THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 412, 16 May 1947, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

~ Grand Centra! "TO those Dunedin listeners (and others further afield) who think of Central Otago and the southern Lakes District as a summer holiday-ground, we commend a new series of talks on the Wakatipu District-The Blue Pool of Wakatipu, by Florrie Hogarth-which begins from 4YA on Monday, May 19, at 7.15 p.m. It would be easy with such a subject (and such a title) to present a series of techni-colourful travelogues no closer to reality that Hollywood’s Green Dolphin Street seems to be, but Miss Hogarth has managed to tell the story of local history fairly, without either losing the natural colour and romance of the place or over-emphasising them. Each of the talks is a blend of recorded fact and personal anecdote about the eatly days. The first title is "Maoris and Pioneers" and among the others will be "The First White Settlers" (not all pioneers settled), "Canvastown Becomes Queenstown," and "The Rise of the Squatters." ODTAA ACCORDING to Our Wife, the stocking situation-even with the currerit double ration-is still very much One Darned Thing After Another (if we may coin a phrase), so that we have a more than academic interest in the talk on "The Stocking Industry and Its Develop- | ment in England," which R. A. Ford is to give from 2YA on Monday, May 19, at 10.25 a.m. While we expect that Mr. Ford, an authority on the industry who has recently arrived from. England, brings us a message of hope, we realise that we must not hope for too much too soon. Harassed by floods and frosts and reconversion problems, it is hardly likely that the industry runs as easily as its product. In the meantime, until we get back to Business as Usual, a boom in X-coupon printing is perhaps the next best thing.

Silk Purse Department TRANGELY enough, we had _ just been mulling over the problem of building a piggery in the backyard when (presto!) we found that 1YA had anticipated our worries by arranging for a talk on "Points to Remember in Planning Location of Farm Piggery,’ by a

member of the Bay of Plenty District Pig Council (Wednesday, May 21, 7.15 p.m.). Of course, first catch your pig. At the moment, ours (kindly left us by Captain J. Cook, R.N.), are confined to the 350,000 acres at the back of our

backyard, which makes it somewhat arduous when there is bacon to be brought home. Others, of course, are more fortunately placed in already having their pigs in the purlieus, and it is to them, no doubt, that the talk is primarily directed. However, we shall be listening. The only point we would have considered in planning a piggery is that from which the prevailing wind blows, but apparently there are. others.

Fragrant Topic "TL? you ever wonder," asks Dorothy Freed, in her talk "Our Friend the Herb Garden" (1YA, May 23, 10.40 a.t.), "what people who lived in our great-great-grandmother’s day did when they had an attack of rheumatism, or gout, or influenza, or earache?" To-day, of course, we can go to the doctor, and then to the chemist for some free medicine. In those days, one was generally one’s own doctor and chemist, and compounded one’s own free medicine--or the woman of the house did. In her talk Dorothy Freed describes the herbs from which these old potions, possets, and simples were made, shows how com-mon-sensibly many of them were applied, and how, in some cases, modern science has confirmed the efficacy of traditional remedies. Napoleonic Days DRAMATIZATION of one of history’s most picturesque romancesthat of Napolean and Josephine, Emperor and Empress of France, is to be heard during the next few weeks from the ZB stations. Its titie is Empress of Destiny, and the author is Frank Kenyon, of Auckland, who also wrote

Josephine, Empress of France. It is a production of the Commercial Division of the NZBS, and is in serial form. Scenes from Napoleon’s campaigns are introduced into the narrative which takes much of its material from the intrigues of the French court. Leading parts are played -by Ulu Hancock, as Josephine, and J. Kahn, as Napoleon, other players being George Swan, Howard Wadman, Linda Hastings Lees Bullot, Mabel Harding-Maltby, and G. Brown-Douglas. Empress ct Destiny will replace Early Days in New Zealand, and. will be heard on Wednesdays at 7.0 p.m, _ It began at 1ZB on May 14, and will be heard from 2ZB on May 28, 3ZB on June 11, 4ZB on June 25, and 2ZA on July 16. Alan Rawsthorne WO compositions by Alan Rawsthorne are to be heard next weekhis Theme and Variations for Two Violins, from 4YO on Friday, May 23, and his Bagatelles for Piano from 2YN on the previous evening. Frank Howes, music critic of The Times, in an article written for the BBC Listener, said of the former work; "Its theme, which is

defiant of key and exploits dissonance, is made the basis of nine variations, each of which bears a label indicative of character, such as Siciliano, Cancrizzante. and Fantasia (in the old fugal sense). But its ingenuity does not over-reach itself; it all makes real music-original music, ‘modern’ music with all the significance of inverted commas, but intelligible music, music that attracts and tickles the fancy, engages and involves the mind." In most respects, Mr. Howes says, Rawsthorne avoided the whims of fashion which during the ’twenties led composers into all sorts of experiment and extravagance. "He does in fact owe the sterling qualities of his music to his late start. Parental opposition to a musical career, justified in their son’s own view since it was never unreasonably carried to an extreme, meant that Rawsthorne was a student at the Royal Manchester College of Music during the years when his contemporaries were sowing their wild oats. He was in his twentysixth year before he began to try his wings as a composer." Brahms Horn Trio WITH the formation of the National Symphony Orchestra the NZBS String Quartet disappeared from _ its weekly’ place in the 2YA programmes, but the general redistribution of musicians has created some new chamber music ensembles by way of compensation, and made possible collaboration in some new ways. Listeners to 2YA on Sunday afternoon, May 25, will hear Brahms’ Trio for Horn, Violin, and Piano, Op. 40, played by Peter Glen, Erika Schorss, and Dorothy Davies. Peter Glen is first horn in the National Orchestra, and Miss Schorss is one of the first. violins. During the war Miss Schorss did a good deal .of trio work with Dorothy Davies and Marie Vandewart, the ’cellist, who is now in England. The trio to be heard on May 25 is sometimes played with a viola in place of the horn.