Colin Horsley and the Orchestra

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 413, 23 May 1947, Page 7

Colin Horsley and the Orchestra

year-old. pianist, from Wanganui, who has been in England for the last: nine years, arrived in Auckland by the Rua: hine three days before his first scheduled broadcast, which was the performance with the National Symphony Orchestra of Rechmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. HORSLEY, the 26The Listener had a short interview with him during his first hec.ic day back in New Zealand, and found him looking about the place as if it were almost a new country to him, comparing Auckland’s atmosphere with Curacao’s, and noting what happens when people want to buy extra food on Saturdays here. On the boat with him came his manager, V. L. Drewry, formerly of the BBC's music department, and his Bluthner piano, which he hoped he: could get off the boat to use in New Zealand. It was crated and carried in the hold, and he kept his fingers in prac-ice by using a dummy keyboard during the voyage. The other side of Panama, however, he decided to play the Rachmaninoff Concerto, with Mr. Drewry playing the orchestral part on the second of the ship’s two pianos. A tuner came on board at Panama and made the necessary adjustments, and the performance was duly given. Colin: Horsley is glad to be back in New Zealand for a while, but sees no possibility of his remaining here because he feels qa need to be near the centre of things. "The centre of things" has meant, for him, playing with all of England’s best orchestras, playing chamber music with the Griller and Zorian String Quartets, giving the first performance of a new piano concerto by the young English composer Humphrey Searle, and now, waiting for the manuscript of another new concerto commissioned for him from another English composer, Lennox Berkeley. He has brought with him a Suite for Piano by another New Zealander in London, Hugo Anson, who is registrar of the Royal College of Music. He hopes to broadcast this while he iS here. Two other compositions he has brought which will be ,new to listeners here are both sonatas — one by Balakireff and one by Prokofieff. Colin Horsley will be in New Zealand for several weeks, giving public recitals in the four main centres and in his own town. Then he intends to visit Australia before going to America and back to London in October. Colin’ Horsley’s first public appearance since his return to New Zealand was with the NZBS National Orchestra in Wellington last week. He will be heard in two other concerts with the Orchestra. On May 24 he will play the Saint-Saens Concerto in G Minor at an orchestral concert in the Wellington Town Hall, and on Tuesday, June 17, he will play the Tchaikovski Concerto in B Flat Minor with the Orchestra in the Auckland Town Hall. He will also broadcast from 2YA Studios on May 22 and 25, from 3YA on June 4 and 6, and from 4YA on June 8 and 9. Studio recitals will be given from the 1YA Studio later in June, with final broadcasts during July. v ae