THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 461, 23 April 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

New World Music Mysic from America and New Zealand has been chosen by the Auckland Lyric Harmonists Choir, conducted by Claude Laurie, for its concert this Saturday, April 24. In the nine sections of the programme American choral music alternates with instrumental music by New Zealand composers. The choral selections include Negro spirituals and compositions by Guion, William Schuman, Carpenter, Samuel Barber, and Roy Harris. The New Zealand items are Suite for Clarinet, Viola and Harp, by Dorothea Franchi, Five Pieces for Clarinet and Pianoforte, by Tracy Moresby, Pianoforte Variations on a Theme of Douglas Lilburn, by David Farquhar, Ronald Dellow, Edward Carr, Dorothea Franchi and Ronald Tremain, and Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Pianoforte, by Tracy Moresby. The first hour of the concert will be broadcast by IYA, starting at 8.0 p.m. Royal Silver Wedding HE Silver Wedding of Their Majesties the King and Queen will be celebrated on Monday, April 26, For the benefit of New Zealand listeners the NZBS will re-broadcast the BBC description of Their Majesties’ state drive from Buckingham Palace to St. Paul’s Cathedral, and of the religious service there. The re-broadcast will be heard in a link of the main and auxiliary National stations at 10.15 p.m. on Monday, and in another link at 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 27, a half-hour edited version will be broadcast. Their Majesties will be accompanied by Princess Elizabeth, the Duke of Edinburgh, and Princess Margaret. The Sovereign’s Escort of Household Cavalry will be wearing their full dress of red and blue tunics, white buckskin breeches and gauntlets, and thigh-length ‘boots, with breastplates of cteel and helmets with waving plumes. This will be the second time; they have worn full dress on a state occasion since the war, the first time being at Princess Elizabeth’s wedding last November. The descriptions will be dorie by two of the BBC’s top men, Richard Dimbleby and Wynford Vaughan Thomas, both of whom took part in the broadcast of the Royal Wedding. Dimbleby will describe the historic ceremony at Temple-.Bar, as the Royal party enters the City of London. Vaughan Thomas will interpret for listeners the thanksgiving service in St. Paul’s. National Music STATION 2YH will present its listeners on Sunday, May 2, at 9.30 p.m., with the first of a series of five sessions of Music of the People, a BBC programme played by the National Light Orchestra conducted by Gilbert Vinter. This is a’ collection of some of the most popular and characteristic melodies of countries in every part of the worldthe result of collaboration between the music section and recording engineers of the Transcription Service, the Overseas and European departments of the BBC, and the orchestra. Vinter spent many weeks of study and research in arranging Music of the People. In some cases, members of the BBC’s foreign

services lent him records of folk music performed by their own countrymen; or, if neither records nor scores were available, they sang the tunes to him so that he could transcribe and harmonise them, He has made no attempt to "dress" the airs or copy exactly the style of the countries concerned, but has aimed at the characteristic touch, combined with a pure melodic line throughout. In the first programme listeners will hear some of the music of Britain. Happy Medium ELIZABETH Nina Mary Frederika Lehmann-more often referred to simply as Liza Lehmann-in_ tbe latter part of the last century was widely acclaimed as a soprang when at the age of 32 she married the composer and miniature painter, Herbert

Bedford, and abandoned her singing career, her last performance being given, as had been her first, in St. James’s Hall, London. However, she was not content to rest on laurels won on the concert platform, but turned to composition, particularly song cycles, which, as Scholes says, pleased the wide public as not being too heavy and the connoisseur as not being too light. One of the best known of these song cycles, In a Persian Garden (from Omar Khayyam) will be heard in a studio presentation from 1YA at 7.30 p.m. on Saturday, May 1, by Constance Manning (soprano), Myra Otter (contralto), John Dowling (tenor) and Robert Simmers (baritone). Pat Towsey will play the piano accompaniment. The Complete "Elijah" RECENT recording of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Isobel Baillie and the Liverpool Philharmonic (under Sir Malcolm Sargent) is describedsin the November issue of The Gramophone as "at last, the complete Elijah." With Isobel Baillie are heard James Johnston (tenor), _Gladys Ripley (contralto), and Harold Williams (bass-baritone). The choral work is by the Huddersfield Choral Society. Miss Baillie made the recording shortly before she came out to New Zealand, and listeners who have enjoyed her concert recitals of oratorio excerpts will no doubt be keen to hear her in this complete work. Elijah will be played from 2YA at 9.32 p.m. on Sunday, May 2 (the first part only), and

at 9.30 p.m. on Thursday, May 6. Unfortunately the work is too long to be played right through at one sitting. Louise ‘THE French actor Maurice Chevalier ‘once popularised a catchy musical comedy song called "Louise," which became all the. rage away back in the 1930’s. It’s probably just a coincidence, but there’s also in existence an opera of the same name (by the French composer Gustave Charpentier) which isn’t very often heard by us out here. The opera Louise is a delightfully lyrical piecé of musical drama (its first performance was in Paris in 1900), and if

‘aki? © way listeners to 3YA tune in to the full recording of it which will be broadcast from that station on Sunday, May 2, at 9.22 p-m., they should enjoy a pleasant evening’s entertainment by the fireside. Louise has been described as a sort of musical apotheosis of the spirit of Paris as exemplified in the romance of a work-ing-girl and her artist-lover. The heroine belongs to a class which her creator understands, for he founded an institution for working girls in Paris many years ago, to provide them with theatrical entertainment and a chance of learning to sing, dance, and act,