Around The Nationals

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 154, 5 June 1942, Page 20

Around The Nationals

We or Peter Dawson the composer, is a modest fellow. "What made you choose the mame ‘McCall’ for your songwriting?" a representative of The Listener asked him the other day, thinking there might be some significance behind the pseudonym. "Just to be different, you know," he said. He picked up one of his songs, dedicated to Gladys Moncrieff. "This is an old one I wrote for Gladdy-Gladdy Cooper; Moncrieff, I mean. Real sobstuff that one is." Some of his best known songs are his own compositions, including "Boots" (and other Kipling settings), and the current "V for Victory." Peter Dawson will give a studio recital from 1YA on Tuesday evening, June 9. "THE Story of The Bands of the Brit‘ish Empire" is the subject for the session from 2YD on Tuesday evenings at 7.33. Most bands have a story and some of the military bands are very old and have played their regiments into many a famous battle. The series, which has already begun with the Scots and Irish Guards bands, will continue with the story of the Welsh Guards band, the talks being illustrated with selections played by these bands. * R La HIS story is told of the Polish pianist, Leopold Godowsky. Some years ago he went to the famous medical clinic of the Mayo Brothers, in Rochester, U.S.A., for an elaborate medical examination. He was given a clean bill of health, but no other bill as he was told that science was sufficiently rewarded in serving art. Some 18. months later, Godowsky crossed the ocean and half the American Continent for the special purpose of giving a complimentary recital for the Mayos and their staff. "Triakontameron" is the title of thirty piano pieces composed by Godowsky; excerpts from this work, especially orchestrated for this presentation may be heard from 3YA on Wednesday, June 10, at 7.58 p.m. * s * ‘A LTHOUGH _Rimsky-Korsakov’s "Flight of the Bumble Bee" is so popular, it is not generally known that this was originally part of his opera "The Legend of the Czar Sultan." In the story of this opera the Czar marries the youngest of three sisters and the elder two, jealous as is usual in fairy tales, misinform the Czar that their sister has given birth to a monster. The function of the Bumble Bee at the end of the opera is to pursue and sting the two wicked sisters. When he was finishing the opera, Rimsky-Korsakov decided to make an orchestral suite of some of the music. This was an immediate success, so he made others. The third of these, "The Czar Sultan Suite No. 3," may be heard from 4YA on Sunday, June 7, at 8.35 p.m.