THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 203, 14 May 1943, Page 2

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

| MONDAY HE Warsaw Grand Opera House, which heard the voices of Miliza Korjus, Jan Kiepura and his wife Marta Eggerth, and where the brothers De Reszke first sang their way to international fame, is the subject of the first of a series of programmes on Famous Opera Houses, which occupies the For My Lady session from 2YA next week. When Poland was under partition, the Tsar of Russia was a frequent guest in his specially reserved box, and another Russian whose appearances were possibly of even more concern to the musical audience was Feodor Chaliapin. Listeners who tune in to 2YA at 10.40 a.m, on Monday will hear some of the artists who were connected with the building that now lies in ruins. Also worth notice: 2YA, 8.36 p.m.: Schubert Sonata in A (Studio). 3YA, 8.7 p.m.: Woolston Brass Band (Studio). ig " p.m.: Chopin: Piano Concerto o 1. TUESDAY HILE we are constantly reminded that the houses and furniture of to-day are but transient, and that what was good enough for our mothers and fathers will not be good enough for a post-war world, the prospect of any radical changes in the near future is remote enough not to excite us unduly, So we propose to listen with our usual ‘interested attention to the Winter Course talk from 4YA next Tuesday on "Modern Structural Materials" while we patch up such unhygienic comforts as our old chesterfield suite and re-calci-mine that bit of wall where little Tommy drew his version of the bombing of Berlin (or was it "Swans Over Lake Ellesmere"?). If, as our artist suggests, we may be doomed to spend our old age in hygienic discomfort inside glass walls, we can console ourselves with the thought that by then we shall have lost the lust for stone-throwing, and that furniture made from dehydrated cheese or carbonised butter is a better substitute for dairy products than guns, Also worth notice: 1YA, 11.0 a.m.: "The Perils of Gardening." 2YA, 9.25 p.m.: "Jupiter’ Symphony (Mozart) 3YL, 8.0 p.m.: Dvorak: Quintet in A Major. WEDNESDAY FIRES burned on the River Thames, and the citizens of London held diversions on the ice, in the winter of 1607-1608, when there occurred The Great Frost, the subject of anonymous writings which will be read by O, L. Simmance from 3YL at 8.15 p.m, on Wednesday, May 19. England had seen worse frosts: In 1035, according to Haydn’s "Dictionary of Dates," a frost on Midsummer Day is said to have destroye.! the fruits of the earth; in 1063 the Thames was frozen for 14 weeks, and in 1407, the small birds perished"; in Flanders, it was the wine, and not the water, that was the source of wonder, for in 1544, "the wine distributed was cut by hatchets." And nearly 80 years after The Great Frost in 1684, a citizen of London wrote in a

book: "Bought this book at a shop upon the ice in the middle of the Thames." Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.0 p.m.: Beethoven’s "Archduke" Trio. 2YA, 7.30 p.m.: Maori songs (Studio). 3YA, 9.30 p.m.: Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor. THURSDAY HILE most of us are prepared for the worst but are hoping for the best in the post-war world, we are sufficiently uncertain as to which it will be

to welcome such expert guidance as may be afforded by Professor H. Belshaw in his series of talks on "Post-War Economic Problems iff New Zealand" (1YA, May 20, 7.15 p.m.). Professor Belshaw is Professor of Economics and Dean of the Faculty of Commerce at Auckland University College, and his talks will deal with such topics of general interest as rehabilitation and population. Also worth notice: 2YA, 9.25 p.m.: 2YA Concert Orchestra, 3YA, 7.15 p.m.: "Feeding Pigs Without Milk." 4YA, 8.0 p.m.: "Romeo and Juliet" Overture Fantasie (Tchaikovski) FRIDAY BREETHOVEN’S Sixth Symphony ("The Pastoral"), to which the attention of a wider public has recently been drawn by its inclusion in Walt Disney’s Fantasia, will be heard from 1YA at 9.25 p.m. on Friday, May 21, Beethoven himself supplied descriptive titles to its five sections, with the reservation that the music is "more an expression of feeling than tone-painting." The first movement he called "The Awakening of Pleasant Feelings on arriving in the Country"; the second (with its imitations of quail, nightingale and cuckoo) is "The Scene by the Brook," then follow "The Villagers Merrymaking," interrupted by "The Storm," and finally "The Shepherd’s Hymn of Thanksgiving After the Storm." All these movements were drawn on for the abbreviated version employed by Stokowski in the Disney film, and will be familiar to those who have seen it. Others, who may be listening rather for the sake of hearing Beethoven, will notice that his Seventh Symphony will be heard from 2YA on the following Sunday afternoon. Also worth notice: 2YA, 8.8 p.m.: "Gestapo in England." 3YA, 8.4 p.m.: Christchurch Liedertafel, 4YA, 9.33 p.m.: Readings from Pope.

SATURDAY ‘THE traditional fairy-tale of The Sleeping Beauty made a fanciful subject for Tchaikovski to use in the ballet which will be presented with special annotations from 2YC at 8.0 p.m. on Saturday, May 22, Though some of its music has become familiar in the shape of the one-act ballet, "Aurora’s Wedding," the ballet which 2YC listeners will hear, was a longer affair, with three scenes-the first depicting the christening of the infant princess and the casting of spell and counter-spell by the Wicked Fairy Carabosse and the Good Fairy Lilac, the second showing how the Princess pricks her finger and falls asleep, and the third scene showing the awakening of the whole sleeping court by the kiss of Prince Charming. Also worth notice: 1YX, 8.0 p.m.: Brahms: Academic Festival Overture. 3YL, 8.0-10.0 p.m: A_ Beethoven pro gramme. SUNDAY HE sun which, it is said, never sets on the British Empire, was, so to speak, put in its place 400 years ago by Copernicus. So those who like coincidences may smile to learn that May 24, Empire Day, is also the centennial of Copernicus’s death, the day in fact when his revolutionary book on the earth’s revolutions round the sun was published, To mark this occasion, 2YA schedules a talk at 3.0 p.m. on Sunday, May 23, e: ‘itled "The Birth of Modern Science," which will attempt to put in his true place in the history of modern scientific discoveries the man who put the world and the solar system in their true places in the universe. Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.15 p.m.: Don Pasquale (Donizetti), 3YA, 3.0 p.m.: Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Paganini. 4YA, 8.0 p.m.: Contrasts (Bela Bartok),