Turnabout
E would all know what to expect from anything labelled "Paderewski at the Piano," but it was with a sense of adventurous expectancy that I tuned to "Arthur Askey at the Piano"-a description too promising to be missed. Askey does play the piano in this record, and plays it himself, as he is at great ‘pains to assure us. It purports to be Askey’s Portfolio Method, and the least said about this the better. A sketchy performance of Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C Sharp Minor proves that the comedian can actually play not too badly, but after the solemn introduction he ceases carelessly with the glib explanation that "well, it gets a bit tricky after that." What I should like to hear would be not only comedians performing on instruments sacred to the musical fraternity, but pianists doing ten minutes of what Claude Hulbert lugubriously describes as "funny patter’; Walkyrian sopranos singing "Beat Me Daddy, Eight
to the Bar’; and Frank Sinatra attempting Mendelssohn’s "I Am a Roamer." We should then know for certain whether musicians have a sense of humour, whether prima donnas are snobs, and, most important of all, whether Sinatra can actually sing.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19450323.2.17.3
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 300, 23 March 1945, Page 8
Word count
Tapeke kupu
196Turnabout New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 300, 23 March 1945, Page 8
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
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.
Log in