WIATA'S SUCCESS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 453, 27 February 1948, Page 20

WIATA'S SUCCESS

Maort Bass in London

¢¢"F N London they are very impressed with the Maori bass Inia Te Wiata, who left New Zealand to study at Trinity College last year," Andersen Tyrer told The Listener on his return from a short visit to England, a few days ago. "Everybody thinks he is doing extremely well, and Kennedy Scott, the conductor of the Royal’ Philharmonic Choir, was most eulogistic about him. He told me he thought Wiata had one of the finest bass. voices he had heard." When he arrived in England, Mr. Tyrer said, the winter Proms were in full.swing under the baton of Sir Adrian Boult, the Hallé Orchestra was doing a lot of touring throughout the country, and there seemed to be more music

students in the colleges than ever, ins cluding quite a number of New Zealanders. Returning to the subject of Inia Te Wiata’s success, Mr. Tyrer said that Kennedy Scott had predicted a great future for him. He was apparently working. very hard, not only at his music studies, but at the languages-German and French principally-that he had to learn in connection with his singing. He was making excellent progress, and if he retained his health and his capacity for work the indications ‘were that he would become not just a local celebrity but a top-rank artist. "He still had that same modest charm when I met him, and he should prove a fine advertisement for New Zealand,’ Mr. Tyrer added. Mr. Tyrer was asked if he had noticed any falling off in attendances at symphony concerts since the music boom after the war. Orchestras Remain Popular "There has been no reduction in the audiences of established orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra or the Royal Philharmonic. The Hallé, for example, have to give most of their concerts twice to satisfy the demand. This is true even though there are more orchestras now than there were before the war. I noticed that in Yorkshire the newly-formed Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra is serving the same area as the Northern Philharmonic and such touring orchestras as the Hallé. "Long hours of rehearsing are very necessary even with the highly skilled players of London’s big orchestras," Mr. Tyrer added. "I went to a rehearsal of the BBC Symphony and they worked extremely hard. They had eight solid hours of it the day I was there, and they have to do 36 hours every week. If they slacken off one week they must make it up the next, to fill their monthly quota of hours."