FIDDLE MUSIC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 370, 26 July 1946, Page 5

FIDDLE MUSIC

Sir,-Rubini quite deserved the sharp criticism handed out to him in a recent Radio Viewsreel for his fiddle recital from 1YA, but some criticism also is deserved by the station management for passing the programme. I did not object to the Hubay piece on the score of it being a spavined warhorse. Instead I welcomed it as being proof that Rubini was really a fiddler — that he could really play fiddle music. What made me extremely tired was the high proportion of sugary pieces-those pieces which appear to be played for the benefit of people with weak hearts, who must not be excited. Such pieces have a place in a Programme of fiddle music, but surely they should not be allowed to figure as the chief part of the programme. In the time that Rubini used there should have been two pieces of characteristic fiddle music. Preferably there should have been

three-one to start, one in the middle, and a crackerjack for a finale. In between there would be ample time for the music for people with weak hearts. Here is the point of criticism of the station management. A fiddler presents himself with a programme: the management should look to it that the fiddler plays a proper proportion of characteristic fiddle music, to provide something for the special benefit of fiddler listeners. These are surely a numerous enough class to deserve consideration. Rubini proved that he was fully capable of playing characteristic fiddle music, and it is a pity that the amateur fiddler was not given the opportunity of hearing him in more such pieces, even if they were

spavined warhorses.

FIDDLER

(Stratford).