THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 349, 1 March 1946, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

MONDAY "NEW Tunes for Old," the programme which Station 2YA will present at 9.30 p.m. on Monday, March 4, carries with it in our printed programmes the following, by way of explanation "Have the old tunes lost their lustre? Have the new tunes greater radiance? We invite you to join Mary and her father as they attempt to think out. these questions." The session will place side-by-side old and new,;tunes on similar themes and they will be discussed by the younger and the older on their apparent merits. Examples: The Grand March from Aida, and the modern "Desert Patrol"; "At Dawning" by Cadman, and "Sunrise Serenade," by Frankie Carle; and the "Toreador Song" (from Carmen), and "Ferdinand the Bull," from you-know-where. Also worth notice: 1YA, 7.30 p.m.: "The Pageant of Music." 3YA, 3.30 p.m.: Symphony in D Minor (Franck). TUESDAY RULY politically-minded listeners will make a point of staying at home on the evening of Tuesday, March 5, to hear the results of the Raglan by-elec-tion. As only two candidate have been nominated to fill the vacancy in the House of Representatives caused by the death of R. Coulter, it will be a straightout contest between H. Johnstone (National Party) and A. C. Baxter (Labour Party). For those who wish to follow the progress of the polling, booth by booth, Stations 1YA and 2YA are recommended. Stations 3YA, 4YA, 2YH, 3ZR and 4YZ will broadcast summaries from time to time, starting in each case at 7.30 p.m. Also worth notice: 2YA, 9.55 p.m.: "‘Moldau" (Smetana) 3YA, 11.0 a.m.: Virgin Bush, talk prepared by Rewa Glenn. "WEDNESDAY HE Glasgow Arion Choir is one of those real folk organisations of people who enjoy their own native music. Nearly twenty years old itself, it is conducted by William Robertson, whose name has been associated with the best Scottish choirs for the past 25 years. The BBC has recorded one of its latest programmes and it will be heard from 2YA at 8.33 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6. "Sea Sorrow" comes from "Songs of the Hebrides" and tells how the women lose their menfolk to the sea. Another piece-a typical example of "mouth music’-is "Glasgow Highlanders," wherein the choir acts as a substitute for the fiddle. Also worth notice: 2YC, 8.16 p.m.: Ravel and Debussy. 3YA, 9.25 p.m.: "Eroica’"’ Symphony (Beethoven). THURSDAY "THAT which did please me beyond anything in the whole’ world," wrote Mr. Pepys, after an evening at the King’s House, "was the wind-musick which, did wrap up my soul so that it made me really sick, just as I have formerly been when in love with my wife. I could not believe that ever any musick hath that real command over the soul of man as this did upon me; and makes me resolve to practise windmusick, and to make my wife do the

like." Mrs. Pepys’s reactions were not chronicled, but her husband’s interest in music was not simply that of a dilettante. His fellow-diarist Evelyn paid tribute to it and at 9.25 p.m. on March 7, 2YA will do likewise in the programme, "Pepys and his Music." Also worth notice: 1YX, 8.0 p.m.: Piano Quintet in E ‘Flat Major, Op. 44 (Schubert). 4YA, 9.25 p.m.: Symphony (Walton). FRIDAY (CONSIDERING all that women have had to put up with during recent years-bread shortages, stocking shortages, tobacco queues, sugar rationing, butter scareities; and even the infants up in arms over the collapse of the pram industry-considering all these things, it would perhaps be injudicious to crack any "old jokes about woman’s loquacity. But news is where you find it,*and those who turn to 2YA’s programme for Friday, March 8, will find that at 3.0 p.m. the Radio Stage presents "The Quiet Woman." Ben Jonson once wrote: "Deny’t who can, Silence in woman is like speech in man," We are not prepated to suggest that this is the text of the 2YA show, but tune in by all means and find out. Also worth notice: 2YC, 9.0 p.m.: Sonata No. 42 in A Major (Mozart). 4YA, 3.30 p.m.: Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel (Brahms). SATURDAY HEN Station 2YC announces that it will broadcast an unfamiliar work by Boccherini (his ’cello concerto-Satur-day, March 9, 8.34 p.m.-which we don’t remember hearing before), we feel obliged to find something to say about him here. But we see no reason for concealing the fact that we must turn to the indispensable D. F. Tovey (in Encyclopedia Britannica) for that something» "Boccherini’s works are... indispensable for violoncellists, both in their education and their concert repertories; and his position in musical history is assured ... He was wittily characterised by the contemporary violinist Puppo as ‘the wife of Haydn,’ which is good enough praise for those who hold a restricted view of woman’s sphere." Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.0 p.m.: Frank Hutchens and Lindley Evans. 3YA, 8.43 pim.: "Leaves from; My Grandmother’s Album." SUNDAY UN YAT-SEN, the "father of the Chinese Republic," is the subject ofthe latest programme in the _ series "Achievement," to be heard from 3YL at 8.15 p.m. on Sunday, March 10. The Chinese themselves knew him by the shorter name of Sun Wen. He was the son of a poor farmer, and a Christian; he joined a revolutionary society in 1895 and began his long fight for three fundamental principles — Nationalism, Democracy, and Socialism. For a long time he had to organise his revolution from outside China, and was in England when the 1911 revolution against the Manchu Government began. He returned then, and went on leading his supporters through varying fortunes until his death in 1925. Also worth notice: 1YX, 9.1 p.m.: Belshazzar’s Feast (Walton). pm.: Twenty-four Preludes