"SOME RECENT MUSIC"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 147, 17 April 1942, Page 4

"SOME RECENT MUSIC"

Sir,-Though I speak with the tongue of the Philistine only, I must say I enjoy "Marsyas," and if that’s any help to him, I should like him to know. What he writes is often double Dutch to me, but the idea is fine. It’s healthy because I think it’s more important in the broadcasting business to take

a bit of good adverse criticism than to be forever scratching one another’s backs. As I say, I don’t know always whether the criticisms are sound or not, but they are interesting, and printing them will, I think, weigh with your more responsible ‘readers. Also, there’s q touch of humour in the stuff which makes it readable even for blokes like me who can’t claim to do more than recognise a tune when they hear it. One question I’d like to ask is why we never hear hear Peter Dawson (nowadays), singing anything more ambitious than "Old Father Thames" et hoc. He’s capable of singing lieder and opera-and has recorded in these media, excellently, in my opinion, but we never hear these. Yet I have heard recordings, by Dawson of passages from Haydn’s Creation, Handel’s Samson Agonistes ("Honour and Arms"), Tannhauser, etc. I don’t object to "Waltzing Matilda" (which I think is a good ballad), and such light stuff as Stanford’s songs, but Dawson isn’t (or, wasn’t, perhaps), such a hack as to be perpetually condemned to them. Of course, that’s maybe just my poor taste. Harold Williams may be much better than Dawson ever was-but I have my doubts.

MAC

(Auckland).

Sir,-"Marsyas" devoted two fairly long paragraphs to remarks about Eileen Ralph’s performances of works by Busoni and Stravinsky, but he cleverly avoided giving any direct opinion of those compositions-which was most judicious of him. I, too, listened with hopeful interest to Miss Ralph’s broadcast, though not for long. In London seven years ago, I had the good fortune to hear Egon Petri play Busoni’s Piano Concerto, a stupendous work, stupendously performed, and I thought then that here at last was a modern composer who had something really vital and worthwhile to say. Since then, I have never missed any opportunity of making acauaintance with Busoni’s output; but, I regret to fay, my interest has waned almost to vanishing point, and the "Christmas Sonatina," played by Eileen Ralph, snapped the last link. I switched off ‘my radio in despair long before the end, and never want to hear it again. The same, only more so, applies to Stravinsky. Of Eileen Ralph I have a very high opinion as an executant, and I think it a great pity she should waste her time and talent upon such miserable modern stuff. A recent broadcast by her of Beethoven’s Sonata, Op. 110, showed what she can do with real music. "Marsyas" also quoted E. Jj. Dent, Busoni’s biographer, as follows: "Busoni’s technical" achievements must have‘far surpassed anything accomplished by Liszt and Rubinstein," This is sheer nonsense. I myself heard Busoni at his prime. He was one of a group of magnificent pianists who appeared during the 1890’s, the others being Moriz Rosenthal, Emil Sauer, Leopold Godowsky, Eugen d’Albert, Alexander Siloti, Frederick Lamond, Basil Sapellmikoff, Teresa Carreno, Annette Essipoff, Sophie Menter, and, of course, Paderewski. Busoni’s musical stature was not greater than theirs-in fact, he ranked below Rosenthal in virtuosity and d’Albert in intellectual breadth. And by general consent, including their own, none of those pianistic giants could be mentioned in the same breath as Liszt, the arch-pianist of all time. Among present-day pianists, Horowitz is a greater performer than Busoni ever was, and even Horowitz is not a Liszt. It is fashionable nowadays to "debunk" the illustrious dead, but "Marsyas" would be well advised to let less competent scribes pursue this futile course.

L. D.

AUSTIN

(Wellington),