THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 286, 15 December 1944, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

MONDAY HE next composer whose music will be heard in the 9.0 p.m, composer session from Station 2YD is Sir Arthur Sullivan. If you have never thought of his having any separate entity, and have always said Gjilbert-and-Sullivan as readily as you say bacon-and-eggs or steak-and-onions, this series might give you a new conception of Sullivan, for the programme will present Sullivan the composer in his own right. The first session will be heard at 9.0 p.m. on Monday, December 18, and will include the "Overture di Ballo,’ two numbers from Ivanhoe, an orchestral selection from Pinafore, and the ballad "My Dearest Heart." ' Also worth notice: 2YA, 8.0 p.m.: Quartet in G (Bax). 3YA, 9.25 p.m.: Violin Sonata in F (Grieg). TUESDAY [LISTENERS may remember having heard recently a BBC recording of readings from Walter de la Mare’s Peacock Pie, interspersed with music by Roger Quilter. On Tuesday, December 19, Station 2YA will broadcast another selection from Peacock Pie, this time a number of songs by Armstrong Gibbs and Hugh Robertson. Peacock Pie is subtitled "a book of rhymes," and the subtitle is an indication of its not-too-serious intent. Some of the poems are serious and some are not really for children, but all of them display what has been called de la Mare’s "moonlight craftsmanship." Settings of "Five Eyes," "Miss T,’ and other poems from Peacock Pie will be sung from 2YA by studio singers at 8.20 p.m. on Tuesday. Also worth notice: 2YA, 9.0 p.m.: Music by Vaughan Williams. 4YO, 9.0 p.m.: String Sextet (Brahms). WEDNESDAY AT 9.2 p.m. on Wednesday, December 20, Station 2YD will broadcast a new play, recently produced by the NBS Drama Department. It is by the New Zealander John Gundry, whose "Strange Harmony" won the radio section of the literary competition for men in the Forces earlier this year. "Mr. Whistler Meets Mr. Wilde" is its title, and the title tells you most of what there is to know about the play. It opens with the accidental meeting in a London cab of Whistler and Wilde, who have been warring in the press on artistic matters, and Whistler divulges his identity while Wilde remains incognito. Mr. Gundry has woven a neat little satire round an imaginary incident involving a Cockney servant girl employed by Whistler. Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.0 p.m.: Mozart Trio in D Minor. 2YC, 8.0 p.m.: "Linz" Symphony (Mozart) THURSDAY NE of the consequences of the Battle for Britain, a London newspaper says, has been the reappearance in the most unexpected places of the original forest growth. It even suggests that if London had been entirely destroyed and depopulated it would have become an extension of the New Forest before another century had passed. That may be science, and it may be speculation, but it is beyond doubt that the return of

New Zealand to nature for a hundred years would bring back the forest. The question is, what parts of New Zealand would it still pay us to abandon, and how long would the bush take to reappear? We don’t know the answer, and it is not certain that anyone does, but if those who are interested listen to 3YA at 7.15 p.m. on Thursday, December 21, they will hear the subject discussed by E. L. Kehoe. Also worth notice: 2YC, 8.0 p.m.: Music by Schubert. 4YA, 8.16 p.m.: Violin Concerto (Bruch). FRIDAY STATION 1YA will broadcast at 9.25 p.m. on Friday, December 22, a Violin Concerto in E Minor written for the BBC last year by Sir Arnold Bax, Master of the King’s Musick. The composer was invited last year to provide a new work for St. Cecilia’s Day (November 22) and this concerto was the result. He describes it himself as follows: "It actually comprises three distinct short pieces (Overture, Ballad, and a Scherzo which makes a mock of the themes in the first part). Finally, there are triumphant restatements of the chief themes of the Overture and Ballad." The appearance of this work will probably be welcomed by many listeners whose knowledge of Bax’s symphonic music is confined to one or two minor works recorded some years ago. Also worth notice: 2YC, 9.30 p.m.: Sonata, Op. 2, No. 2 (Beethoven). 3YA, &.34 p.m.: Christmas Music (organ recital).

SATURDAY \VVITHOUT the services of English musicians and latterly Americans who have supplied the necessary modern garb, a good many composers of the 17th century might still be in modest hiding for lack of the instrumental dressing-up that is considered essential these days; but there has been a boom in what might be called the secondary industry of music-the arranging of scores from early periods that do not sound effective to modern listeners accustomed to the richness of modern orchestration. Station 1YX will present at 9.0 p.m. on Saturday, December 23, an hour of music from the 17th and early 18th centuries in modern arrange-ment-all the arrangements except one being by Englishmen. : Also worth notice: hi Ff p-m.: Camp Concert Successes of 3YL, 8.34 p.m.: "Christmas" from Bach’s "Little Organ Book." SUNDAY HE last day of the programmes appearing in this issue of The Listener is Christmas Eve, so listeners will find seasonal items in the programmes for the week-end. ,Station 1YA _ will present carols and other yuletide entertainment on the Saturday evening, and at midnight on Christmas Eve, Midnight Mass will be relayed from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. For 2YA listeners there will be Corelli’s "Christmas Concerto" and some Christma$ songs in the Sunday evening programme. From 3YA there will be a Christmas play at 10.25 p.m., "Music for Christmas" at 10.25, and Dickens’s "A Christmas Carol" at 11.30., In Dunedin, 4YA will magk the occasion with Dorothy Sayers’s play "He That Should Come" at 10.11 p.m. Also worth notice: 2YA, 2.0 p.m.: Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. 4YA, 2.30 p.m.: Quintet D (Mozart).