THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 305, 27 April 1945, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

MONDAY HOUGH much damaged by Hitler’s bombs, The Temple, London, where the lawyers live, is still a lovely place and full of history. The Temple goes right back to the times of the Crusades, when it was the home of the Knights Templar, and it includes two of the several Inns of Court. It is the place to go to if you wish to see many of the famous people of London. If we in New Zealand want to hear more about it, we may tune in to 1YA on Monday, April 30, at 8.25 p.m., and hear a BBC programme about The Temple. Also worth notice: 2YA, 7.47 p.m.: English Country Calendar. 3YA, 9.25 p.m.: Haydn Sonatas, TUESDAY T 9.1 p.m. on Tuesday, May 1, 1YX will present a\programme of music by two more or less modern German composers, Hans Pfitzner and Richard Strauss. First there is Pfitzner’s overture to Kleist’s play Kathchen von Heilbronn, and this will be followed by the introduction to Act 1 of his opera Palestrina, "a musical legend," which was written in 1917. Pfitzner is 76 and dislikes mod-~ ernistic tendencies in music, preferring the Wagnerian style. The Richard Strauss work which completes this programme is also theatre music-a suite from his incidental music to Moliere’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.0 p.m.: "Dinner with a Novelist." 3YL, 8.24 p.m.: Piano Quintet (Bloch). WEDNESDAY HAETON, the son of Apollo, you may remember from your school days, asked his father to allow him to guide the chariot of the sun for a day. But he was not a very capable driver. He upset the heavenly applecart and was hurled headlong from the skies into the River Po by a thunderbolt launched by the angry Jupiter. If you tune in to 2YC at 8.46 p.m. on Wednesday, May 2, you will hear the Saint-Saens symphonic poem "Phaeton" by the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra. Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.0 p.m.: Harp Recital (Studio). 3YA, 9.30 p.m.: Symphony No. 7 (Sibelius). THURSDAY HE Christchurch Harmonic Society, whose conductor is Victor C. Peters, is continuing its policy of inviting school choirs from other towns to collaborate in concerts, and on Thursday, May 3, a concert will be relayed from the Civic Theatre by 3YL, to which the Otago Girls’ School Choir (conducted by C. Roy Spackman) will contribute several items. The Harmonic Society (with the 3YA orchestra) will perform Russian Music-the Coronation Scene from Boris Godounov and the Cantata "Joshuay’ by Moussorgsky, and Borodin’s well known choral dances (from Prince Igor). The visiting choir will sing English partsongs. Also worth notice: oer a p.m.: Symphony No, 2 (RachmanA 9.05 p.m.: Symphony No 4 (Beethoven).

FRIDAY GUEST member of the BBC Brains Trust to be heard from 2YA at 8.28 p.m. on Friday, May 4, will be Lynda Greer, Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, the Oxford Women’s College. The order paper is so arranged that it includes points of particular concern in these changing days. One listener asks, "Is the Stock Exchange really necessary?" The debate becomes lively because the Brains Trust disagree widely-to such an extent that the economist is provoked to tell the musical conductor: "Sargent, you have the queerest jdeas." Also worth notice: 2YC, 9.1\p.m.: Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas, 3YA, 8.0 p.m.: Maurice Clare (violin). SATURDAY OMEBODY once asked a cynic "How do you start a book of reminiscences?" to which the cynic replied, "That’s easy ‘enough, but how do you refrain from writing one?" Reminiscences, for their value, depend on many things; but there is bound to be something in them to

interest somebody, just as there are always people who are experts at digging up the musty past. Whether 3YA has been going in for this kind of pastime we don’t know, but at 9.0 am. from 3YA dn Saturday, May 5, you will hear a recorded item, "Dusting the Shelves." Whatever the subject, it will no doubt appeal to many listeners who have the time to listen at that hour. Also worth notice: 2YA, 8.0 p.m.: ‘"Itma." 1YX, 9.12 p.m.: Brahms Symphony No, 3. SUNDAY ‘THE Piano Concerto by Arthur Bliss, commissioned by the British Council for the "British Week" at the 1938 New York World Fair and now _ recorded under the auspices of the British Council, will be heard from 2YA at 9.50 prm. on Sunday, May 6. The conductor and soloist are those who first performed. it in New York-Sir Adrian Boult and Solomon. Compton MacKenzie, writing in The Gramophone, said the concerto was without doubt Bliss’ finest work: "No concerto of comparable stature has been written by a British composer since Elgar’s violin concerto." The recording, like that of William Walton’s "Belshazzar’s Feast" (made at the same time, also under British Council auspices) is said to be a technical tour-de-force. Also worth notice: 1YA, 3.30 p.m.: "The Creatures of Frome. theus’" (Beethoven). 3YA, 3.30 p.m.: Symphony No. 2 (Hanson).