Around The Nationals

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 156, 19 June 1942, Page 20

Around The Nationals

si first performance in New Zealand of the Delius Violin concerto will be given from 1YA studio this Friday evening, June 19, by Thomas Matthews, the English violinist. Since Mr. Matthews began his broadcasts for the NBS he has played several concertos with studio orchestras. In Wellington he played the Mendelssohn, and in Auckland an imposing list which makes one appreciate his staying powers. Beginning with the Beethoven, he has played in rapid succession the Bach A Minor, Mozart D Major, Max Bruch, Brahms, and now the Delius. Part of Mr. Matthews’s studies were spent with Albert Sammons in London, and during this period the concertos of Elgar and Delius were explored in great detail. The latter work was composed for Sammons in 1916, who has of course played it many times, and although not perhaps one of the finest works by Delius it is nevertheless very representative of this composer and well worthy of the listener’s sympathetic attention. * " ® ‘AS: a stage actor Ivor Novello has become very popular, and as a dramatist he has written several successful comedies. As a composer of popular music he is chiefly remembered by his war-time song, "Keep the Home Fires Burning." He is also a successful film actor, "My Earlier Songs," by Ivor Novello, will be heard from 3YA on Saturday, June 27, at 8.10 p.m. (T HE Triumphal March from "Caractacus" by Elgar played by the London Symphony Orchestra, may be heard from 1YA on Friday, June 26. J. Raymond Tobin, Editor of The Music Teacher, said recently of Elgar that "in music he was practically self-taught "; that he owed allegiance to none of our national schools, and that his flouting of orthodox laws and his rejection of an outlook that had its real roots in/Leipzig were worse than heresy. But he lived to be not only a great composer but a great composer accepted by the world. BRAHMS, great composer as he was, remained simple in his tastes and ways all his life. He would rise at 5 @.m. and brew his own strong coffee, and he never slept without a copy of the Bible within easy reach. One of the practical proofs of his deep knowledge of Biblical texts is in his choral work "Requiem." He used the title "Requiem," mot as a setting of the Mass for the Dead, but as descriptive of a work which was written as a memorial to his mother, and the sources of the text are drawn from both the Old and the New Testament. " The Requiem " will be presented from 2YA on Tuesday, June 23, at 7.45 p.m., with Andersen Tyrer conducting and Phyllis Lawson and Lawfence North as soloists,