THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 474, 23 July 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

New Beethoven Recording N 1938 the city of Lucerne, Switzerland, held a musical festival which opened with a concert conducted ‘by Arturo Toscanini at Tribschen, Wagner’s former lake-side home, to commemorate its acquisitions as a national monument. Since then Lucerne’s music festival has become an annual event, and the outstanding feature of last year’s celebration was a performance by Yehudi Menuhin and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra (conducted by Wilhelm Furt- , wangler) of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D Major. The concerto, which is one of the greatest works written for violin, was composed‘in 1806 for the virtuoso Franz Clement, who introduced it to the public for the first time by playing it at sight. Under the circumstances it could hardly have been a great success, and it was not until it was revived many years later by Joachim that the public discovered its high musical value. This new recording by Yehudi Menuhin was broadcast recently from 2YD, but those who missed it then will be able to hear it next week from 2YA, at 8.11 p.m. on Tuesday, July 27. Katherine Mansfield -OR the new 1YA session, Mainly About Books, Frank Sargeson will broadcast on Wednesday, July 26, an appreciation of Katherine Mansfield. Sargeson places Katherine Mansfield in "the feminine tradition" which has, as he explains, nothing to do with her being a woman, and he briefly shows what he means by the phrase. In the latter part of the talk he critically examines four of her stories; The Voyage, Her First. Ball, Bliss, and The Life of Ma Parker, and, of particular interest to New Zealanders, will be his comments on the effect upon her work of her two-hemisphere life-in New Zealand and in Europe. The talk will be heard at 7.15 p.m. Woman of Many Worlds OT everyone has the time or opportunity to try out many different ways of earning a living, but there is in New Zealand a woman who has been successively factory hand, woollen weaver, librarian, shop assistant, waitress, printer’s devil, nursery gardener, and domestic. Her name is Elsie Locke, and in a series of six talks to be broadcast from 3YA she will discuss her experiences in each of these different worlds, with some amusing and perceptive comments on the things she saw and the way the different jobs compared with each other. She began to work for her living during the depression when she was only 17, and says that those grim but varied years gave her some of the most enriching experiences of her life. ‘The series has been called Jobs I Have Known, and the first talk will be heard from 3YA at 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 27. Wood Engraving HE art of cutting relief characters in wood, stone, or metal has been practised since the dawn of history. Carved stamps or dyes were used for

pressing letters into moist clay bricks in Egypt, and in Europe woodcuts were used in the Middle Ages to stamp monograms and print colour designs on textiles (a custom practised in the Orient from time immemorial). The earliest prints on paper so far found come from China of the T’ang Dynasty (A.D. 618905) when woodcuts in one colour were produced in great quantities as cheap" substitutes for religious paintings. The earliest known European woodcuts were playing-cards dating back to the beginning of the 15th Century, In England Thomas Bewick experimented in the 18th Century with end-grain blocks, finally selecting boxwood as being most suitable for white line engraving. And if the modern wood engraver owes any debt to the past it is to Bewick, whose work was not always as much appreciated as it should have been. Listeners who are interested in wood engraving and woodcuts will heat an informative talk on the subject if they tune in to 2YA at 10.25 a.m. on Tuesday, July 27. The speaker will be Mervyn Taylor, of Wellington, who is probably the bestknown wood-engraver in New Zealand at the present time. ’ To Help Children NCE a year for several years, Station 3YA has presented a special broadcast to draw attention to the appeal’ for funds by the combined orphanages of Christchurch. This year the

programme will be presented on Friay, July 30, beween 8.0 p.m. and 9.0 p.m. It will take the form of a con cert by the Christchurch Orpheus Choir and _ soloists under the conductorship of F. C Penfold. The items

will include Elgar’s "Shepherd’s Song," Handel’s "The Heart That’s Contented," Vaughan Williams’s "The Turtle Dove," Brahms’s "In Silent Night,’’ Fraser-Sim-son’s "Christopher Robin is Saying His Prayers," Czibulka’s "Love’s Dream," and Arne’s "The La&s With the Delicate Air." There are 180 children in the Christchurch homes, and the programme is being broadcast to arouse public interest in the "Children’s Day" appeal which will take place on the. morning after the concert. Broadcasting the Olympiad HE XIV Olympiad will begin on Thursday, July 29. ‘Reports from the BBC will be broadcast each day (except Mondays) until Saturday, August 14, in the General Overseas Service, at 4.45 a.m., 12.15 p.m. and 6.45 p.m. For the benefit of New Zealand listeners, the NZBS will record the 4.45 a.m. report and play it in the link of Main National stations following the weather report each morning at 7.18. The 12.15 p.m. report will also be recorded for playing in the link at 12.33 pm. The 6.45 p.m. report will contain special reference to New Zealand and Australian competitors and this will be in the programmes at 7.0 p.m. on Tues-

days, Thursdays, and Fridays. On Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays the NZBS will present a direct re-broadcast of the BBC at 6.45 p.m., replacing the Radio Newsreel. The 6.45 p.m. and 7.0 p.m. reports will be scheduled under the title BBC Report from Olympia. As there are no events at Olympia on Sundays, there will be no broadcast reports on Mondays. A summary of results taken from the 4.45 a.m. BBC bulletin will be broadcast by the ZB stations at 7.0 a.m., following the weather forecast at 7.32, at 8.10 a.m., and again at 12.30 and 1.30 pm. Station 2ZA will also broadcast this summary at 7.0 a.m., repeating it after the Dominion weather forecast at 7.15, and at 8.10 and 10.30 am. A summary of the 6.45 p.m. BBC bulletin (which will contain details of Austfalian and New Zealand performances) will be broadcast by the Commercial stations as opportunity allows during the evening. Carmen Comes North IZET’S opera Carmen, produced in Dunedin by the NZBS in conjunction with the Otago Centennial Association, and in Christchurch in collaboration with the Christchurch Civic Music Council, is gradually working its way north. Wellington’s turn to see and hear the. popular work will come next when Carmen will be presented in collaboration with the Wellington Operatic and Theatrical Society, at the Grand Opera House on July 22, 24, 27, 29, 31, and August 3, 5, and 7. Part of the performance-from 8.3 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. -will be broadcast on relay by 2YD on Thursday, July 29, and the whole of the opera will be broadcast by 2YA on Saturday, July 31, and by 2YC on Saturday, August 7. The Auckland dates for Carmen (it will be produced there in conjunction with the Auckland Amateur Operatic Society) are August 19, 21, 24, 26, 28, and 31, and September 2 and 4. Complete broadcasts will be heard from 1YA on Tuesday, August 24, and Saturday, September 4.