JOAN HAMMOND SETTLES AN ARGUMENT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 384, 1 November 1946, Page 6

JOAN HAMMOND SETTLES AN ARGUMENT

UR first question to Joan Hammond, who arrived in Wellington the day before her first concert, was one in which The Listener had its own particular interest-where was she born? And it is now confirmed that the "former Christchurch golfer,’ as The Listener once called her by mistake, was indeed born in Christchurch, as we have already explained. But only just. The story of how an abbreviation for champion had been interpreted as an abbreviation for Christchurch was our opening gambit for an interview with Miss Hammond in her hotel, and one we counted likely to appeal to a former newspaper reporter. It worked. We found Miss Hammond a very easy person to talk to, excepting only that she can often answer your question with a laugh or a look that leaves nothing more to be said, and the laughs and looks do not fill your pad with notes. But this is how it came about that Christchurch can call itself the birthplace of Joan Hammond: "I was nearly born at sea," she began, when we asked for the full story. "Father had to go on to Australia; he was due ‘there on business. So there was mother stranded for about five months in Christchurch. With my two elder brothers, both little then-and me. ‘Mother even told me the name of the Street and the number of the housewe were talking about it the other even-ing-but I’ve forgotten it. I’ve been back to Christchurch since, though." "As a golfer?" "As a singer too. I was singing small parts in that Italian Opera Company that was here about 1933-the one with Pagliughi in it. But I was there as a golfer later. I was in the Tasman Cup) team in 1935. That was my last visit. So I do know something about Christ-_ church. I’ve ridden a bicycle there, and played at-‘Shirley,’ is it?" "Not a Dramatic Soprano" "Tell me-where did you get this jeabout laryngitis?" she said, tapping her free copy of The Listener. We attributed | the news to its Australian source. Miss. Hammond and her secretary, Miss MarTiott, looked at it, and at each other. "That certainly wasn’t laryngitis," said Miss Hammond. "It was very acute tonsilitis," said Miss Marriott. "A very different thing," said Miss Hammond. And then: "And what’s this about me being ei idramatic soprano?" Miss, Hammond wanted us to get this. | straight, and put our readers right too. She sings lyric roles, coloratura lyric, and some lyric dramatic roles, but never ully dramatic roles. Certain Wagnerian rano roles she does sing, but never e dramatic ones. A dramatic soprano defined by Percy Scholes as "with werful voice and marked ce acc A d histrionic ability." What Kind of Audiences? | Then she wanted to know what kind audiences we have here. ‘Tell me-_ s there a real musical public here?" e asked. We were able to shift the responsi-| ility for answering this question on to.

two observers whose experience was recent, and whose conclusions were the same. Both Lili Kraus and Solomon, we told Miss Hammond, had repeatedly expressed their delight with the attentive and appreciative powers of New Zealand musical audiences. So Miss Hammond was glad to hear this, and began to wish she had not decided to omit some "difficult" music from her programmes-Benjamin Britten’s "Les Illuminations," for instance. But there still remained some things of more than common interest, and she was looking forward to discovering what we would think of Dies Natalis by the English composer Gerald Finzi. This is a setting of a poem by Thomas Traherne, a work taking about 20 minutes to perform. Originally, it was written for soprano and strings. We asked Miss Hammond whether the type of programme she is singing here is usual fog her-whether she gave similar recitals in Britain. "Oh yes," she said. "It’s quite usual. I sing lieder quite a lot. But as for building up a programme-you simply can’t do it with operatic arias, and I am not going to sing a lot of operatic music with piano. The only trouble is I’m afraid that’s what many people will expect,

because they’ve heard the records I’ve made of things from opera." Miss Hammond and Miss Marriott began to look restless, and there was talk of work to be done. It looked as if we could have one more question. We spent it on Miss Hammond’s reporting days, and she admitted that those were busy days -her singing, her own golf, and reporting other people’s golf. "You did mostly sport reporting?" "Oh, yés, mostly golf. But it was all those results at the end that were so dreadful," she said, with her palms to her temples. "You never did a _ birdshow then?" we said, with the air of having knowledge

of far greater suffering. "No, I never did a birdshow-but I did a dogshow once! And once I was sent to cover a social evening. It nearly killed me." A general movement began towards the lift. On the way, we learned that deeiiieniiiies

. Miss Hammond will go next to South Africa (by way of Australia) and then back to London. The lift came, and Miss Hammond waved a hand. "Au revoir," she said. "And don’t make it up, will you?"