THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 194, 12 March 1943, Page 2

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

HERE were some _ unrehearsed incidents when U.S. Tank soldiers assembled a few weeks ago in the Californian Desert to hear Leopold Stokowski conduct a shortened version of Shostakovich’s Seventh (Leningrad) Symphony. Time said: "Black-tailed musicians filed out in the jerry-built unpainted shell. When a shapely blonde violinist took her place in the rear row, the fun began, ‘Bring her up front,’ yelled the soldiers, and then they discovered that she was the daughter of the Russian Ambassador, Next the chant changed to ‘We want Stokowski,’ and when he appeared, up went the shout ‘He needs a _ haircut.’" Near the end of the first movement of the symphony, the men got restless until Stokowski stopped. Did they ‘want to hear it or not? Only one dissenter said he didn’t want to. Stokowski told him to go home, and the symphony went on. 2YA listeners will hear the Philadelphia Orchestra playing the Firebird Suite at 9.38 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16. Presumably Stokowski had better luck with Stravinsky. : Goodman Plays Mozart Mozart had a friend named Anton Stadler, a celebrated clarinet player. For this friend Mozart wrote his Quintet in A Major. The stream of melody which runs through the work has its source in the character of the instrument; its beauty is due to the composer’s knowledge of the full possibilities of the clarinet. Mozart himself might perhaps have hesitated to ask Benny Goodman to play the clarinet part in this composition, for although Goodman is a clarinet virtuoso he is better known as the "King of Swing." However, the Budapest String Quartet had no hesitation in asking Mr. Goodman, and the result of their unusual

collaboration can be heard by listeners to 2YA on Monday, March 15, at 8.9 p.m. The Magic Worked "A warlock ... is invulnerable and immortal, because he keeps his soul hidden far away in some secret place," says the folk-tale in The Golden Bough, ad that may have been the reason why Philip Heseltine called himself Peter Warlock when he grew a beard and changed his whole way of life in an attempt to protect himself from the Philistines. Whatever his purpose was, it is a fact that what Philip Heseltine failed to do Peter Warlock achieved. The songs he wrote after his transformation made him one of the greatest English songwriters since John Dowland. A programme about Peter Warlock will be given in the "Kor My Lady" session from 2YA at 10.40 am. on Monday, March 15. Fat and Fear Those who listen to the "Health in the Home" talk from 1YA next Tuesday morning ("Overweight and Long Life"), will probably be told that many people dig their graves with their teeth. They do, of course, as many others strip their bones by fasting and prayer, But ‘

we hope the fat will not be unduly alarmed. It is biologically the case, authorities tell us, that length of life and bodily bulk roughly correspond. Very small things have a very short span (dayflies for example), very big things a long ‘span (elephants and whales); and when this rule does not hold the exceptions are parrots, and geese and foolish creatures like those. Besides, who buys the contraptions for concealing

bulk? Not men, but women — and women live longer than men; so much longer that of all the centenarians on record women outnumber men by three to one. We have, you see, been consulting the books, and we can assure bulky listeners that they may listen unmoved. Zzzzzwoosh! Listeners with a liking for musical fireworks may hear two varieties-and neither of the kind usually meant by that term-on Saturday evening, March 13. At 10.15, 3YA will broadcast, as part of its Masters in Lighter Mood programme, Handel’s Royal~ Fireworks Music. Before this work is finished, 1YX will broadcast (at 10.26 p.m.) Stravinsky’s Fireworks, written for the wedding of Rimsky-Korsakov’s daughter in 1908. Of this work an American com-

poser wrote: "There are woodwind figures that revolve like pinwheels .. . others that ascend in long curves like rockets and explode in _ pizzicato chords .. . finally the scintillant activity . explodes in one triumphant bomb." Tongue or Sword "The tartness of his face sours grapes; when~he_ walks he moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before his treading; he is able to pierce a corselet with his eye; talks like a knell and his hum is like a battery .. ." no, these embarrassing characteristics are not Musso’s but those of a Roman conqueror who was too proud to sue for popularity, turned traitor, but thanks to the intercession 6f two women made a peace with his native city which "all the swords of Italy and her confederate arms, could not have made." From the story of Coriolanus we may draw two morals, one that it does not do to lift the Roman nose in scorn and, two, that the tongue (woman’s) is mightier than the sword. We suggest that you might like to refresh your memory of Coriolanus by listening to Professor T. D. Adams’ Readings from Shakespeare’s Coriolanus which will be preceded most appropriately by Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture. (4YA, Friday, March 12, at 9.25 p.m.)