WITH BRAITHWAITE IN HAMILTON

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 434, 17 October 1947, Page 12

WITH BRAITHWAITE IN HAMILTON

| Some Impressions, written for "The Listener’ by

LEO

FOWLER

Zealand born conductor Warwick Braithwaite conducted a special concert by the Hamilton Civic Orchestra. I was unable to attend the concert, but I had what I think was a greater and more valuable privilege. I attended the rehearsal. , SHORT time ago the New It®*was a revelation to me. As a listener to music (rather than a critic

of it) I've often w0ondered just what was the difference between a great conductor and just a good one. I think I now know sonfething of the answer. I am sure I learned more of conducting by watching him, very domestic and homely in shirt sleeves and with perspiration running down his brow, than I would have done by watching him in white tie and tails conducting the actual performance. I suppose one always feels especially privileged when seeing things in the making, but there was more in my reaction to that rehearsal than that. Those vague terms "personality," "technique," "erudition" became demonstrable qualities within the understanding of the ordinary man. I was curious to know what he thought of those 30 or so painstaking amateurs, and to know, even more, what. they thought of him.

It was very obvious that they became momentarily more at ease with him, and that becoming more at ease they found it easier to see what he wanted and to give it to him. He was so palpably different from the Olympian being I (and I thought they) expected. It was obvious he knew every note and bar in each composition, and knew very definitely just how he wanted it played. He knew, too, how he wanted each instrument played. That was to be expected. But his genius seemed to lie in his sharing that knowledge with his orchestra in so simple and understandable a manner. Humming a bar, once or twice, first as they played it, then as he wanted it played. Calling on each instrument individually. Accepting the weaknesses in the orchéstra: "Too many second violins taking the bottom line. I want some of you to take the top line, from letter ‘C’ dum-dum-de-dum ... Try it." They try it. "Hmmm. Better leave things as they are." Or again. "No, go back to letter ‘B’. B-for ..." (and Clarinet comes back, smartly, with "B-for-Braithwaite"). Impossible to be anything but at ease with a man who will exchange backchat with each individual ‘member of the orchestra. Who'll say, "Let’s take the last five bars again, For God’s sake don’t be scared. I’m scared but- I can be scared and do my job. But you mustn’t be scared." Or dispose

of the absence of a bassoon with a "What? No bassoon?" His achievement in becoming at one with them and making them at one with him was the more impressive to me because they were, after all, merely

amateurs, and amateurs’ dazzled at the unexpected distinction of playing under so famous a baton. .But as I said before they are such’ enthusiastic amateurs, the sort of people to whom our national culture owes so much for their trouble in keeping music alive in places where it might more easily fade than flourish. 4 "It's Very Real..." It’s a very real enthusiasm which makes a viola player leave his milk-bar business once a week and come 40-odd miles to rehearsal, makes a farmer's wife come the best part of 20 in spite of the demands a herd of cows and a family has made on her energies throughout the daytime, and makes others come equal distances, on top of a day’s work, to join with those who are fortunate enough to live closer to their rehearsal room. But wherever they lived and whatever they were at other, times-tailor, butcher, school-teacher, radio mechanic, music-teacher, barman, grocer, carpenter, brewery-worker are among the callings represented-they are an orchestra first and foremost when they get together. However, I’m getting side-tracked by my own musings. I started out with a curiosity to know what they expected (continued on next page)

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from him and what they got, and he expected and received from them. There was only one way to find out and that was to ask. Here is a cross-section of the replies: "We expected him to be severe and perhaps impatient with our amateur performance." "We hardly expected him to be able to leave any inipress of his musical personality after one rehearsal." "He made the Egmont Overture broad and noble and the Symphony tremendously exciting. He took the opening movement a little faster than we had been accustomed to, but he gave it a joyous flowing rhythm." The Difficult Became Easy "The difficult andante became easy under his clear beat. He was able, with an intriguing left-hand gesture, to bring out most delicate nuances." "He quickly put the brakes on when we were inclined to race in the trio, but the last movement was an altogether satisfying and exciting finale." "The performance? Well, there’s always the strangeness of the big stage, and the poor acoustics make the opening overture at any performance a shaky affair. It’s a settling down piece-hut not to-night! With the Egmont the orchestra came into its own as a unified body of players." "There was a certain nervous tension to begin with. But soon his great assurance and easy style captured the players and we gave our very best performance." So much for the players. What about the conductor. He said he expected the usual heterogeneous collection of amateur players of doubtful ability. ~ Instead he found a well-drilled, well-disciplined body of players ready to accept anything he had to give them. There were deficiences, of course, the lack of a bassoon is always difficult, but he made no attempt to alter, radically, any of M. de Rose's interpretations and arrangements, Praise Indeed To M. de Rose, the regular conductor of the orchestra since its inception, Warwick Braithwaite paid the compliment of saying that his work had been made quite easy by the very adequate rehearsal the music had had. "For a New Zealand provincial town orchestra the Hamilton Civic is without peer." Praise from Warwick Braithwaite is praise indeed. Playing under his baton proved a thrill and a pleasure instead of the ordeal most had expected. His very real tribute will surely compensate for the many difficulties the members have met and surmounted. The orchestra is two years old. It was born of the enthusiasm of the cultural committee of the City Council. At its first meeting Mr. R. Braithwaite (the conductor’s brother) was appointed chairman of the executive committee-he still is; M. de Rose was appointed conduc-‘tor-he still is. People said, as people will, that they'd never get more than a dozen people together and that they’d ‘never keep even those dozen "on the job." Those critics were wrong. The orchestra has 40 playing members and 400 subscribing members. It gives four performances a year and an extra one to secondary school children, free. I was impressed by the Hamilton/Civic Orchestra. .What is more important, so apparently was Warwick Braithwaite.