THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 439, 21 November 1947, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

Another First From 3YA GAIN during the coming week 3YA listeners will hear a New Zealand first performance-this time of York Bowen’s Sonata in E Minor for Violin and Piano. Recorded last July by Frederick Grinke and the’ Christchurch pianist Ernest Jenner, it will be heard on Monday evening, November 24, at 9.30. The sonata was first played by the composer and Frederick Grinke in a broadcast from London last. January, and shortly afterwards York Bowen sent a copy of it to Ernest Jenner with the suggestion that he should play it with Grinke during the visit to New Zealand of the Boyd Neel Orchestra. There are three movements-moder-ately quick, fairly slow, and rhythmically energetic-each of the first two being preceded by an introductory section. The introduction to the first movement makes an arresting imperious utterance which, as the work proceeds, is found to dominate the whole composition, but which, while gradually shedding some of its initial ferocity, never loses its spirit of determination. This commanding "motto-theme" has a remarkable unifying influence on the whole sonata, seeming somehow to include in its embracé even the very beautiful melodic slow movement, in spite of the fact that this movement makes no direct reference to the theme. The vigorous rhythms of the Finale lead to the coda where once again the dominating "motto-theme," now somewhat modified, again takes charge.

Poetry Readings NOTHER series of poetry readings by the Rev. G. A. Naylor will begin from 1YA next Friday, November 28, at 8.40 p.m. and will be continued each Friday for a total of seven weeks, The series is entitled The Poetry of Ideas, and the programmes are subtitled The Stoic Speaks, The Practical Man, The Hedonist, The Pessimist, The Optimist, The Rationalist, and The Mystic. Poems to be read in the first broadcast comprise Ode to Duty, by Wordsworth; The Last Word, by Arnold; The Celestial Surgeon, by Stevenson; The Old Stoic, by Emily. Bronte, and Prospice, by Browning. ‘The succeeding programmes include further works by Arnold and Browning, and selections from Tennyson, Herrick, Fitzgerald, Poe, Cowper, Bacon, Simon Wastell, Donne, Pope, Addison, Blake, and Thomas Traherne. By Men and Boys ERIODICALLY during the year the Christchurch Liedertafel holds concerts for its subscribers who, in a fog of pipe, cigar and cigarette smoke, sit back to listen to good choral works, well sung. * And once a year the singers present a solid phalanx of white shirtfronts, when, in evening clothes, they entertain their women folk in a more formal atmosphére. Radio listeners, however, will hear the Liedertafel from 3YA in a’ studio concert on Friday, November 28. The choir will be assisted by treble ‘| voices from the Christchurch Boys’ High School Choir, with Victor C,

A Run Through The Programmes

Peters as conductor and Maurice Till as accompanist. At 8.26 p.m. there will be five songs, and then, after a recorded interlude by Fritz Kreisler, three more items. The soloists will be Robert Allison and J. E. Mason. The Gospel of St, Izaak ()VER a number of years, Professor T. D. Adams, of Dunedin, has established a reputation for topicality as well as good taste in the readings which he gives from 4YA of a Friday evening. Whatever circumstances, therefore, has prompted him to prepare readings from

The Compleat Angler for broadcast next week (November 28, 9.34 p.m.) we are quite ready to wager that it wasn’t because he forgot to do so when the angling season opened nearly two months ago. We are more inclined to think that a Higher Purpose moved him. During thé past weeks, the faith of the Fraternity has been tried by rain and tempest, by floods and cold feet, and by that Hope Deferred that maketh the heart sick. The hot gospel is the best remedy for such cold occasions, that the weak-and vacillating may be given new strength, and a new faith in the inevitable advent of summerfaith (as always) being the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Names Writ in Water . HE first recorded attempt to swim the English Channel was made on August 24, 1872, by J. B. Johnson, who started from Dover, but stayed in the water only 65 minutes before the cold got into his feet. On August 12, 1875, Captain Matthew Webb made his first attempt, but gave up when he was 13 miles across, because the sea was too rough. Twelve days later he dived off the Admiralty Pier, Dover, and touched Calais sands after swimming for 21 hours 45 minutes, creating a great sensation in England. Since then more than 20 other successful attempts have been made, and from time to time the swimmers. heavily encased in grease to keep out the cold, have been pictorial news for newspapers and the films: Half-an-hour of sporting in the. surf’ or an occasional race in the local swimming pool is enough for the average man, but there will always be the record-seekers whose stamina carries them to extraordinary lengths, on land as well as in the water. In this connection, readers may recall Stephen Leacock’s account of how the Behring Strait was swum in something like minus one hour 35

minutes. Listeners to 4YA at 8.0 p.m. on Wednesday, November 26, however, will hear something a little more factual about the history of Channel swimming, in the Sporting Life series. Paul Robeson \V HILE nothing good can be said of racial prejudice, it is of passing interest to note that but for the discrimination against Negroes in the, United States Paul Robeson might be bogt known to-day,-not as a singer but as a notable lawyer. That he would have achieved success whatever career he chose would seem to be little in doubt, for his record is a brilliant one. The son of a Methodist minister, he was born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1898, and won a State scholarship to Rutgers University. There he gained high honours not only in the classroom but on the playing fields. He subsequently graduated from Columbia Law School and joined a legal firm, but resigned when he encountered racial discrimination, abandoned law. and turned to the theatre. Eugene O’Neill, after seeing Robeson in an amateur production, urged him to try the title role in The Emperor Jones. His, perform- . ance was such a triumph that his stage career was firmly established. Perform-® ances ip other plays enhanced his reputation and then he turned to the concert platform, to give recitals of Negro spirituals, and later to film acting. He is highly conscious of racial préjydice, and has given much time to the study of the Negro problem in-the-United States. He sent his son to Russia to be educated so that he might grow up in an atmosphere free from race hatred, and while he is not, it is understood, a member of the Communist Party, he is a contributing editor to the Communist magazine New Masses. Paul Robeson will be the star in the For My Lady session from 1YA on Thursday, November 27, at 10.20 a.m,