THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 233, 10 December 1943, Page 2

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

MONDAY HARLES LAMB, as everyone knows, had neither ear for music nor love for musicians. "The devil, with his foot so cloven, for aught I care may take Beethoven," wrote this philistine, in the same ‘breath as "I would not go four miles to visit Sebastian Bach-or Batch -which is it?" Knowing. this, listeners will form their own estimate of Lamb’s musical opinions, and they may sigh a sympathetic sigh or else recoil in horror from the man who said "Cannot a man live free and easy without admiring Pergolesi?" However, this may be, we believe that when Station 2YA broadcasts Pergolesi’s "Stabat Mater" at 7.54 p.m. on Monday, December 13, the announcer will make a better job of the pronunciation than Charles Lamb did. Also worth notice: 2YH, 9.37 p.m.: Symphony No. 8 (Beet3YA, 9.25 p.m.: Violin Sonata by Handel (Studio). 4YA, 8.8 p.m.: Masterpieces of Music, TUESDAY INE more days, and we shall be, out of the gates of misery," chant the school children. But not Correspondence School pupils, surely. Things are a bit different for them; for one thing they don’t have school gates-school is where they find it, in lighthouses or on lonely farms; and for another thing they surely can’t have much "misery" when their instructions are broadcast so pleasantly over the air. But still, holidays are holidays, and soon Johnny, right up in the back country, will be able to run about all day in the sun instead of only part of the day, because the Correspondence School is breaking up. On Tuesday, December 14, at 9 a.m., the mgin National stations will broadcast the closing-down ceremony, relayed from St. James Theatre, Wellington. Also worth notice: 2YA, 8.42 p.m.: Contemporary American Music. 3YL, 9.1 p.m.: "Kreutzer’’ Sonata (Beethoven). 4YZ, 8.0 p.m.: "Messiah" (combined Invercargill choirs). WEDNESDAY ORE than 150,000 prisoners, 500 tons of bombs in half-an-hour, another four U-boats destroyed . ." says Henry, reading. "Anything in paper?" says Henry’s wife. "No-not much." But Henry went down to the pub and there he met a journalist. The journalist told him about another pub half way between Folkestone and Dover which had been the centre of news for the Battle of Britain. Now the Battle of Britain is over and the little pub has only the local inhabitants as visitors, but between that time and this hangs a story. Listen in to "News for Henry," a BBC production, for this story that really happened. It will be broadcast on Wednesday, December 15, from 2YA at 9.48 p.m. Also worth notice: sian 8.0 p.m.: Suite No. 2 for Flutes and (8 (Studio). pth p.m.: Sinfonia for Strings by ‘Douglas Lilburn (Studio). 4Y0, | 9.0 pwm.: Piano Concerto (Schostako-

THURSDAY O sailors really dance hornpipes? And is the Irishman really fond of his jig? Answering touchy questions of this kind is no work for landlubbers like ourselves who have never set foot on the Emerald Isle, but we have not yet seen a sailor dancing anything at all to the music that can so often be heard from

ships in Wellington harbour. And if times have changed in the fo’c’sle, they have probably changed on the banks of the Liffey too. Still, modern conditions may not be the concern of Alex Sutherland, who is to give a talk on Sailors’ Hornpipes and Irish Jigs from 4YZ at 7.0 p.m. on Thursday, December 16. The title of his series, after all, is "Traditional National Dancing," and we have no doubt that he will master his steps without treading on the toes of the living. Also worth notice: a as 1YX, 8.24 p.m.: "Dichterliebe" Songs (Schumann), 2YC, 8.0 p.m.: Quartet in C Major (Schubert). 4YA, 9.25 p.m.: Symphony No. 1 (Dvorak). FRIDAY Most young pianists encounter pianoforte duets in the shape of thumping arrangements of Beethoven’s or Haydn’s symphonies, an original work or two if they are lucky-perhaps Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, or Walton’s Duets for children-apart altogether of course from those teacher’s pieces that have the teacher’s part on one page and the pupil’s on the other. To them, it probably comes as a surprise to learn that there exists a considerable repertory of music written originally for four hands, particularly by Mozart and Schubert. Artur Schnabel and his son Karl have recorded some Schubert pieces that sound, a writer has said "like some celestial barrel-organ." From 3YA on Friday evenings this month Noel Newson and Frederick Page have been playing some of Mozart’s works for four hands, happy entertainment pieces in the divertimento style, and on Friday, December 19, at 7.30, they will play Variations on a Theme in G Major. Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.33 p.m.: Symphony No, 2 in B Fiat (Schubert).° 2YC, 9.0 p.m.: Sonata in E, Op. 109 (Beethoven). 4YA, 8.27 p.m.: "Meet the Colonel" (U.S.A. programme).

SATURDAY N the last week before the season ‘of goodwill to all men, muscatels and almonds, peace on earth, flaming brandy, whole cooked hams, and other commodities that are temporarily off the market, the mind of the programme organfser naturally turns to music that has the ting of Good Chéer, and he has plenty of help from local musicians and choirs who seize the opportunity to make up a topical programme. Thus there is a generous spate of carols, old and new, to be heard from 1YA on Saturday evening, December 18, sung by the Lyric Harmonists Choir; Napier listeners who cannot hear the Royal Wellington Choral Union’s 50th performance of Handel’s Messiah from 2YC may console themselves by hearing some of the contralto airs sung from the studio of 2YH; Christchurch has already done its share, but in Dunedin there will be Coleridge Taylor’s "Christmas Overture" played by the 4YA concert orchestra, on the Saturday evening, and excerpts from the Messiah (from the Anglican Cathedral) on the Sunday evening (December 19). Also worth notice: 1YX, 9.45 p.m.: Songs of the Auvergne. 2YA, 8.31 p.m.: Comedy Caravan. 3YL, 8.0 p.m.: Modern British Composers. SUNDAY T 3.30 p.m. on Sunday afternoons for the next few weeks, Station 1YA will broadcast recorded programmes. by American Symphony orchestras, supplied by the U.S. Office of War Information, whose job it is to see that a good neighbour policy extends to the arts. Thus American composers who have hitherto been no more than names to New Zealanders, if they have been heard of at all, may shortly become as familiar to listeners here as New Zealand’s own composers. On Sunday, December 19, there will be works by three Americans all under 40: Morton Gould (Spirituals for String Choir and Orchestra), who is 30; William Schuman (Prayer for 1943), who is 33; and Paul Creston (Symphony No. 1), who is 37, Also worth notice: 2YA, 4.0 p.m.: "Christian Principles in Public Life" (Talk). 3YA, 3.0 p.m.: Concerto in D fe: (Vaughan Williams).