Programmes For Christmas

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 234, 17 December 1943, Page 16

Programmes For Christmas

no doubt at all about what season it is, whatever the weather may suggest, the Broadcasting Services will scatter seasonal fare throughout their programmes next week-Christmas carols, of course; but also special Christmas plays produced by the NBS and reserved for this occasion, readings on Christmas topics, and music other than carols which is in some way appropriate. Station 3YA will open the festival on Wednesday, December 22, when H. Winston Rhodes will read references to Christmas from Tennyson’s In Memoriam. Then on Friday (Christmas Eve), Professor T. D. Adams will give Christmas readings from 4YA at 9.33 p.m., with appropriate music. Christmas Eve programmes also include: 1YA, Midnight Mass from St. Patrick’s Cathedral; 2YA, 8.0 p.m. Christmas songs from the Studio; 3YA, Midnight, Devotional Service, followed by Midnight Mass from St. Michael’s Anglican Church; 2YN, Nelson, 8,30 p.m. Carols by the Vienna Boys’. Choir; 3YA, 8.32 p.m., organ recital of Christmas music by Dr. J. C. Bradshaw; 3YL, 10.0 p.m., "Christmas Cavalcade"; 3ZR, Greymouth, 9.25 p.m., Peter Dawson’s Christmas Party; 4YZ, Invercargill, 8.30 p.m., Christmas music from St. John’s Church. Plays for the Day On Christmas Day itself, there will be plays from various stations: "He That Should Come" (Dorothy Sayers), from 2YA at 8.4 p.m; "A Reputation for Benevolence" (O. Oliver and R. Matthews), 3ZR, 8.0 p.m.; "Four Looked Down on Christmas Morn" (W. G. Holder), 4YA 2.30 pm; "Unimportant People’ (W. G. Holder), 3YA, 4.0 pm; "The Shadow" (Richard Matthews), 2YH, 9.25 p.m.: All these are NBS productions. In addition, a performance of Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol" (featuring Ronald Colman), will be heard from 2YA at 2.0 p.m., and from 4YZ at 3.36 p.m. Auckland listeners will have no special Christmas play, but there will be a programme "Christmas in Yugoslavia" at 3.0 p.m., and an organ recital of appropriate music played by Bernard Page at 8.0 p.m. with a BBC feature, "Christmas Carols of the Allies" at 8.40 p.m. ; Listeners to 2YA will hear some carols recorded by the St. Martin’s Choral Society at 10.0 p.m. and Coleridge Taylor’s "Christmas Overture," based on carol tunes, will be heard from various stations at other times. Station 3YL will present Christmas music between 8.0 p.m. and 9.0 p.m., including the two most famous pieces of orchestral music connected with the legend of the shepherds of Bethlehem: the "Pastoral Symphony" from Handel’s Messiah, with a bagpipe tune played in Southern Italy at Christmas time; and the "Shepherd’s Christmas Music" from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Christmas broadcasts will not cease even after midnight: at one o’clock on (continued on next page) S O that radio listeners will have

(continued from previous page) Sunday morning, December 26, 2YA will re-broadcast a BBC Christmas programme. For the Forces, there will be a special programme at 6.30 p.m. on Christmas Day, but as we go to press, the recordings. have not arrived from:the Middle East. The usual times occupied by "With the Boys: Overseas" will, of course, contain Christmas greetings from the Middle East and the Pacific. (Details of. special Christmas programmes ' from the Commercial stations will be found..on page 15). ;