What's It All About?
OWN by the Rio Grande they dance no sarabande"-but one would have to be a greater admirer than I of Sacheverell Sitwell to remember more of this poem. When Constant Lambert’s Rio Grande bursts forth, my immediate reaction is always, "Yes, very impressive, but what on earth are they singing about?" I remember, on first hearing this work at a Dunedin concert, the electric effect it produced on the audience; but on that occasion, and rightly too, the words were printed in the programme. Very seldom, even with strictly trained singers, is it possible to hear words sung in chorus, except where long familiarity makes for automatic perception, as in listening to Gilbert and Sullivan, Even in the record by the Halle Orchestra with St. Michael’s Singers, the words are problematical. But the words matter only in that they set the mood for the music, and the wild LatinAmerican atmosphere is caught in alternating moods of raucous gaiety and unabashed sentimentality. As an unfortunate anticlimax, however, this particular presentation finished a few minutes before schedule, and was followed without pause or announcement by the sugary. inanity of Toselli’s Serenata.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19450126.2.11.11
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 292, 26 January 1945, Page 6
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193What's It All About? New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 292, 26 January 1945, Page 6
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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