THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 427, 29 August 1947, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

‘New NZBS Production

| | HE next NZBS production to be heard from Station 2YD will be J. Jefferson Farjeon’s Oi! Ben. This is a sprightly little tale of a Cockney character who, once a member of the Merchant Service, finds himself ashore without a job, and with an irritating aptitude for getting himself into, and out of, various kinds of trouble. He becomes tangled up with the underworld, untangled by the police, living a life of totally unsought adventure. The taleit is in five episodes-is one of thrills, with comedy supplied by the hero’s whimsical acceptance of his fate and his ability to make virtue triumphant. As well as being the leading character, Ben is himself the narrator. The first episode will be broadcast on Monday, September 1, at 7.20 p.m., and the four remaining chapters on following Mondays at the same time. Oi! Ben replaces Great Expectations.

Rustic Wedding

ARL GOLDMARK was born in Kesztheley, Hungary, in 1830,-the son of a poor Jewish cantor belonging to the local synagogue. He showed early signs of musical talent, learning to perform on home-made instruments, and at the age of 14 was sent to Vienna to study seriously. During the revolution of 1848 he narrowly escaped execution as a rebel, when actually he was committing no greater crime than playing in a theatre orchestra. He eventually settled in Vienna and. devoted himself to teaching the piano, composing and writing on music, and died there in 1915. Goldmark is best known for his

opera The Queen of Sheba, but it was his delightful "Rustic Wedding" suite which first brought him recognition overseas. A performance of this work, which is in five movements, will be heard by listeners to 3YA on Friday, September 5, at 3.0 p.m.

Please Be Seated

ULL enjoyment of music in New Zealand is often impaired by the furniture that shapes our ends in many of our public concert halls. Christopher Stone. of the BBC, and London editor of The Gramophone, apparently believes that a rocking-chair is the ideal type of seat in which to listen to certain types of music, for he has chosen The Old Rocking Chair as the title for three BBC programmes shortly to be heard from 2YA. He will invite listeners to sit back in a mood of comfortable reminiscence to hear old tunes which have never lost their appeal, and some which are not so old. Those of us who do not possess rockers will have to make do with cane or chromium and use our imaginations when we settle down to I’ll Sing Thee Songs of Araby, Sylvia, Traumerei, Come to the Ball, and so on. The artists will be Betty Huntley-Wright and Gordon Little, with the Albemarle Strings. The name of Christopher¢Stone to BBC listeners is synonomous with recitals of gramophone records, for as long ago as 1927 he became a favourite with his

easy, intimate way of presenting recorded programmes. There will be three sittings of The Old Rocking-Chair from 2YA-at 8.13 p.m. on Wednesday, September 10, 17, and 24.

Ten O'clock Break

F My Lady has a sense of guilt about interrupting the housework for a cup of tea at 10 o’clock while she listens to the For My Lady session she may perhaps ease the pangs of conscience with the thought that Franz Schubert,

who is the subject of three of these sessions from 1YA next week, also found pleasure in such a break from work, for the famous composer was a habitué of Bogner’s Coffee House in the Singerstrasse, Vienna. There Schubert would go with his artistic and literary friends sometimes to talk, sometimes to pay silent homage to’ the lonely figure at’ a corner table-Beethoven. My Lady may also draw further comfort from the fact that taking time off for coffee did nothing to limit Schubert’s output. His industry was phenomenal and although he lived only 31 years, he left more music than almost any other master. The "Music of Franz Schubert" programmes will be heard on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, September 1, 3 and 4, at-10.20 a.m.

Rise of Nationalism

ARS inevitably bring changes in their wake and often accelerate movements already in progress. The impetus given by World War I to the development of the aeroplane and by World War II to the development of atomic energy spring readily to mind. But sociological as well as_ scientific trends are accentuated, and during the last war one of the most notable and important of the former was the emergence of nationalism in colonial areas, especially in South-East Asia- the Philippines, the Netherlands East Indies, Indo-China and other colonies This development will be the subject of a talk, "Old Colonies and the New Peoples," by W. T. G. Airey in the winter course talk series "World Problems Are Our Problems," from 1YA at 7.15 p.m. on Thursday, September 4.

The Great White South

EW ZEALANDERS were closely associated with Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic expedition of 1910. Scott’s statue stands on the banks of the Avon in Christchurch, and thousands of people farewelled his ship, the Terra Nova, when she steamed out of Port Chalmers on November 29, 1910, Two gaily-decorated excursion tugs, crowded with passengers, accompanied the Terra Nova to the Heads and watched her

turn south, with her painted-over Plimsoll mark submerged nearly a foot. The story of the expedition has been told in book form. Now the tale of Captain Scott’s journey, and his death with his companions in the Antarctic wastes, is recalled in a broadcast by his son Peter, who talks about his father’s diary in the BBC series The Written Word. Captain Scott kept his diary meticulously, and he left a moving document behind him. An entry very near the end is typical: "Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes, and our dead bodies must tell the tale. . . ." Peter Scott’s broadcast will be ,jheard from 2YA on Sunday, September 7, at 4.30 p.m.

Soprano from Italy

IVING her first concert to New Zealand radio audiences, Brunetta Schubert (soprano) will be heard by listeners to 2YA at 8.5 p.m. on Sunday, September 7. In a programme with the 2YA orchestra, conducted by Leon de Mauny, she will sing "O Come My Heart’s Delight," from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Massenet’s "Elegie," and the aria "I Am Titania," from Mignon by Thomas. Miss Schubert, who is of Austrian parentage, was born in Trieste a studied there and in Milan. She qualifi in both singing and the pianoforte and subsequently became a professor. She has sung in Venice, Trieste and Vienna, and it was in Trieste too that she met, and later married,an officer of the New Zealand forces. Later she came to New . Zealand to await her husband’s return from Japan, where he was serving with the J Force. (A picture of Miss Schubert appears on page 21).