Concerto for One

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 331, 26 October 1945, Page 8

Concerto for One

W HAT is to be said of the orchestral concert held in the Wellington Town Hall and broadcast by 2YA? Do we hold our tongues, or do we drive towards some compromise between the bitter truth and the sort of things the announcer said? Do we insult the orchestra -who after all can only do as they are allowed or made to do-and say the oboe sounded like bagpipes being filled, the bass notes could barely be heard, the trumpets brayed? Or do we insult the musical public and say it was all well up to our standards? Must we admit that this is the best we can do? The announcer called it several times "this great musical treat." He was honest enough; he positively glowed with anticipation, left verbs hanging and used redundant prepositions in his fervour. He depicted "this vast assemblage" that had filled the Town Hall. Would they have all been there if there had been no distinguished Palestinian pianist? Is the question fair? On the other hand, would we be fair to ourselves if we never faced these questions? Why did the oboe and the brass sotind that way? Is it any- body's job in New Zealand to make an oboe or a trumpet sound well — anybody’s full-time job, that is to say? It is several people’s full-time job to make

strings sound well, and the result on Saturday night was not at all bad, though we've heard it better. Do we go on with these standards, or have we some scheme for raising them? 7 * * HOWEVER, all this solicitude for the truth (as I see it) would have a hollow ring if nothing were said of Miss Salzman’s magnificent playing in .the Tehaikovski concerto. She has been quoted in The Listener as saying she never gets tired of playing it. True to her word, she made it sound like something fresh and new she had just discovered and quite fallen in love with. Over the air, she seemed to fling herself into it with fierce enjoyment. Perhapg it was inevitable that in the matter of brilliant playing it would be a Concerto for One. Her version of the Mendelssohn Rondo Capriccioso, on the othér hand, consisted" of just so many quick notes. : ;