THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 390, 13 December 1946, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

| A Run Through The Programmes /

The New Orchestras HE new groups of orchestral players which have been formed in Christchurch and Dunedin by the NZBS will both be -heard on the air next week. The Dunedin players, known as_ the Dunedin String Group of the National Orchestra have already been heard with the 4YA String Orchestra in a_ pro|gramme of music for strings, and on | Thursday, December 19, they will be joined with the 4YA Concert Orchestra | under its regular conductor, Gil Dech, | in a programme of orchestral musicincluding Ippolitov-Ivanov’s Caucasian Sketches and Liszt’s Fourteenth Hun- | garian Rhapsody. Their programme will | be heard between 7.30 p.m. and 9.0 p.m. | interspersed with recordings. On the following evening Station 3YA will broada programme by the Christchurch | String Group of the National Orchestra, | conducted by Harry Ellwood, who until ‘he returned to Christchurch was con'ductor of the NBS Light Orchestra in | Wellington. Starting at 7.49 p.m. they | will play music by Porpora, Adam Carse, Fuchs, and Lalo. Capulet HE series Shakespeare’s’ Characters, now being heard from 2YA on Friday evenings (at 8.22: p.m.), is produced by Mary Hope Allen, from scripts written for the BBC by the late Herbert Farjeon. Listeners have already heard the programmes on "Shallow and Silence" and at the same time on Friday, December 20, the chosen character will be Capulet (from Romeo and Juliet)-one of the liveliest pictures ever painted of a quick- tempered old gentleman, dispensing hospitality with a kindliness his choleric nature belies. In later programmes, listeners will hear Farjeon’s studies of Polonius, Titania, Fluellen, and Hotspur (the last’two parts being taken by Robert Speaight). ’ Local Composer’s Music PROGRAMME of compositions by Claude M. Haydon, of Lower Hutt, is to be broadcast from the studio of 2YA at 8.0 p.m. on Friday, December 20. First there will be one movement of a Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Minor, which will be played by Winifred McLoughlin (violin), with Mrs. Haydon at the piano. This is to be followed by three tenor songs, which will be sung by W. Roy Hill. The first of these, "Ever Your Friend," and the third, "It is God’s Love," are both settings of words written by the composer. The words of the second, "Smiling Eyes" (which is dedicated by the composer to his wife) are by Albert V. Durrant, of Rotorua. After the songs, the programme will conclude with a trio for violin, ‘cello, and piano, in three movements. The players will be Miss McLoughlin, Gwen Sealy (‘cello), and Mrs. Haydon. No Fuel Like the Old Fuel E are not sure that our artist has _ correctly in’erpreted the content of the talk which Henrietta Wemyss is to give from 2YA on December 21 at 11.0 a.m.-‘"Black Diamonds Are Trumps: What Happens When a Coal Seam is Discovered on One's Property During a

Fuel Shortage." But after all, what hap- _ pened would (if we apprehend the situation correctly) depend on who owned the property and what kind of coal was discovered. Anyone who has tried to ignite a lignite is aware that there are two types of coal-the shiny kind (now extinct) which burns, and the dull type

which simply sits in the grate and glowers. For the right to mine the latter we would accept a modest royalty, but had we any of the former in the backyard we would suborn the discoverer and unpick the seam by stealth on moonless nights. "The Dream of Gerontius" IR EDWARD ELGAR’S oratorio The Dream of Gerontius, one of the works by British composers which have been recorded at the instigation of ‘the British Council, is to be broadcast by 3YA on Sunday, December 22, starting at 9.22 p.m. The choir is the Huddersfield Choral Society, the orchestra the Liverpool Philharmonic, and the soloists are Gladys Ripley, Heddle Nash and Denis Noble. Dr. Malcolm Sargent is the conductor. Elgar began to write The Dream of Gerontius in 1900, the year after his Enigma Variations. It is a setting of Cardinal Newman’s poem. The work had bad luck with its first performance in England, and was inadequately performed, but in 1901 it was done in Germany and the German press pronounced Elgar one of the leaders of musical art. Then Richard Strauss made a_ public tribute to "the first .English progressive musician, Meister Elgar,’ and England itself awoke to the situation. Jean Pougnet in "Journey to Romance" EAN POUGNET, the brilliant violinist who will be heard in the BBC feature Journey to Romance from 4YZ at 2.0 p.m. on Sunday, December 22, is still in his thirties, but he can claim a longer experience of broadcasting than most artists. In the *twenties he was one of the first ig ga to play for the BBC. Since then he has been heard in almost every kind of programme. A career like that meant an early start, and Jean Pougnet’s was certainly an early onehe took up music seriously at the age of seven and was only 11 when he won a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He was born in Mauritius, where his father was in the British Civil Service.

Folk Songs ‘THE folk songs from England’s Eastern Counties which 3YA will broadcast (from BBC recordings) at 6.3 p.m. on Sunday, December 22, comprise five arranged by Vaughan Williams, and two arranged by E. J. Moeran, The Vaughan Williams ones are these: "Tarry Trowsers" (a dialogue between a mother and her daughter who wants to wait for her sailor); "Bushes and Briars’’ (a love song from Essex); "Harry the Tailor’ (from Cambridgeshire-the sad story of a vain wooing); "On board the 98" and "Ward the Pirate" (two sea songs from Norfolk). The two songs arranged by Moeran are "A Seaman’s Life" (from Suffolk) and "Ground for the Floor" (from Cambridgeshire). They are all sung by the BBC Men’s Chorus with Stanley Riley (bass-baritone), and John Wills at the piano. Concerto by Alan Rawsthorne PIANO concerto by the English composer Alan Rawsthorne has been recorded by Moura Lympany and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and is to be heard from station 2YA at 8.5 p.m. on Sunday, December 22. This is a work that has established itself as one of the most attractive of the concertos by the younger generation of English composers. Moura Lympany (whose name incidentally is Cornish) played it in Paris with an orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, on the first visit by European artists to the French capital after the end of the war. Rawsthorne is still in his forties. He was in the army during the war, reaching the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major, but he found time to write music, and produced, among other things, the film music for Burma Victory. His wife, Jessie Hinchcliffe, is one of the first violins in the BBC Symphony Orchestra.