THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 264, 14 July 1944, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

MONDAY His MAJESTY’S THEATRE, London, has not always been His Majesty’s Theatre. When it was built, for instance, it was Her Majesty’s Theatre. But it has always been in the Haymarket, and in its 47 years or so it has seen and heard some of the most famous musical shows of its day. Station 2YA has arranged a programme to be heard at 9.40 p.m. on Monday, July 17 which will consist of hits from some of the greatest musical plays and operettas that were staged at His Majesty’s between 1916 and 1938. There will be recordings from Chu Chin Chow, The Student Prince, Dubarry and Conversation Piece. Also worth notice: 3YA, 9.25 p.m.: Quartet in E Flat (Dvorak). 4YA, 8.2 p.m.: Seventh Symphony (Beethoven). TUESDAY ARVE a wing-rib away from the bone; slice a leg of ‘mutton from right to left; divide a loin of pork, chop by chop; serve up sucking-pig with its head still on; hang venison till it drops-so runs the etiquette ef carving, and woe betide the bungling amateur who loses his temper with a recalcitrant hen and tears the thing to pieces with his hands. At the very least, well- brought-up visitors will raise their eyebrows. But perhaps the Winter Course Talk, to be broadcast from 4YA at 7.15 p.m. on Tuesday, July 18, is an indication that the day of wanton slicing is over. The talk is by F. Gordon Bell, and is entitled "The Training of Doc-tors-The Teaching of Surgery." Also worth notice: 1YX, 8.0 p.m.: Seventh Symphony (Beets hoven). 2YA; 8.0 p.m.: Music by Brahms. , 3YL, 8.0 p.m.: Music by Brahms, , ~ ~ WEDNESDAY F you want to hear a plain, straightforward dramatisation of the life of Sir Walter Scott, listen in to 2YA at 8.12 p.m. on Wednesday, July 19, for a broadcast of "The Author of Waverley," a BBC production, written and produced by Robert Kemp. The play tells the story of this prolific writer’s success when his first novel Waverley was published anonymously and the impression.of a thousand copies was sold out in five weeks. It follows through the publication of his later novels, to the financial collapse of his publisher, Constable, and Scott’s supreme effort to wipe out the dgbt before his death. Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.0 p.m.: Dorian Ariel Choir, 2YC, 8.0 p.m.: Violin Concerto inD (Beethoven),. THURSDAY N 3YL’s evening programme for Thursday, July 20, listeners will find "Light Opera" at 8 p.m., "Old English" at 8.30, "Vocal Ensembles" at 8.45, and "For the Balletomane" at 9.0. All of that is clear enough-they will know roughly what tosexpect. But they may not be so sure of "Contrasts," a 15-minute session beginning at 9.15 p.m. The title could mean that listeners will hear Beet-

hoven’s "I Love Thee," followed by Frank Sinatra’s "My Ideal," and then the Fifth .Symphony, followed by Peter Dawson’s "V-Song." On the other hand, it could also mean that they will hear Elgar’s little orchestral composition "Contrasts," and/or Bela Bartok’s "Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet and

Piano." We make no promises, but suggest that if you want to know the right answer, you tune in at 9.15 p.m. Also worth notice: 1YX, 8.0 p.m.: Trio in E Fiat, Op, 100 (Schubert), 2YC, 8.0 p.m.: Quartet in E Flat (Schumann). FRIDAY "Twelve-O-Seven, Twelve-O-Seven, It’s the squadron, you'll agree, To fly together, Through dirty weather, Just to see the vacant sea... ." HAT is the song of a certain Coastal Command squadron of the R.AF., whose story is featured in the BBC recorded programme "To See the Vacant Sea," broadcast from 2YA at 8.28 p.m, on Friday; July 21. But the sea is not always vacant; down on the wide expanse of ocean comes a puff of smoke, and that smoke represents the enemy. The pilot’s left hand opens the throttle. The airspeed indicator swings to 160, 180, 200 m.p.h. The nose tilts downwards, The altimeter figure drops swiftly .. . 3000... 2500... 1000 . . . 800, then the bomb doors open. When the plane rises, once more there is only a vacant sea stretching out below. Of special interest in the programme is the incidental music, which is by Vaughan Williams, from his "Coastal Command" Suite. Also. worth notice: . 2YC, 9.0 p.m.: Violin Sonatina, Op. 100 (Dvorak). 3YA, 8.0 p.m.: Violin Music and Its Background (No. 9). 4YZ, 8.0 p.m.: Piano Concerto in C (Mozart). SATURDAY CORRESPONDENT complained in a recent issue that he had been listening to the main YA’s and subsidiary stations for four years and could not remember having heard anything from Bach’s Mass in B Minor. "We get plenty of the inferior Masses of Mozart, Verdi, and Faure," he wrote, "and nothing by the greatest master of them all." Now 3YL has answered him.

In its two-hour programme of Bach’s music, scheduled for 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 22, not onlys will there be the "Gloria" from the Mass in B) Minor (at 9.41 p.m.),° but there will also. be the choral "Magnificat" at 8.21 p.m., and a wide selection from the orchestral works, including the Suite No. 3 in D, a two-piano concerto, and the sixth Brandenburg Concerto. Also worth notice: 1YX, 9.0 p.m.: Music from the Russian Masters (4). » 4YZ;>9.25 p.m.: Octet (Howard Ferguson). SUNDAY READERS of the popular fiction of 40 years ago»have not forgotten Sherlock Holmes and his offsider Dr. Watson. And readers of the popular fiction of 10 or 15 years ago still remember another famous sleuth who had an offsider — Bulldog Drummond, and _ his amusing friend Algernon. Drummond’s series of adventures involving the villain Carl Petersen and his beautiful accomplice Irma, were not actually serials, though we seem to remember that they went on and on, round and round. Station 2YA is going to remind its listeners at 9.50 p.m. on Sunday, July 23, of one of these duels of wits and gunfire devised by "Sapper." It is called "The Second Round," and it was heard on the air before the war, but has not been broadcast for some time. It was recorded by the NBS Drama Department. Also worth notice: 1YA, 9.33 p.m.: "Martha" (Opera). 3YA, 3.0 p.m.: Septet in E Flat (Beethoven). 4YA, 8.30 p.m.: String Trio (Francaix).