Music As Usual

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 342, 11 January 1946, Page 9

Music As Usual

A YEAR ago I wrote some plaintive words on this page about the lack of classical music from Auckland stations in holiday time. This year I can report contentedly on the Christmas Day fere. Quite apart from the special music of the season, there were some good things to be picked up at odd hours by people who were having their first opportunity in weeks for a little leisurely listening. At 2.0 p.m., for instance, 1ZM put on an hour of Mozart which included the D Minor Piano ‘Concerto and the "Linz" Symphony. Later there were sundry Dove Songs and Italian Caprices from various stations, and at the end of the afternoon "Peter and the Wolf," to which the household cat settled down\ to listen with approval when he came in to superintend the preparations for the evening meal. Between 8.0 and 10.0 1YX played as usual two good hours of symphonic music. These arrangements, as I say, passed neither unnoticed nor unappreciated. Nor did we forget that they were made possible by people who were working while the rest of us were trying to relax. Even when the domestic tur- | moil of a family Christmas involves us’ in some surprisingly hard work, we are

supported by a pretence of holidaymaking. For the few who have to turn out to keep regular hours at their usual posts" in the essential services there can be no guch illusion.