, November 18, did not create

its own appeal and paint its own picture. The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, under Stokowski, will play the Dance of the Polovtsian Maidens, from Borodin’s "Prince Igor." This really is a dance, made with movement at ofice simple and fantastic, beautiful and grotesque. It really is worth sampling, and the recommendation applies to jitterbugs as strongly as to Plain Tom. Crippled Children Something novel from Station 2ZB on Sunday, November 17, will be a broadcast by members of the Wellington Crippled Boys’ and Girls’ Club. Even though some of them are under a serious physical handicap these crippled children take an intense interest in life, and their club is an outlet for a tremendous amount of vitality. The club broadcast from 2ZB some time ago, and a barrage of complimentary letters, was received, especially from children in the Wellington Public Hospital. The programme this time will include songs, accordion solos, and items by a sextet and the club choir. Cleo When she died, further back now than any existing geneological tree could reach, everyone must have sighed with relief, especially Antony and Julius. She was a lass with a way with her, was Cleopatra, as Russell Clark has shown.’ So much of the way, in fact, that

Antony and Julius were not the only swooning swains who could never forget her. She has remained more or less of an historic nuisance ever since, as the people of Dunedin will realise if they tune to 4YA on Wednesday, November 20. She serial, " The Life of Cleopatra," begins at 9.33 p.m. Before that time comes we hasten to assure listeners that she did not spend all her time rolled up in mats. Argument If anyone sees the second heading on page 50 and is moved to take the hint, he or she will find some material for the opposite argument almost anywhere in next week’s programmes. There are 576 moving picture theatres and halls where pictures are shown in New Zealand (the Exhibitors’ Association last week counted them for us), To keep them supplied requires a flood of films, and those who disagree with our contributor will probably say, first of all, that among all this flood, picture-goers are lucky to find. an occasional good drama, or an occasional

good musical, long or short. Many famous performers have been filmed, and most of them are on the radio. The example that comes first to notice each week is Miliza Korjus, of "The Great Waltz" fame. She is singing Verdi and Gounod in 2YA programmes next Sunday. Following her at 9.52 p.m. comes the Philadelphia Symphony, which is also not entirely unknown to the film fans. Amusements, A and M Following John Moffett’s talks on transport and eating and drinking, then and now, Dr. K. J. Sheen will come to 4YA next week, in the same series, talking this time about amusements, and fashions in amusements ancient and modern. Mr. Moffett has some clear-cut comparisons to make; but it seems to.us, thinking in co-operation with Russell Clark, that Dr. Sheen’s thens and nows will not differ so greatly. Throwing rotten eggs at the

villain in the stocks might well be considered an ancient pastime, but it appeared last week that modern counterparts were not hard to find. Although the South Island does not celebrate the occasion with quite the same infantile vigour, in the North Island a modern villain was placed metaphorically in modern stocks, on November 5, and all the eggs in creation would probably have been thrown at him if he’d been there in person, and if eggs weren’t so dear. Dr. Sheen will have to remember Hitler. Responsible Jobs Two Auckland singers have responsible jobs to do next week. On Wednesday, November 20, when 1YA is featuring Ignaz Friedman during the evening programme, Joan Bryant precedes him with a soprano recital. When Friedman plays again from the studio on Friday, November 22, he will be followed (after Vernon Bartlett) by Constance Manning, with another soprano recital. With an artist like Friedman anywhere in the programme, programme builders are especially careful to build round him. These two singers must therefore be conscious of the compliment which 1YA is paying them. Another Kreisler Listeners with a little learning may blink, as we did, when they see the title of Ignaz Friedman’s first item in the recital which 2YA will broadcast from the studio on Sunday, November 17, at 8.6 p.m. It is " Kreisleriana," by Schu- |

mann. This does not imply, as it may seem to do, that Schumann knew Kreisler, before he was born, but. that Schumann knew _ another Kreisler, who was Johannes, and who was really E. T. A. Hoffman, who wrote a series of musical essays under the name of Johannes Kreisler. Schumann wrote the work in question in 1838, doubtless inspired by the personality he imagined for this " Kreisler." And there you are, although you will not need such obscure musical history to appreciate Friedman. Good Exercise Wurlitzer organ players, we have often thought, are born with two arms and a leg too few for that complicated instrument. But for all that, a surprising number manage to get by, and even if you're not a Wurlitzer fan you must admit it’s good exercise. Station 2ZB has an announcer, Finlay Robb, who is also an energetic Wurlitzer player, and he is heard on relay from Wellington’s De Luxe Theatre every day at noon. The station also has an announcer who sings. His name is Rex Walden, and he will be heard during Finlay Robb’s session on Tuesday, November 19, and Thursday, November 21, singing to Wurlitzer accompaniment. This form of presentation is a pleasant one, and 2ZB personalities (those who can sing, of course) will be heard regularly during the "Midday Melody Parade." ;