THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 344, 25 January 1946, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

MONDAY UR readers may remember "Are You a Maiden Aunt?" by Henrietta Wemyss, which appeared in our pages a few months ago. That same Miss Wemyss has now applied her breezy style and light touch to six radio talks, of which the first will be heard .from 2YA at 11.0 am. on Monday, January 28. For those who have forgotten, Miss Wemyss contends that though the term may belong to the Victorian age, the Maiden Aunt still exists. The title of her first talk is "Button Trouble" — comment on some experiences in trying to get a button re-covered. Also worth notice: 1YA, 9.25 p.m. "The Yeomen of the Guard," 3YA, 9.25 p.m.: Sextet in G (Brahms), TUESDAY -~ ""[ HE House that Margaret Built," which will be 2YD’s new serial as from Tuesday, January 29 (starting at 8.0 p.m.), is an Australian period-piece about imfigrant families. The first few episodes picture the life of immigrants on the voyage out. The captain and the -ship’s doctor are both drunkards; a storm ‘comes up; a baby is born during the storm-Margaret Storer. Another doctor, one of the passengers, is able to assist the birth. The rest of the serial foNows the fortunes of Margaret after her parents settle in Victoria, and of the children of the doctor who first helped her into the world. Also worth notice: 2YA, 11.0 a.m.: "New Zealand Explorers." 4YA, 7.17 p.m.: BBC Farming Talk. WEDNESDAY . E MARTIN BROWN, director of the * Mercury Theatre, London, recently gave a talk in the BBC’s overseas service called "The Revival of the Poetic Drama." This talk, which the NBS recorded, will be broadcast from 2YA at 11.0 a.m. on Wednesday, January 30. The Mercury Theatre is the centre of the revival of which Mr. Brown speaksit is one theatre in England concentrating on poetic drama-and one of its recent productions was "This Way to the Tomb," by Ronald Duncan, an excerpt from which occupies some part of the talk. It was recorded by the Mercury actors for the BBC. . Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.24 p.m.: Quintet in A Minor (Elgar). 2YC,. 8.0 p.m.: Clarinet Concerto (Mozart). THURSDAY S listeners will see if they examine — the programmes, Auckland and Dunedin are to have a week of violin concertos. Auckland, for instance, is to have the Brahms and Ernest Bloch violin concertos and Bach’s in D Minor, and Dunedin (which will be having a series of Bach concertos in its afternoon classical hour from 4YA anyway) is to have the Bruch in G Minor, the Dvorak, in A Minor and the Mendelssohn, in addition to Bach’s concerto for two violins. The Dvorak, which is played by

Menuhin, will be on 4YA at 8.27 p.m. on Thursday, January 31, and the Bach double concerto will be on at 3.30 p.m, the same day. Also worth notice: 2YA, 8.0 p.m.: NBS Quartet. 3YA, 8.30 p.m.: "The Gong Cried Murder." FRIDAY T was just our good fortune that while we were looking through this issue’s programmes, and made a note of the fact that Cecil Hull’s talk on "Bad Verse" is to be heard from 3YA on Friday, February 1, at 7.15 p.m., there happened to be a copy of the Faber Book of Comic Verse on the desk. For there we found two adjacent pages devoted to The Good Poet at his Worst and The Bad Poet at his Best; e.g. Alfred Austin: "Winter is gone, and spring is over, The cuckoo-flowers grow mauver and mauver," with (on the opposite page) the anonymous "Her lips they are redder than coral That under the ocean grows; She is sweet, she is fair, she is moral, My beautiful Georgian rose." And how could we better close this paragraph (‘whose relevance to Cecil Hull’s subject matter we can only surmise) than with this, from Julia Moore: "And now, kind friends, what I have wrote, I hope you will pass o’er, And not criticise as some have done, Hitherto herebefore." Also worth notice: 2YC, 9.1 p.m.: Sonata in C Minor, Op, 111 (Beethoven). 3YA, 9.25 p.m.: ‘Mendelssohn and His Music" (No. 1). SATURDAY ROM 2YA on Saturday, February 2, at 11.0 am., Judith Terry will talk on "Picking Apples," in her "Part-time Women" series. Which simply confirms us in our belief that women won’t leave well alone, but will always be making part-time jobs out of all-time responsibilities. Of course, they may well reply that they are simply profiting by past mistakes and we're not looking for an argument: Man is not in a position to rib Woman about Original Errors. Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.45 p.m.: Ballad for Americans 4YA, 8 p.m.: "The Mikado" (Act 1). > SUNDAY E haven’t yet heard that episode of the serial "Achievement" which tells the story of Gustav Dalen and what general knowledge we have about this Swedish Nobel prize-winner is rather sketchy. But we do know that he was born in 1869 and studied engineering, that he invented hot-air ‘turbines and milking machines, among other things, and that he received the Nobel prize for physics in 1912. The next year he was blinded by an exdlosion which occurred during laboratory work but carried on with his experimental work. His most ingenious invention was a chemical which, when placed on a fire, automatically kindled it at twilight and extinguished it again at daybreak. But for a more detailed story of his career, tune in to 3YL on Sunday, February 3, at 8.15 p.m. OF een ELMS. Pinafore CAct 2% 3YA, ae ok: "The Bartered (Smetana). E