THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 185, 8 January 1943, Page 2

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

T will be good news for many listeners that Dorothy Helmrich, the notable Australian singer, is again, after some years, paying us a visit. She has sung in London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, The Hague, Berlin, Warsaw, Stockholm, New York and Boston; and in 1936 she began a world tour, in the later stages of which New Zealand was included. Early in her career she was chosen to sing British works at the Salzburg festival, and also at the Anglo-American Festival at Lausanne. Miss Helmrich will begin her new tour with studio recitals from 2YA on the evenings of January 11, 12, and 14; and after that, she will sing in Christchurch (where her first recital is on Sunday evening, January 17), Dunedin and Auckland. Her accompanist will be the New Zealand pianist, Noel Newson, Almost Unheard "It speaks to us like a genius with friendly farewell in its parting flight, and we remember with honour and emotion the glorious man and the artist,"’ so Brahms said of the posthumous violin concerto by Robert Schumann, which will be heard from 4YO on Wednesday, January 13, and from 2YN on Monday, January 11. The work had a spectacular resuscitation in 1937 after some agitation by persons who knew the work existed and wished to hear it performed, although Joachim (the violinist), and Brahms had decided, as friends of Schumann, that it should never be published. Joachim, in a letter to a pupil, gave as the reason for withholding the concerto-the last work of a man who died in a mental asylum -that it was "not equal in rank with so many of Schumann’s glorious creations." The recording to be heard was made with Yehudi Menuhin as soloist. True Born If fair hair and blue eyes and a strong, upstanding carriage are the marks of a good Nordic German, what can we say is the mark of a true born Englishman? The more English most Englishmen are, the more they boast of their Scottish grandmother, of their Irish grandfather, or of the bold Normans and Danes who were their ancestors. Nevertheless, the damping rains and rolling, rich countryside have patterned a creature proud, not so much of his birth as of his special qualities. More than two hundred years ago, Daniel Defoe wrote his sketch "The True Born Englishman," and we look forward to hearing this read from 3YA next Wednesday, January 13, at 7.41 p.m. It will be interesting to compare the 17th century version with the present-day breed. Pleasure Cruise? Much as we have always looked forward to seeing Nice, Naples, and the blue blue waters of the Mediterranean, just at this moment we feel we must decline

any invitations to go cruising. Even people like Musso, born and bred in the very lap of those blue blue waters as it were, must feel a little green at the thought of takine a pleasure cruise upon them.

However, listeners to 4YA may go on a purely musical journey on Saturday, January 16: the ports of call in this "Mediterranean Cruise" ate apparently to be Malaga, Algiers, Nice, and Naples. Three Sisters The three sisters of ‘There are Three Sisters", the radio play which will be heard from 2YA on Wednesday evening (January 13, 7.54 p.m.) are not the three little sisters who sat at home reading magazines. They are no others than our friends the Parcae who sit with spindle, loom, and shears watching our antics and ready, if we are to believe Dr. Hordern of the play, to cut the thread at the most appropriate moment. The doctor elaborates his theory that life is cut off, not willy-nilly, but at a moment when career and reputation are

in danger of slipping downhill. He takes as illustration the group of people killed in a railway accident and shows how they were doomed anyhow to disappointment, exposure, and failure. Listeners are of course not expected to subscribe to this theory but merely to enjoy the turn of events as. exposed in this drama. Old and New "Four Little Towns and a City" is the name of a talk by Ngaio Marsh which will be given over the air from 3YA next Wednesday at 11 am. These four little towns are not New Zealand towns but towns which Miss Marsh visited in the course of a visit to Europe. We who are apt to think of towns as sprawling octupuses with suburban tentacles may be amused to find that one of these little Continental towns is only about big enough to cover the area of a large town hall and that they are all neatly sealed in with walls and gates. The city in the list is the city of Durban, modern and efficient in contrast to the aistory-bound townlets of the old world. Fido the Useful Our knowledge of the prowess in fetching the morning paper, unlacing the evening boots, picking up and shaking the back-door mat (replacing same neatly), minding the baby and fetching the eggs from the grocer (well, that was last summer, you know), displayed by our neighbour’s dog has prepared us to be not in the least surprised at anything Mrs. A. M. Spence-Clark may have to recount in her talk from 3YA on Tuesday next. Her title is "A Dog’s LifeSome Unusual Tasks,’ and we quite expect to hear about the dog that took the plate round in church, the dog that answered the ‘telephone, and the dog whose task it was to watch to see that no one came while the others went to work in the chicken run, — a SS a