LOOK BEFORE YOU LISTEN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 90, 14 March 1941, Page 16

LOOK BEFORE YOU LISTEN

A Run Through The Records

By

B.

W.

"Hitler of the Pianoforte "! Mysic critics and musical critics (not the same thing by any means), differ as much as doctors. About Artur Schnabel, for instance, there are many different opinions. Some of the critics praise his perfection of touch, his absolute control of dynamics, the "singing" quality of his tone, and the almost orchestral richness and variety he brings from the piano. Others complain of his "excessive precision,’ his "magisterial" or "professorial" quality. One went to the extreme recently of terming Schnabel the "Hitler of the pianoforte!" But one thing is certain: no broadcast of a Schnabel record or records is ever wilfully missed by lovers of good playing. On Friday, March 21, Artur Schnabel, pianist, will be heard trom 3YA, Light, But Not Cheap HEN Eric Coates was ten, he was dragged out of bed one night at half-past eight-it seemed the middle of the night to him — told to dress and carried off to the town hall. A concert was being given there at which a local celebrity, a girl, had been advertised to appear. But she had fallen ill, and at the last moment it had been decided that young Eric should take her place. It was his first appearance in public. By this time, he was studying music seriously, having harmony lessons from Dr. Ralph Horner and learning the violin with George Ellenberger, Joachim’s favourite pupil. He says now that Ellen-

berger’s influence made all the difference to him when he began to compose; it stopped him from being vulgar. "My music may be light, but I do not think it is cheap," he once remarked. "Ellenberger saved me from that." 1YA listeners will hear Eric Coates and the Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday, March 18. An Air Raid Casualty INE night towards the end of last year, an H.E. bomb destroyed the house of Philippe Willoughby, a fine musician and violinist, and arranger of most of the music of the J. H. Squire Celeste Octet, of which he was a member for nearly 20 years. Shortly before, he had said, "If a bomb should get me, don’t let the boys send flowers: collect the money and send it to the Spitfire Fund." Acknowledging the cheque which J. H. Squire sent, Lord Beaverbrook wrote: "None of the gifts, large or small, that I have received for the construction of Spitfires has moved me more deeply than the one you sent me on behalf of your Octet, and in memory of your colleague, Philippe Willoughby." His memorial is to be found in over twenty million gramophone records. The J. H. Squire Celeste Octet will be heard at 4YA on Monday, March £7. Paul Robeson on Audiences Paul Robeson says that as he is better known personally in London than anywhere else outside America, to step

upon a London concert platform is hardly more difficult than to go to a familiar house and find oneself among friends. In the Provinces, where he is better known as a voice than as a person, it is not until after the first two or three songs that contact is established between singer and audience. On the other hand, he found in his recitals of spirituals in Germany, Austria, Central Europe and Italy, an almost instinctive response, especially in Slav countries. In Italy he says he had the feeling that they wanted him to show off his voice and let himself go in one of their own arias! They were rather impatient, he thought, with the simplicity of the Negro theme. On Monday, March 17, listeners to 1YA will-hear Paul Robeson, bass.