THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 411, 9 May 1947, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Polish Pianist’s Tour ANNA JACKOBOVITCH, pianist, who is now on a tour of the main National stations, will be remembered here as accompanist to Leo Cherniavsky on his recent New Zealand tour. She was born in Lodz, Poland, and went to Australia at the age of five years, later studying at the ‘Melbourne University Conservatorium with Jascha Spivakovsky. Sie started giving solo recitals at the age of 14. For the last six years she has been broadcasting for the ABC, and her last performance before joining Cherniavsky was with the ABC Melbourne Orchestra, playing Liszt’s Hungarian Fantasia. Two years ago she was heard in New Zealand as chief pianist for the Borovansky Ballet. Anna Jackobovitch has already appeared during her present tour at 1YA. She will be heard next from 4YA this Sunday, May 11, at 3.0 p.m.; on Monday, May 12, at 7.48 p.m; on Thursday, May 15, at 7.57 p.m.; and later this month from 3YA and 2YA. "Birth of a Saboteur" T is not often that a first attempt at writing for radio makes the grade, but that is what happened when Lieu-tenant-Commander J. E. Taylor, R.N.R., sent his script of Birth of a Saboteur to the BBC. It was accepted at once for broadcasting and has been produced by Joel O’Brien, with Howard MarionCrawford in the title-role. Station 1YA ‘will broadcast it at 7.30 p.m. on Monday, May 12. Birth of a Saboteur gives a vivid picture of a man who had suffered from nameless fears from childhood, but who forced himself to overcome them. Joining the Navy at the outbreak of war, he deliberately seeks out the most dangerous jobs, to convince himself that fear can be conquered. He becomes a mine and bomb-disposal officer and: is finally parachuted into Norway to carry out sabotage against the Germans. The interest of the story is equally divided between the workings of the mind of a man fighting cowardice and the authentic background of the work he undertakes. The Saboteur is Taylor’s own creation, but all the main incidents in the script were actually carried out by men he knew in the Service. Taylor was born in South Africa and educated in England. ‘He entered the Merchant Navy and qualified as a Master Mariner, and was called up for service at the outbreak of war as a Lieutenant, R.N.R. For the first four years he was attached to H.M.S. Vernon, the naval school of mines and torpedoes, in command of two minelayers. Later he served on escort duty in the Western Ocean and took pari in the invasion of Normandy, where he was mentioned in despatches. He started writing during the war, end has published books, short stories and articles. Leos Janacek . NOT much is heard here of the Moravian composer Janacek, but on Saturday, May 17, in one of the programmes recorded by the BBC Scottish Orchestra, 4YA will broadcast his Orchestral Suite, Op. 3. Janacek died in 1928 at the age of 74, in the district where he was born. He was the son of a village schoolmaster who lived on the border of Moravia and Silesia, and the district

always remained "home" to him. He spent all his holidays in the cottage of his birth, and was taken from it to hospital when he died. He was a choirboy at Brno, and became a choirmaster at 16. Then he studied in Prague and Leipzig, and afterwards settled at Brno, conducting and teaching, studying folksong, and composing. During the fouryears’ war, when he was 62, his opera Jenufa, which had waited 12 years for a hearing in Prague, was at last performed and quickly found its way to other European cities. It is the best known of a number of operas of a national character and very personal expression. Heap Big Orator HOSE who have been reared with the notion that the North American Indian is a laconic individual whose customary contribution to conversation is a gutteral "Ugh" or a monosyllabic war-whoop are urged to listen to the Richard Singer talk on Red Jacket, the famous Red Indian chief, in the Great Orations series from 4YA on Sunday, May 18, at 2.57 p.m. Red Jacket (whose

real name was Sagoyewatha — "he who keeps them awake") was. not only an_ eloquent orator, but a man of much influence among his own people. During the American Revolution he fought for the British-from whom

he acquired a red coat, and thereafter his by-name-but during the war of 1812 he switched his alliance to the Americans, from whom he acquired a medal, and the melancholy conviction that neither brand of paleface was likely to do the red man any good. Those who have a weakness for influences and portents may ponder the fact that Red Jacket was a Seneca Indian, born at Geneva (N.Y.). Certainly he tried hard to build an Indian league of nations, but the cause was lost (and Sagoyewatha’s leadership with it) before the struggle could be joined. He died in relative obscurity in 1830. Stand Easy EW ZEALAND listeners can now make their acquaintance. through BBC recordings with the new show Stand Easy, featuring Charlie Chester and His Gang, which is a rival to ITMA for popular favour in its field now. The Gang, who used to keep the Army Edition of Merry-Go-Round spinning crazily, came back to civilian clothes in Stand Easy, an instalment of which 4YA will put on at 7.30 p.m. on Friday, May 16. It is a fast-moving half-hour with plenty of songs, music by the Blue Rockets Dance Orchestra, and Charlie Chester’s particular brand of cross-talk. It is produced by Leslie Bridgmont, one of the BBC’s biggest producers (physically, as well as in the number of shows he puts on the air), who has been with the BBC since 1933. He had studied music seriously since he was 16, but after joining the BBC he took over the organising of outside broadcasts, particularly variety shows. He has written a ‘

good deal of light music for radio productions, and also spent some months as a producer for the BBC in Cairo. In January 1940 he applied for a week’s leave, and was told it would be quite all right if his secretary was able to deal with the queries that arose during his absence, He explained that it was not possiblehis secretary was going with him as his wife. Schola Cantorum HE Wellington Schola Cantorum, conducted by Stanley Oliver, will be heard from 1YA Auckland on Saturday, May 17, at 7.30 p.m., in miscellaneous works. In the second part of the programme listeners will hear The Peaceable Kingdom, by Randall Thompson, the noted modern American composer. This, unaccompanied, will be in eight movements. The first part of the programme will include a selection from Pastoral, by Arthur Bliss, Jesus and the Traders, by Kodaly, in a dramatic setting purely for concert purposes, and a later work of Gustav Holst, Sing We the Men. Three numbers from Americana, by Randall Thompson-a musical setting to an advertising column in the "American Mercury," will also be heard. On Sunday, May 18, at 2.30 p.m. from 1YA the Schola Cantorum’s programme will be all Bach, including the first three choruses from the B Minor Mass, and two choruses from the St. ‘Matthew Passion: he second part of this programme will be the unaccompanied motet Jesu, Meine Freude, in 10 movements, a characteristic being that each movement is in the key of E minor. The motet is based on a wellknown chorale of the period. The first half of this programme will be accompanied by the strings of the NZBS Orchestra.