NEWS OF MUSIC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 253, 28 April 1944, Page 21

NEWS OF MUSIC

An Occasional Column EOPOLD STOKOWSKI has accepted a new conducting post---unpaid-in America. He was invited by the Mayor of New York (La Guardia) to direct the newly-formed New York City Symphony in its concerts at the City Centre of Music and Drama. The 80 musicians represent many of the United Nations, and women were not excluded. The audiences, likewise, wil! meet no. bars. As Stokowski said, "The orchestra will be for everyone, of whatever class, race, or creed, and all will be done to make it available to everyone." Stokowski said that his programmes would emphasise the work of young American composers without neglecting the classics. * * MITRI SCHOSTAKOVICH, the Russian composer, broke into prose a while ago. He wrote a tribute to the defenders of Leningrad, " Memorial — Courage": ; "The thunder of the Leningrad guns marked a great and splendid victory. The heroic sons of the Soviet land dealt the enemy a mighty blow . . . Severe have been the wounds inflicted upon the heroic city during the blockade. The Russian people ... are grieved that priceless works of art, painting, sculpture, and books were plundered and carried off to Ger- many by the Nazi savages. "The barbarians shall pay for their desecration of the city and all the suffering they’ve caused to its population. For all time the beautiful city of Leningrad shall stand as a symbol of our might, a beacon of Russian culture, a spiritual fortress, a people’s memorial to the unbending courage of free men." x Fe x [GOR STRAVINSKY, the Russian composer (The Firebird, Petrouchka, The Rite of Spring), made his own highly dissonant version of "The Star Spangled Banner," and conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra through it at a concert. There is a law in Massachusetts providing for a fine of 100 dollars for altering the anthem, but the police said there would be no prosecution. In the American recording of Stravinsky conducting a Boston Symphony concert which 2YA listeners will hear on Tuesday, May 2, the anthem is played "in the usual version." %* % * ; MA48J ORIE LAWRENCE, the Austra- . lian-born operatic soprano of the New York Metropolitan Opera who caught infantile paralysis in 1941 and has since sung sitting or lying down, is reported to be learning to walk again. A few months ago she took two steps, the first for two years.