THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 453, 27 February 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Prolific Prokofieff TATION’S 2YA classical hour: on Thursday, March 4, at 2.0 p.m. will feature Serge Prokofieff. This almost incredibly prolific and versatile composer wrote a march, a rondo, and a waltz, at the age of six; an opera, music and libretto at nine; a symphony in four movements for piano, four hands, as well as a number of less ambitious works at 12, and he has been composing as freely and with the same "driving dynamic power, masculinity of accent, and abundance of the grotesque" ever since. The range of his genius is as remarkable as

its quantity. He has written Peter and the Wolf-and a Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of the October Revolution, to the authentic texts from the. speeches and writings of Lenin, Stalin and Marx, for symphony orchestra, military band, a band of accordions, percussion, and two choruses. He has written an opera based on the story of an enchanted prince and an orange-bound princess and another called I am a Son of the People of Workers. As far as titles go at least the music to be heard on Thursday is conventional-Classical Symphony in D, Op. 25, Violin Concerto in G Minor, Op. 63, and BuffoonBallet Suite. Wanderlust OME people feel that not to like travelogues is a mark of insularity, and are shy of admitting it but don’t listen anyway. We hope that none will be deceived by the title of the talks to be given from 2YA by J. Lennox-King. Journey Through Kashmir is a travel talk* with a difference. It is neither a ‘sugar-coated geography lesson nor a technicoloured eulogy. The aim is to entertain rather than instruct. Mr. Lennox-King is more concerned about telling his tale than pointing a moraland it is an interesting tale of a most unusual journey made by a man with his : eyes wide open and a determination to enjoy himself. Mr. Lennox-King went to Kashmir as a soldier on leave and his talks are as natural and unaffected as a soldier’s letter home. The first of two talks will be heard from 2YA on Friday, March 5, at 7.15 p.m. ‘ Listen Before You Leap HE possibilities which February 29 holds for those who may (with some justification) be described as ardent feminists are not to be overlooked in Dunedin this year. In spite of the natural preoccupation with Centennial celebrations, 4ZB’s programme _ staff | have taken time off to devise a Leap

Year session tuned to the mood of the moment. A good deal of research has been done into the old folk-customs associated with Leap Year and this will be incorporated in the studio session. But the main part of the programme will be a light-hearted sketch centred on the one tgadition which, above all others, is associated with February 29. Three scheming spinsters and three bashful bachelors (all mercifully anonymous) will be the dramatis personae. Leave it to the Girls is to be the title of the session, which will be heard at 10.0 p.m. this Sunday, February 29. Station 1ZB will present its Leap Year Day programme at 2.30 p.m., 2ZB will broadcast a play, Once in Four, produced by the NZBS, at 5.30 p.m., and 2ZA will interview two people whose birthdays fall on February 29, at 6.30 p.m. Station 3ZB will also present a suitable programme. The Liberal Tradition N his recently published History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell presented his opinion of the work of great thinkers of the past. In the talk Science and Democracy which will be heard from 1YA at 7.50 p.m. on Monday, March 1, he states his own position, affirming his belief in the importance of the liberal tradition and surveying the development of his own ideas during a long life of intellectual activity. The recordiftig was made from the original broadcast in the BBC’s Third Programme. Readers who remember Bertrand Russell’s article, In the Name of Democracy, which appeared in The Listener in 1946, will be interested to discover whether he still regards Russia as the chief obstacle to majority rule, and whether he will repeat what he said then about the substitution of force for persuasion, with Stalin in the role of Napoleon. St. David's Day N Monday, March 1, Welshmen all over the world will observe St. David’s Day, commemorating the Patron Saint of Wales, and several stations have arranged sgecial Welsh programmes.

From 1YA at 7.15 p.m. there will be a talk on Welsh Culture by T. E. Price and at 8.15 p.m. 1ZM will broadcast a half-hour programme arranged by Emrys and Garath Jones. This will include Welsh music and literature and brief talks on the origin of St. David and the exploits of the 53rd Division in the last war. The spoken part of the programme will be partly in English and partly in Welsh. The Wellington

Welsh Society will give a studio presentation from 2YA at 7.30 p.m. and the Cambrian Society of Canterbury will broadcast a similar programme from 3YA at the same time. Elizabeth and Robert [Tt was on September 12, 1846, that Robert Browning made his clandestine marriage with Elizabeth Moulton-Bar-rett, who was at that time a confirmed invalid and six years his senior. To celebrate the centenary of that occasion the BBC produced a programme The Marriage of True Minds, and as the title implies, the script-writers have broken away from those aspects of the story which have been made so familiar on stage and screen. The programme concentrates on the intellectual side of Elizabeth and Robert’s romance, and shows how the poets’ mutual admiration for each other’s writings led to friendship, and finally to a most genuine and devoted love. The Marriage of True Minds will be heard from 4YA at 9.30 p.m. om Monday, March 1. Apollo on Location ° N Richard Rowley’s play Apollo in Mourne, which will be heard from 1YA at 10.15 p.m. on Monday, March 1, Apollo is banished from Olympus to Ireland as a punishment, and his impact on the "locals," especially one of them who is both good-looking and female, should make entertaining listening. This is a BBC production, and at 9.33 p,m. on Sunday, March 7, 1YA will broadcast an NZBS play on a similar theme called One Fine Day. This production tells the story of how Apollo brought sunshine into the lives of a film company on location somewhere in England, and solved the problems of several members of the cast. Although his opinion of mortals in general, and film producers in particular,.is not exactly flattering, he finds time to dally with the affections of one of the feminine bit players.