MUSIC BY MODERN COMPOSERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 331, 26 October 1945, Page 17

MUSIC BY MODERN COMPOSERS

NEW use is to be made by the NBS of the recordings of American orchestral concerts sent here by the U.S. Office of War Information. These recordings contain performances of many standard symphonic and orchestral works that are already known from commercial recordings, but they also contain works by modern composers that can be had nowhere else, and these have now been selected and arranged by the NBS in four series of programmes, to be heard from the four main National stations in their turn. A glance at some of the names in the total list of composers gives some idea of the scope of the series, which at present consists of four lots of six programmes each about 45 minutes long, and may be added to later. From Europe there are Bartok, Shostakovich, Hindemith, Szymanowski, Chausson, Atterberg, Sibelius, Schoenberg, Bloch, Gliere, Martinu, and Mahler. From America (including migrants who have settled there) come Charles Griffes, Antheil, Milhaud, Morton Gould, Samuel Barber, Virgil Thomson, Roy Harris, Paul Creston, Iturbi, William Schuman, Deems Taylor, Carpenter, Harl McDonald, Charles Ives, William Grant Still, Howard Hanson, Leonard Bernstein, and

others. The only English composer so far is Frank Bridge. Some of the works in the series stand out with special interest. The first performance of Bela Bartok’s violin concerto, for instance, and a performance of the "Jeremiah" symphony by Leonard Bernstein, which created something of a sensation in New York last year. Mahler’s "Resurrection" symphony, a programme in itself, lasting 70 minutes,

is not available for broadcasting except on these discs, and the same applies to Sibelius’ Violin Concerto. One programme consists of four works by William Schuman, who is also fairly liberally represented in others. Shostakovich is represented by his Sixth and Eighth Symphonies, Antheil by his Fourth, Schoenberg by his Piano. Concerto, Gliere by his Third Symphony, Barber

by his Second Symphony and his Syme« phony in One Movement, Roy Harri¢ by his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, and Hindemith by the Suite "Exalted Visions." The portraits on this page show, across the top, four prominent European come posers, all now living in America, and, across the bottom, four Americans. The photographs do not all indicate the pree sent age of the composers. Schoenberg (Vienna) is 71, Hindemith (Germany) is 50, Bloch (Switzerland) is 65, and Bare tok (Hungary) is 64. Martinu is a Czech, aged 55, and Atterberg, a Swede, now 58, Of the four Americans, Carpenter is 69, but the other three are younger-Berne stein 27, Virgil Thomson 49, and Roy Harris 47. The conductors include Toscanini, Monteux, Rodzinski, Stokowski, Mitros poulos, Barbirolli, Koussevitzky, Howard Barlow, and Frank Black. These programmes will be heard at the following times: 1YA-Sun-days, 3.30 p.m. 2YA-Tuesdays (at intervals), 8.0 p.m.; JY A-Sundays, 3.0 p.m; 4YA-Sundays, 2.30 p.m, starte ing in the programmes printed this week. Each series, when it ends at one station, will move on to another, so that each station will eventually ‘broadcast all 24 programmes.