THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 406, 3 April 1947, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Night’s Candles

\VELLINGTON listeners who feel like reaching for the stars when the light goes out are warned that "The Night Sky in April" has shifted its position since last: week’s issue of The Listener was printed. This talk (the first of a monthly series) was to have been given by I. L. Thomsen, of the Carter Observatory, at 9.15 p.m. on April 1, but it became a Displaced Programme when schedules were being rearranged last week. Now, however, a place has been found for it in the New Order, and it will be heard at 9.19 p.m, this Friday, April 11. For Strings and Two Horns N a book just published in America, Joseph Szigeti, the famous violinist, deplores the rigidity of certain conventions which govern what soloists will present to their audiences)in the way of programmes, and says (among other things) that he sees no reason why pianists, for instance, should not engage singers to do song-cycles with them as part of their own programmes; or why violinists should not engage one or two other players to do some ensemble work (not necessarily something written to display the violin). One work he mentions as suitable for this purpose is the Mozart Divertimento in D Major (No. 17), which is written for strings and two horns. Szigeti’s nomination of this work may come as a surprise to people who think of this work as an orchestral piece, because they have heard it in a recording made by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Sir Hamilton Harty). But it is also well suited to performance by a string quartet and two horns. And a recording in this medium (made by the Lener Quartet and two unnamed horn-players) is to be heard from 2YC at 8.16 p.m. on Monday, April 7. Incidentally, if the cuts are over by then, 4YO will broadcast the orchestral version at 1.0 p.m. on the following Friday. Lili Kraus Recitals ‘Two pianoforte recitals by Lili Kraus are to be broadcast next week, one from Christchurch on Tuesday evening, April 8, and the second from Wellington on the following Saturday, April 12 (to be relayed through 3YA and 2YA respectively). In her Christchurch programme (fer third in Christchurch during the present tour), Mme. Kraus will play Schubert’s Sonata in A Minor, Op. 143 (preceded by two of his Impromptus), Schumann’s Etudes Symphoniques, a Sonatina by the Christchurch composer, Douglas Lilburn, and Mozart’s Sonata in C Minor (K.457), preceded by the Fantasy in C Minor -(K.475), which was written to go with it. In Wellington on the Saturday night, she will play Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor, Mozart’s Sonata in D (K.576), Schumann’s "Carnaval," Rumanian Dances by Bartok, Mr. Lilburn’s Sonatina, and finally Schubert’s Sonata in A Minor, Op. 42. Broken Reed \V HEN you come to think of it, it is astonishing that in the long catalogue of English kings so many are remembered through association with the trivial or vulgar-Alfred burned the

cakes, Canute got his feet wet, Edward the Confessor was a faith-healer, Henry I. died of a surfeit of lampreys, Henry VIII. had a surfeit of wives, James I. reminds us of tobacco, and Charles II. of oranges. The only one whose name is associated in our minds with problems of national policy is the one who had no policy at all. Ethelred, as every schoolboy knows, was the Man Without a Plan-the King who lacked counsel, and got his sterling funds so mussed up trying to find a Guaranteed Price acceptable to the wild Danish dairy-farmers who periodically swooped down upon his, divided realm. But let us not carry our readers too far; 2YA, we have no doubt, will deal fairly with Ethelred in the first instalment of Highjinks in History, a new NZBS comedy programme, to be heard at 7.45 p.m. on Monday, April 7. Out, Out! "THERE'S malice in 1YA’s programme for Thursday, April 10, in the item set down to be heard about 9.45 p.m. Things will be bad enough, one way and another, without suggestions of the kind contained in this group of piano solos-note that they are called

Just Once More PROGRAMME ORGANISER, some- ‘ one told us once, is supposed to know a good thing when he sees it, and seize a good thing when he knows it. There ought to be some connection, therefore, between the fact that Station 3ZR Greymouth recently acquired a new programme organiser formerly of the staff of 2YA, and the fact that at 8.12 _p.m. on Wednesday, April 9, Greymouth listeners are to hear recordings of a feature already well appreciated by 2YA listeners, "Sociable Songs,’ sung by

"The Chorus Gentlemen." These Gentlemen (Roy Hill, Len Hopkins, Ken Macaulay, and Ken Strong, with Peter Jeffrey as pianist) sing their Sociable Songs weekly from 2YA, in their due season (and will be heard again from 2YA probably in May). Latterly they have been recording their programmes at a time when they can conveniently meet, This means that other stations can broadcast their programmes too, and Greymouth listeners will discover next week what their worth is. Dual Role R. EDGAR BAINTON figures twice in 3YA’s programme for Friday evening, April 11, and in two capacities. A programme of choral music to be given from the studio by the Christchurch Liederkranzchen (ladies’ choir), conducted by Alfred Worsley, will include, in the last group, a composition by Dr. Bainton, entitled "Sirena."’ And a few moments later, Dr. Bainton himself will be at the microphone to give another of his lecture-recitals from the piano-"Style in Music: The Dance," illustrated with dances composed by Bach, Mozart, Béethoven, Chopin, and Ravel. The Orchestra Goes South (CHRISTCHURCH will have its first opportunity to hear the new National Orchestra of the NZBS in the flesh on the evening of Saturday, April 12. The orchestra will give its first concert there in the St. James’s Theatre, and the programme will consist of six compositions: Wagner’s Overture to Tannhauser, Handel’s Water Music Suite, Richard Strauss’s tone poem, Don Juan, Tchaikovski’s overture Romeo and Juliet, Mozart’s "Jupiter" Symphony, and Liszt’s second Hungarian Rhapsody. _