A Gentlemanly Choice
HAVE long believed that the Chorus Gentlemen are a Good Thing, and my high opinion did not suffer recession when I heard them in a different type of pro-gramme-2YA’s Desert Island Discs, Their choices revealed a remarkable range of musical appreciation, and it was noteworthy that vocal music was neither lionised nor conspicuously excluded. Yet the two outstanding’ recordings heard in the session were both vocal. The second to last item was a setting by Benjamin Britten of a Michaelangelo sonnet, sung by Peter Pears, a noble rendering of a noble piece of music. The final number was included. apparently as much for practical as for musical reasons. To quote its sponsor "All these symphonies and so on aren’t going to stop the cannibals from popping you in the cooking-pot. This one may make them think twice about it." Whereupon Tim produced his selection -Bing Crosby and Mary Martin singing "Wait till the sun shines, Nelly." In spite of an initial recoil, by the end of the item I was completely won round to Tim’s way of thinking (though still inclined to question Tim’s conception of desert islands). For the blithe carolling of Bing and partner was so strongly and tunefully suggestive of innocence and optimism that the ignorant cannibal, pondering this revelation of the simplicity and virtue of western civilisation, might well have questioned the wisdom of rendering down even those pitiful remnants of it represented by the Chorus Gentlemen.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 424, 8 August 1947, Page 8
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244A Gentlemanly Choice New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 424, 8 August 1947, Page 8
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