SIMON BARERE’S TOUR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 428, 5 September 1947, Page 33

SIMON BARERE’S TOUR

Dunedin Omitted from Itinerary

IMON BARERE, the celebrated Russian pianist, who is at present touring Australia, will make his New Zealand debut in Auckland in September. After a series of concerts there Barere will play in Wellington and istchurch. In an interview. with "rederic McCallum, New Zealand manager for Barere; The Listener was told that at the moment Dunedin is not included in the itinerary, but whether the Southern city has been omitted owing to the poor attendance afforded recent overseas celebrity artists is not known here. "If this is the case," he said, "other centres are in danger of being deprived of the opportunity of hearing many of the world’s great artists; as attendances at solo concerts have been notoriously bad in recent months. An example was the French soprano Ninon Vallin, who is classed with Elisabeth Schumann and Lotte Lehmann among the _ greatest soprano recitalists of our day, and who

was greeted by an audience of but four hundred of Auckland’s supposedly musical public-this in spite of the fact that she was preceded by no other overseas vocalist this season. The tenor Miklos Gafni, who has just concluded a successful Australian tour (and who is hailed as the new Caruso), the pianist Arrau, who was brought out by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, and other splendid artists have avoided New Zealand in this season’s arrangements owing to the doubtful reception they would be afforded here. If New Zealand is to be serviced by entrepreneurs in the matter of the best in musical fare, it’ behoves that section of the public which professes a musical appreciation, together with teachers and students of singing and music, to lend their patronage to the great artists of the world who visit our shores. Otherwise New Zealand might easily become a musical -backwater visited only by artists whose works have become popular through their recordings."