THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 246, 10 March 1944, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

MONDAY OST of us have known at one time or another what it is to get a tune "on the brain,’ and most of us have cursed the intruding notes when they have become too persistent. Some, perhaps, have even felt a sense of shame, imagining the habit to be about the lowest degree of musical activity; these may be comforted to learn that the musical great were, in their own way, subject to the same habit. Schubert, as anyone knows who makes a point of hearing any of his music that is broadcast, was always using favourite tunes again, and even Beethoven took a strong enough liking to one of his own tunes to use it four times: the tune known as his "Eroica" tune (the theme of the last movement of the "Eroica" symphony) @ppears in his "Prometheus" ballet music, and in two works that will be broadcast at the same time (9.25 p.m.) from different stations on Monday, March 13. While 3ZR Greymouth is playing the "Twelve Contra Dances" (one of which is the tune in question) 3YA will be playing Lili Kraus’s recording of the piano variations on the same theme. Also worth notice: 2YA, 8.18 p.m.: Sonata in D Minor (Brahms). 4YA, 7.43 p.m.: "Eternity In An Hour" (BBC programme)TUESDAY N excellent and well proven cure for sleepless nights, as any insomniac will deny, is the ancient device of counting sheep. But Canterbury motorists, even if they know their Wordsworth, May experience sensations other than those of tranquillity when ewe fairs and ram fairs bring flocks.on to the roads near Sheffield, Ashburton, and Christchurch. Though drovers are modernised these days, and are to be seen idling along in low gear in big American cars, their flocks retain their exasperating habits-they still "leisurely pass by"and we warn any impatient motorists -who may encounter them that it is not a bit of use tooting the horn. Station 3YA will broadcast reports from the three fairs at 7.0 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (March 14-17). Also worth notice: 2YA, 7.30 p.m.: Haagen Holenbergh, pianist (studio). 3YL, 9.26 p.m.: "Hardanger" (Bax). WEDNESDAY Miss CECIL HULL, who is well known to listeners for her lively reminiscences of things past, is back on the air at 1YA. The general theme of her session is that "those were the days." They were-spacious, romantic, and (we ought to admit it) pretty uncomfortable at times. Miss Hull has an excellent memory, and we suspect she backs it,up with diaries and scrap-books, otherwise how would she know so accurately not only what Gladstone said in 1878, but what her headmaster said in her school days? She is talking about her teachers, trips to England, holidays in New Zealand, the books they used to read, and other things. These talks

are fortnightly at 1YA at 7.15 p.m. on Wednesdays, alternating with the book review. Also worth, notice: 2YA, 9.25 p.m.: "Pictures from Europe." 3YA, 9.30 p.m.: Symphony No. 8 in F Major (Beethoven). THURSDAY | "Dont put your daughter on the stage, Mrs. Worthington" sang Noel Coward, and he ought to know what a theatrical life is like. But there must be

hundreds of mothers like Mrs. Worthington who aspire to seeing their daughters’ mames on the posters outside theatres and concert chambers. If you haven’t already met any of these stagefolk, the opportunity offers on Thursday, March 16, at 8.36 p.m. from 3ZR, in a play, "Stage-Craft,’ by Grace Janisch. It is of New Zealand, by a New Zealander, and for-well, at least it’s democratic. Also worth notice: 2YA, 9.40 p.m.: Programme by 2YA Concert Orchestra. 4YA, 7.30 & 8.30 p.m.: Music by Liszt. FRIDAY [tT used to be Mesopotamia. Now it is Community Centre. When the sociologists stop talking about’ it the modern mothers begin, and when they forget, the infant prodigies chirp up. Well, that is the way all ideas spread, and sometimes they are good ideas. This is. No one who has been to Feilding, or to Rangiora, can doubt it. But it is possible to know about those places and still not grasp what a Community Centre is. If you want to get the idea from its first advocate, J. E.’Strachan, M.A., Principal of Rangiora High School, listen to 3YA on Friday, March 17, at 7.15 p.m. Also worth notice: 2YA, 7.30 p.m.: Haagen Holenbergh, pianist (studio). 4YA, 9.31 p.m.: Shakespeare’s Contemporaries (reading). SATURDAY HENEVER there is a power failura at night, there is a frantic scramble for candles. At least that’s how we find it, for our candles are generally at the back of a pile of bottles on the most inaccessible shelf in the cupboard. "Next time we'll put them on the bottom shelf,’ we foolishly promise. But in the soft, warm glow that hovers over the

room when the candle is lit, we forget trash promises and merge gently into the atmosphere of 19th century tranquillity. But after all, where’s atmosphere without music, and if your music comes only from the radio, where’s music without power? The happy state of music, plus candlelight, seems unobtainable, unless 1YA has solved the problem. On Saturday, March 18, at 8.44 p.m. that station is playing music from the ballet "By Candlelight." Also worth notice: 1YX, 9.0 p.m.: Symphony No. 94 (‘Surprise’) (Haydn). 2YC, 8.20 p.m.: "Checkmate" Ballet Suite (Bliss). SUNDAY JN the paragraph headed Monday on this page we have drawn the listener’s attention to a newly-recorded work by Beet-hoyven-the "Eroica" variations for piano. On the preceding and following Sundays (March 12 and 19) those listeners who can get station 2YN Nelson may hear another Beethoven work that they may not have heard before-the ‘" Missa Solemnis." Like all the later works of Beethoven, it was the creation of a deaf, tortured man. It takes a long time to play, and 2YN has split it up — three movements this Sunday (March 12), and two more a week later at 7.0 p.m. Also worth notice: 1YA, 3.30 p.m.: ‘New World" Symphony (Dvorak). 3YA, 9.22 p.m.: "Three Men on a Raft" (play).