THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 407, 11 April 1947, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Wellington College Recital \/ ELLINGTON College will present a recital of music in the Wellington Town Hall on Tuesday, April 15, which will be broadcast by 2YA. The massed choirs of the school will be heard accompanied by the organ and by a concert orchestra provided by the NZBS. Murray Fastier, who became music master at the college this year, directs the music, and will conduct the singing. The proceeds of the recital will be devoted to the College War Memorial Fund, and the programme has been chosen so that it will be in*accord with this dedication. The opening group of items contains two recitatives and three arias from Handel’s Messiah, sung by 500 voices, and these will be followed by a performance (by the orchestra, under Leon de Mauny) of a Sonata by Handel. Then there will be a group of three Bach chorales, sung first in German, and then in English. The second versions have been adapted by Mr. Fastier from the choral preludes composed by Bach upon the same tunes-the voices singing the tune and the organ playing Bach’s embellishments. After another orchestral interlude the broadcast part of the concert will end with the first New Zealand performance of Poéme Erodique- by Marcel Dupré, which is a concerto for organ with six brass instruments. Mr. Fastier, who is a pupil of Dupré, will play the organ in this work. On Ski ARNOLD LUNN, who is more widely known as a mountaineer than as a philosopher, once wrote a book on theology entitled (from the Biblical story of the man who was blind from birth) Now I See which, he says, for a time, sold like hot cakes to sportsmen under the impression that it was called Now I Ski! However, we trust we have got the title of Anold Wall’s talk on "Ski-ing 900 years ago" right (2YA, Tuesday, April 15, 7.15 p.m.). It is the story of sporting rivalry between two Norsemen, one of whom was a king and not so sporting at that. For those who can’t get really excited about a skimatch between a couple of foreigners 900 years ago while great sporting battles between nations are being fought here and now, the story becomes family history when Harold and William the Conqueror come into it. We may be pedantic and tiresome, and Sellar and Yeatman may be wrong, but wouldn’t that make it "Ski-ing 881 years Ago"? But doubtless Professor Wall will settle that too. String Quartet by Bartok HE Fifth String Quartet by the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok (who died in America in 1945) has been recorded by the Hungarian quartet, and will be broadcast in 2YA’s classical hour on Thursday, April 17-that is to say, from Station 2YC, at 1.30 p.m. unless power is back to normal. The scores of Bartok’s six quartets were published in England in 1945, and Matyas Seiber, a Hungarian musicologist now living in England, wrote a handbook to accompany them. "Bartok’s style in his quartets, just like Beethoven’s, is particularly concentrated and intense," Seiber says. "His ideas are most convincing and expressed with the utmost clarity and economy. I believe that for generations to come the string quartets of Bartok

will be looked upon as the most outstanding and significant works of our time." The Fifth quartet was written in 1934, and it has a symmetrical ground plan: a first movement in Sonata form, a slow movement, a scherzo (in what Seiber calls "Bulgarian" rhythms), another slow movement, and an extensive finale. There is thematic relationship ‘between the two outer movements, and also between the two slow movements. Beautiful Isle of Somewhere HAT island that keeps popping out from under the sea and then disappearing and being forgotten again- it’s back once more. We refer to the Desert Island to which, from time to time, selected persons take (in their imagination) books, gramophone records, etc., etc. The Listener had dealings with this territory some time in 1943 (news was

hard to come by in those days) and half-a-dozen literary persons, were invited to name what books they would sive a hypothetical military unit heading for six months’ isolation. In due course the musical people had their turn too. Now 2YA is having a go, and at 7.30 p.m. on Thursday, April 17, the first victim of imposed exile will give his selection. The ‘conditions are that he is presumed to have a portable gramophone and needles and has to choose what records he would take. It seems he won’t spend very long on the island, for his choice of records will be introduced and played within half an hour. The first chooser will be Gordon Chaytor, an actor-of Whitehall Productions, Who Valentine Is ‘THE final episode of the current Paul Temple-serial will be heard from 2YA &at 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16, and in it comes the answer to the question listeners have been asking themselves since the first episode of A Case for Paul Temple-the identity of of "Valentine," killer and drug-traf-ficker. This is the sixth "Paul Temple" serial that Francis Durbridge has written for the BBC, and Martyn C. Webster has produced them all. The only member of the cast who has been in every "Paul Temple" serial is Lester Muddit, who plays Sir Graham Forbes. The recording was by the BBC Transcription Service. New Britten Cantata HE BBC Singers under their conductor, Leslie Woodgate, have recorded the festival cantata, Rejoice in the Lamb, composed by Benjamin Britten to the words of the 18th Century poet Christopher Smart. Britten composed the work for the 50th anniversary of the consecration of St. Matthew’s Church, Northampton. The extraordinary poem, moving and fantastic, has been set in a richly imaginative

way by Benjamin Britten. The workmanship is most elaborate, but the difficulties are chiefly for the solo singers and organist. A deep and spiritual significance animates the music-even the twists and twirls in the accompaniment of the treble solo intensify this impression. Listeners should note the lovely tenor solo, "For the flowers are great blessings,’ and the tenderness with which the choir sings of the poet’s troubles (and Christopher Smart does not spare himself in the recitation of his woes). The Hallelujah has a kind of sublime serenity which makes a moving and impressive ending. "Rejoice in the Lamb" will be heard from 2YA at 9.30 p.m. on Thursday, April 17. Contest Bands from 2YA | ISTENERS who followed the recent 1947 Bands Contest at Wanganuiand that probably means everybody who has blown on a brass instrument, and his relations and friends-heard recordings of the winners of the A and B Grade tests from Station 2YA frequently during and immediately after the competition. Now some of the other bands taking part are having their turn on the air. The first of three programmes was. broadcast from 2YA on Friday evening, March 28, when the Kaikorai Brass Band, Auckland Watersiders’ Silver Band, and the Wellington Boys’ Institute Band were heard. The other two programmes will be heard from 2YA, on Friday, April 18, and Friday, April 25, at 9.30 p.m. The Woolston Band, Crichton Cobbers’ Band, and the Queen Alexandra Band (Wanganui), and a baritone solo by Bevney Burt (Dunedin Ladies’ Band), who won the ladies’ solo, will be heard on April 18. The St. Kilda Municipal Band, Ashburton Silver Band, Hawera Auxiliary Band, and a Returned Servicemen’s Band (composed of those bandsmen attending the contest who were also returned servicemen) will be heard on April 25. Each programme lasts approximately half-an-hour.