THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 445, 2 January 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The. Programmes

The New Year Dickens HE most striking contemporary evidence of the genius and universality of Dickens is the popularity of his novels when adapted as serials for broadcasting. Yet adapting Dickens, with all the wealth of characters that throng the pages of his novels, must be a severe trial for a radio producer who must resist the temptation to get side-tracked in all kinds of fascinating by-ways. That the adapters of Dombey and Son, the latest BBC production of a Dickens novel, succeeded in their task is evident from the great reception the serial had with British listeners. Many wrote in to say that it was the best serial the BBC had yet produced, and they especially praised the acting of Ralph Truman as Dombey and Elaine Macnamara as Florence. There are 13 episodes in this version, but nothing significant is omitted from Dickens's story of the tyranny of Dombey, the pathetic suffering of Florence and little Paul, the villainy of Carker, the heroism of Walter Gay, and the whimsicality of those minor characters-Captain Cuttle, Joe Bagstock and Cousin Feenix. The first episode of Dombey and Son will be heard from 2YA at 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 7, and from 4YZ at 4.0 p.m. on Sunday, January 11 (see photograph on page 17.) Bowls and Tennis URING the first month of Otago’s Centennial Year the technicalities of bowling will be once again the dominant jargon of the sports pages for, "between Monday, January 12, and Tuesday, January 27 the Dominion Bowling Championships will take place in Dunedin. Short heads, long heads, and perhaps the occasional burning of them, will be part of every-day conversation. The NZBS has made arrangements to give full broadcast coverage to the meeting. Main National stations will be linked each night, except Sunday, at 10 o'clock for a ten-minutes’ review of the day’s play, giving the highlights and a list of the names of the players remaining in. The finals in the singles, pairs and fours will be broadcast by 4YA. Entries this year constitute a record. Last year the champion four comprised E. H. Crowley, E. Crowley, V. F. Hurlstone, and G. A. Crowley (Tolaga Bay), the pairs winners were W. R. Hawkins and E. P. Exelby (Frankton) and the champion single, S. Vella (Onehunga). The New Zealand Tennis Championships will be played at Auckland from Saturday, January 3, to Saturday, January 10, and here again, each night, except Sunday, the main National stations will be linked from 10.0 till 10.8 o’clock to broadcast the day’s results and a short summary of play. Major Choral Works TATION 4YA has inaugurated a programme of major choral-~works to be broadcast on the second’ Sunday of each month, and the first of these to be heard in the New Year will be Belshazzar’s Feast, by William Walton, which will be heard at 2.30 p.m. on Sunday, January 11. The performance is by the Huddersfield Choir, with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Brass Bands, ‘soloist Dennis Noble (baritone), and conYS

ductor William Walton. Walton’s text is taken from the narrative poem by Osbert Sitwell, an adaptation of the Old Testament story where Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar and the last king of Babylonia, holds a mighty feast at which his doom is foretold by writing on the wall. The drama is presented with all the bold simplicity of the Old Testament, without artificial elaboration, and thus achieves tremendous vitality and dramatic ifttensity. From the opening

words, "Howl ye, howl ye, therefore: For the day of the Lord is at hand!" to the final climax, "In that night was Belshazzar the King slain, And his kingdom divided," the music conveys by means of brutally violent harmonies and harsh progressions, tempered by occasional consonances, the sublime terror of that moment., The lament, "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept," and the final exultant hymn, have often been praised as some of Walton’s finest music. Qn the second Sunday in February, 4YA will broadcast Holst’s Hymn of Jesus, and at monthly intervals thereafter Verdi’s Requiem, Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Verdi’s Requiem Mass, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, and Pergolesi’s Stabat Matér. Mbozart’s Requiem, heard on December 14 last, was also part of this series. From Sydney WO visitors from Sydney are to be heard in three recitals from 1YA, beginning on January 4. They are Joyce Billing (pianist) and Edna Todd (contralto). Joyce Billing was born at, Te Aroha and took her diploma in music at the’ Auckland University College. After studying the piano under Dr. K. Phillips, she left New Zealand in 1941 to continue her tuition at the Sydney Conservatorium, from which she gained a diploma for piano, as well as studying the ’cello there on a three-years’ scholarship. She is now staff accompanist with the ABC in Sydney and also takes part in public concerts both as an accompanist and as a soloist. At the moment she is on a month’s holiday leave which she is spending in New Zealand, Edna Todd also studied at the Sydney Conservatorium, taking part in several productions of the Conservatorium Opera School, and she’learnt dramatic art at the Independent Theatre. After working in a secretarial position she joined the ABC Radio Singers in Sydney, and she has also given solo broadcasts, Miss Todd and Miss Billing will be heard from 1YA at 8.15 p.m. this Sunday, January 4, at 8.19 p.m. on Saturday, January 10, and at 8.7 p.m. on January 14 (see photographs on page 17.)