THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 221, 17 September 1943, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

MONDAY ITANIA called for "Music, ho, music such as charmeth sleep,’ and since the days of Shakespeare, many composers have tried to answer her command. Perhaps Mendelssohn has achieved this best. Indeed, he was most fitted for the task for, as Stephen Stratton said of him, "he brought the fairies with him everywhere." He could not have wedded his music:to a play more suited to his genius than A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for where else do fairy fancies and whimsicalities pop up more frequently? On Monday evening (September 20), at 8.30, Professor V. E. Galway, Mus.D. will present "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" Suite, with thematic illustrations and comments. This suit consists of 13 pieces, which were played for the first time in connection with Shakespeare’s comedy, in London, 1849, at Covent Garden. It is interesting to note that the overture was composed when Mendelssohn was only 17 years old, and yet is as masterly as the rest of the incidental music written 15 years later. Also worth notice: 2YH, 9.25 p.m.: Symphony No. 3 (Tchaikovski ). 2YA, 8.24 p.m.: NBS String Quartet. . 3YA, 7.58 p.m. Woolston’ Brass Band (Studio). TUESDAY A BEETHOVEN sonata every week has been the ration of the Christchurch listener since the middle of March, and on Tuesday, September 21, at 9.0 p.m., 3YL will present the last sonata Beethoven wrote for the piano. This sonata is the one commonly known to those who are on familiar terms with such music as "Opus 111." It has no nickname, no curious legend to account for its mystical qualities, and it is certainly not the once famous fake, "Beethoven’s Adieu to the Piano." Even the swingfan, who may have heard (quite correctly) that this sonata was the first thing Artie Shaw asked for when he had the chance to hear some gramophone records in Wellington, may be puzzled if he hopes to find some obvious point about "Opus 111" that should recommend it to jitterbugs. It is, in fact, music for the initiated, but there should be no lack of those in Christchurch now that 3YL has given its listeners more than 30 easy steps towards "late Beethoven." Also worth notice: 1YX, 9.0 p.m.: Piano Concerto No. 1 ( Tchaikovski ). 2YA, 7.30 p.m.: Trio by Josef Suk (Studio). 4YA, 7.15 p.m.: ‘Women’s Dress, Past and Present" (Talk). : ' WEDNESDAY T 8.10 on Wednesday evening (September 22), O. L. Simmance will give a reading from 3YA _ entitled "Defoe in Defence of His Right." We wonder which right — alarming Dissenters by preaching the duty of occasional conformity, pulling the legs of High Churchmen by telling them the shortest way to deal with Dissenters, double-crossing the King, or laughing in malicious verse at those who believed in "true-born Englishmen’? All these things he did with great gusto,

and when one.of them got him an in-, definite sentenc2 of imprisonment and three days in the stocks, he cocked a snook at the authorities again by writing a "Hymn to the Pillory." Defoe was what in any age would be regamded as a tough egg, and it will be interesting to hear which of his many defences Mr. Simmance will read to us. Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.0 p.m.: Quartet in F Major (Ravel). 3YL, 8.0 p.m.: Students’ Orchestral Society Concert. 4YO, 8.0 p.m.: "Spring" Symphony (Schumann).

THURSDAY E have heard "Chopiniana," and we are fairly familiar with "Kreisleriana;" there is, if ye remember rightly,

a "Schubertiana," too, a sort of medley of the master’s melodious moments; when these are announced, we know what to expect. But "Bacchanalia, a medley of drinking songs," perplexes us. It could include an aria or two from the "Coffee Cantata’ perhaps; and those recitatives from the ‘"Peasants’ Cantata" where the soloists agree: "And now I think we’ve had enough." "Yes, yes, ‘tis time to be gone, ’tis~ thirsty work, this singing." "Quite true; one more and then we finish." But Bacchus, God of Wine, and not Johann Sebastian Bach is the presiding deity in this particular musical medley. Tune in to 3YA on Thursday, September 23, at 8.24 p.m. and hear Hermann Finck and his orchestra provide a convivial interlude between two serials. Also worth notice: 1YA, 7.15 p.m.: "The Islands of Melanesia" (Talk). 2YA, 9.40 p.m.: 2YA Concert Orchestra. 4YA, 8.22 p.m.: Piano Concerto, Op. 35 (Schostakovich ). FRIDAY "THE average Briton of to-day" is the BBC’s own description of the man whose domestic life is portrayed in a new radio play that will be heard front 2YA at 8.13 p.m. on Friday, September 24. It is entitled "Mr. Jones Makes a Speech," and it presents an incident in the home life of a colliery clerk in a small minin; town in Britain. It is the story of the. little man and the important part.he plays in the great world struggle. The listener meets Mr. Jones at home with his wife, his mother-in-law, the cockney evacuee, and other members of the domestic circle; goes with him on duty at his air-raid warden’s post, and visits him in hospital, where

he is taken after a Nazi bomb has destroyed his home. The author of the play is P. H. Burton. Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.25 p.m.: "Petrouchka" Ballet by Stravinsky. 3YA, 8.0 p.m.: Music by Bach "(Studio). 4YA, 9.31 p.m.: Readings from Aristophanes. SATURDAY THER Times — Other Customs," says Margaret Johnson, in the talk she will give from 2YA at 11.0 a.m. on Saturday, September 25-General Election Day. Which is, of course, just what we have been saying all along, in our articles on "Elections As They Were." And though Station 4YZ is going a step further on the day before (Friday, September 24), by broadcasting an A.C.E. talk entitled "New Days-New Ways," we suspect that there is no connection really, and that no broadcaster next week will venture to prophesy just how the General Election, 1943, will differ from its predecessors. And if no broadcaster will, The Listener dare not. Nevertheless, it is safe to imagine that there will be more pairs of ears inclined towards more loudspeakers than ever before in New Zealand — the radio licence figures indicate that; and there will be precious little else to hear but polling results — the programmes we have seen indicate that. As Keats once said, "There is nothing stable in the world; uproar’s your only. music." In these circumstances, it would be vain to suggest that anything else that evening will be "Also Worth Notice." SUNDAY OR such as may wish to turn from the "Silly War Songs" that are described on another page in this issue, a programme of Elizabethan music from the Studio of 4YA (Sunday, September 26, 9.21 p.m.), may offer a refreshing spell of the more gracious lyrical sentiments of another age. There is Thomas Morley in all his gaiety asking "What saith my dainty darling?"; Dowland, "semper dolens,’ stemming tears with "Flow not so fast ye fountains,’ and Thomas Campion dallying with his light conceits. Not that all the Elizabethans were above keeping an eye to the msin chance; there is also in the programme a madrigal by John Benet, who knew on which side his bread was buttered when he indulged in batefaced flattery of Her Majesty, declaring that "All creatures now are merry minded," "birds over her do hover," "see where she comes, with flowry garlands crowned, Queen of all Queens renowned," and the rest. Also worth notice: . 1YA, 3.30 p.m.: Symphony by William Walton. 2YA, 2.0 p.m.: Organ Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor (Bach). 3YA, 3.0 p.m.: "En Saga" (Sibelius).