The Morning After

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 336, 30 November 1945, Page 13

The Morning After

HE 1YA Studio Orchestra and its conductor were swept into some of the activity of the fortnight in which the NBS Strings were in Auckland. At the final public concert on November 10 Mr. Baxter conducted the combined strings in a very fine performance. Nobody would have grudged 1YA’s strings a furlough after these doings, but as it was they committed themselves to a heavy’ week. On November 14 they played accompaniments to songs of Bach and Handel sung by Mary Murphy. A certain amount of loving care had gone into these, as indeed the soloist deserved, for her singing in this style of thing is beautiful. There followed immediately the Bach Suite for flute and strings, or parts of it, for the players plunged straight into the delicate Rondeau without stabilising themselves in the two lentos and the long, robust allegro which should precede it. The result was unfortunate. Two nights later the Studio Orchestra played three numbers, including "The Good-Humoured Ladies" ballet suite (Scarlatti-Tommasini). Here again the work was abridged; the "Cat’s Fugue" and the final stimulating movement were omitted, leaving the suite to come to an inappropriate finish with the "Tempo di Ballo" movement. Quite apart from these omissions, it is so hard to find anything kind to say about the standard of what was played, that I think it is time to ask whether it is better that our studio orchestra should be heard for a_ specified ‘number of minutes each week, or that it should broadcast only what it has had time to rehearse up to a reasonable standard.