LOOK BEFORE YOU LISTEN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 94, 10 April 1941, Page 10

LOOK BEFORE YOU LISTEN

A Run Through The Records

By

B.

W.

"Got the Bird" EARS and years ago Scott and . 4 Whaley had an offer of £30 a week for eight weeks to go on tour in Britain, opened at Sheffield, and (they confess) "sot the bird" in the first house, But at the second house they altered their act and within a year were playing in Paris. Their association with "The Kentucky Minstrels" is a joy to both of them. "It’s so nice," said Whaley on one occasion. "We all know each other. C. Dernier Warren, the Kentucky Banjo Team, Harry S. Pepper, Doris Arnold -we’re one big family." Scott and Whaley, comedians, will be heard at 4YA on Tuesday, April 15. Musical From Birth ASCHA HEIFETZ, the Russian violinist, is just 40, but this means that he has been a musician for about 37 years. When he was only three he had his first violin, and at six had given a concert and mastered the Mendelssohn Concerto! By the age of nine he had made his debut in Petrograd, and immediately afterwards an appearance with the Povlovsk Symphony -Orchestra, before an audience of 5,000, made the world aware that another genius had arisen, 3YA listeners will hear Jascha Heifetz, violinist, in a recital on Sunday afternoon, April 13, The Organist "SANDY" MACPHERSON was born in the little town of Paris in Ontario, Canada, educated in Amherst and at St. Andrew’s College, Toronto, and worked for a time in a bank. Then during the last war he served with the Canadian Army and afterwards at the end of a long illness, got a part-time job as organist and, as he puts it, "slowly graduated." Eventually he was offered an engagement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and came to London for the opening of an M.G.M. cinema-to stay for six months. Six months became ten years some time back. Sandy Macpherson, organist, is the subject of the "For My Lady" Session at 2YA on Friday morning, April 18. (Continued on next page)

LOOK BEFORE YOU LISTEN (Continued from previous page) Keen on Solitaire J, IRSTEN FLAGSTAD is one of the few stars who do not have a maid or secretary. While some prima donnas travel with six or seven maids, chaperones, maestros, managers, and keepers-of-the-Pekinese, Kirsten Flagstad hates to have people "fussing around her." When she is on tour she packs her own suitcases, dresses herself, and puts on her own make-up. 2YA listeners will hear Kirsten Flagstad, Norwegian soprano, on Monday, April 14. A Fidgety Fiddler T the age of seven, John Barbirolli started to learn the violin, but was so fidgety that his grandfather lost patience with him and bought him a ’cello. At the age of fourteen he was earning his own living by playing in restaurants, theatres, cafes, and with dance bands. He gave his first recital in 1917, when he was seventeen, and a few weeks later joined the army, becoming a lance-corporal in the First Suffolk Regiment. In 1928 his "big chance" came when, at two days’ notice, he deputised for Beecham at a symphony concert at which Casals, the famous ‘cellist, was soloist, John Barbirolli will be heard conducting the New Symphony Orchestra at 1YA on Friday, April 18.