THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 226, 22 October 1943, Page 2

THINGS TO COME

A kun Through The Programmes

MONDAY [To judge by next week’s programmes, the war has failed to stifle our*many amateur ‘choirs. In Auckland, Napier, Christchurch, and Dunedin, choirs are | scheduled to give recitals from the studios of their local stations, and in Auckland there are actually two on different evenings-Auckland Ladies’ Choir on. Wednesday (October 27), and the Lyric Harmonists on Saturday. Napier listeners will hear the girls’ choir from Woodford House over 2YH at -5 p.m. on Friday. Station 3YA offers the Christchurch Orpheus Choir on the same evening. On Monday, October 25, it is Dunedin’s turn and the Lyric Choir, conducted by John T. Leech, will present brackets of light numbers by Schubert, Leoncavallo, Edward German and others, from 8.20 p.m. onwards. Also. worth notice: 1ZB, 6.0 p.m.: The Voice of James J. Corbett. 2YA, 8.34 p.m.: Violin Sonata in F by Grieg (studio), ‘ 3YA, 9.25 p.m.: Music by Schubert TUESDAY LISTENERS who have heard the opera Orpheus and Eurydice by Gluck may have wished that more of the composer’s music was heard on the air. Two excerpts from his opera Alceste have now been recorded by the American contralto Rose Bampton, and they will be eard twice next week-from 1YX at .32 p.m. on Tuesday, October 26, and also from 2YH on the following Sunday evening. Gluck’s music differs from other operatic music of the period in that he wished to break the shoddy conventions developed by virtuoso singers who had no other desire than to show off; his airs therefore have a concentrated dramatic force that loses nothing with the passage of -time. Also worth notice: 2YA, 8.0 p.m.: Music of the Moderns. 2ZB, 8.5 p.m.: "A Nosegay for Judith" (Play). 3YL, 9.1 p.m.: Violin: Sonata No. 2 (Bee thoven). 4YA, 7.15 p.m.: ‘Men and the Women’s Franchise" (Talk). WEDNESDAY Ps DULL booming noise began, not very loud at first, but it grew and grew. and Kala Nag lifted up one fore foot and then the other and brought them down on the ground-one-two,-one-two, as steadily as trip-hammers, The elephants were stamping all together now, and the booming went on and the ground rocked and shivered." That is Kipling’s description in The Jungle Book of how little Toomai saw the dance of the elephants, and it is the basis for one of the "impressions" composed for the piano by Cyril Scott which Haagen Holenbergh will include in a studio recital from 1YA at 8.12 p.m. on Wednesday, October 27. It was obviously not the basis for our artist's impression, which is Disneyfied rather than dignified. Also worth notice e 1YA, 7.0 p.m.: Auckland Ladies’ Choir. 2YA, 7.30 p.m.: Military Camp Concert. 3YA, 9.30 p.m.: "Enigma Variations" (Elgar). 3ZB, 9.0 p.m.: "Don Quixote."

THURSDAY F you grow wool or wear it, buy it or sell it, tune in to 3YA at 7.15 p.m. on Thursday, October 28, to hear a talk by Dr. P. R. McMahon. Dr. McMahon’s subject "The Use of New Zealand Wools," sounds harmless enough, but its implications are portentous. It may turn out to be, in effect, how to keep New Zealand wool in use, and in fact natural wool from any country. For one of the

latest rivals to the wool that grows on a sheep’s back is the wool that comes out of a hen’s egg. Yes, this is a true story. A magazine we have just received from London reports the successful production from a single egg of "as much thread as 100 hard-working silk-worms can produce in a season’’-a terrifying Prospect for sheep-farmers. It is of course true that the world is more likely to eat its eggs than to wear them while the war lasts; but the war will end, and who knows what will happen then to sheep and silk-worms. Also worth notice: 1YX, 8.24 p.m.: Songs by Sibelius. 2YC, 8 p.m.: Quartet in Flat (Stamitz). 4YA, 8.15 p.m.: Flute Concerto by Vivaldi (Studio). FRIDAY NN Friday, October 29, Station 2YH (Napier) will broadcast an item which our copy of the programme assures us is entitled "The Whistler’s Mother-in-Law" composed by Wagner, and played by the Milt Herth Trio-a fascinating enigma. It reminds us of Bernard Shaw, who in his music-critic days saw the notice of a concert item by "Mrs. Shaw, ‘the American Lady Whistler." He wondéred how, if she was Mrs. Shaw, she could be "the Ameri. can Lady Whistler." In the end, she turned out to be an American lady who whistled, quite tunefully as it happened. Now obviously there are Shaws, and Shaws, Whistlers and Whistlers, Wagners and Wagners, Mothers and Mothers-in-law; so if you wish to sort out which is which in this case you must listen in on Friday of next week, at 9.37 p.m, Also worth notice: 1YA, 7.30 p.m.: 1YA_ Studio Orchestra. ior 9.15 p.m.: "The Story of Helen Keller." 5.0 p.m.: Woodford House Choir. 3YA, 8.0 p.m.: Christchurch Orpheus Choir. SATURDAY HE encouragement given to local enterprise by import difficulties in these times is not necessarily confined to industry-painters and writers have already felt the benefit, and now in Australia composers are coming into their

own. Gramophone records have been in short supply for a long time, and the Columbia company has recorded some Australian music, which will be heard on Saturday evening, October 30. From 1YA at 8.49 p.m. you may hear music from the ballet By Candlelight by William James, well known for his "Six Australian Bush Songs." Radio Call (Adelaide) described this music as able "to hold its own in the sphere of light orchestral music." From Station 2YH Napier, at 8.25 p.m. on the same evening, there will be heard Willy Redstone’s "Symphonic Fantasy on John Brown’s Body" described in Radio Call as "jolly fun throughout for the listener." Both compositions are recorded by the ABC Light Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Heinze. . Also worth notice: 1YX, 9.27 p.m.: "The World on the Moon" (Haydn). 2YA, 7.30 p.m.: Sociable Songs (Studio). 3YL, 9.29 p.m.; Symphony No. 5 (Tchaikovski). SUNDAY A NEWCOMER to the classical programmes, a work now made available by the arrival of a fairly recent recording, is "Solomon-a Hebrew Rhapsody" by Ernest Bloch, which will be heard from two stations on Sunday, October 31 -1YX at 9.25 p.m., and 4YZ at 3 p.m. (also from 2YA on Tuesday evening, October 26). ‘Bloch is a Jewish composer of Swiss birth who has developed an idiom based on his race consciousness: "It is the Jewish soul that interests me, the complex, glowing, agitated soul that I feel vibrating through the Bible," he has said. He had planned a vocal work, but could not decide what language to use, and eventually chose the expressive tone of ‘the ’cello to interpret the role of Solomon in all his wisdom. Also worth notice: 2YA, 3.30 p.m.: Telephone Hour (featuring Lawrence 4YA, 2.30 p.m: "Scheherezade" (RimskyKorsakov).