THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 479, 27 August 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

| Art and Appreciation (CAN appreciation of the arts be taught , or is it a faculty with which one | must be born? That question forms the theme of the final series of winter course | talks to be broadcast by 3YA this season. The first of the series-‘"Can Appreciation of Drama be Taught?"-will be heard at 9.20 p.m, on Monday, August 30, and the speaker will be A. T. Ziegler, a member of the staff of the | New Brighton District High School. He will be followed, on September 6, by J. A. Masterton, who will discuss the question as it applies to pictorial art, and on September 13 Ernest Jenner will speak on the appreciation of music. The final talk in the series, on appreciation of literature, will be given on September 20 by S. R. Cuming, senior English master at Christchurch Boys’ High ' Schoél. 3 Schubertian Talent "HE has an almost Schubertian talent for song, an outstanding ear for musical colout, and an endless capacity for inventing wonderful sounds and beautiful music," said Colin Mason in a recent copy of the Musical Times. He was referring, as you have probably guessed by now, to Benjamin Britten, England’s young hope in the musical world, and he follows up this high praise with some penetrating criticism of Britten’s music. "There may be a real inability to write abstract works," she says, but "though he seems to lack the formal gift required for sonata works, he obviously has a dramatic gift, which enables him to make good operas out of rather ineffective dramas." Those who are familiar with Britten only as an operatic composer will be able to hear some of his orchestral works next week. At 2.30 p.m. on Friday, September 3, his Serenade for Tenor, Horn _and Strings will be heard from 2¥YA, and his Variations on a Theme of Purcell from 4YZ at 2.15 p.m. on Tuesday, August 31, Oranges and Music ULIUS DELIUS, the father of Frederick, the composer, did his best to make a wool merchant of the wouldbe musician. An _ elder son, Ernest, had turned his back on the family business and come to New Zealand, sheep-farm-|.ing. To escape from Bradford Frederick fancifully proposed orange-planting in Florida, and the father preferred this rather than that a son of his should become "a Bohemian musician." The plantation acquired was Solano Grove on the St. John’s River. There Delius left the oranges to look after themselves, got himself a piano and also the company (for six months) of Thomas F. Ward, an organist of Jacksonville, whose -lessons Delius in later life declared to be the only teaching he had had worth the name. Later on his father reluctantly agreed, as an experiment, to his going to the Leipsig Conservatory. Listeners to 4YZ will hear, on Tuesday, August 31, at ‘9.15 pm.,

Delius’s. Concerto for Piano and Orchaestra, with Moiseiwitsch at the piano, and the Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Constant Lambert. Parties and the House [N a legislative body like the British Parliament, with its strongly developed party system, the relationship of the individual M.P. to the pariy to which he belongs is a delicate problem. To what extent is he required to vote the party ticket? If he doesn’t fall into line; what kind of discipline do the different parties exert? What encouragement is given to the expression of a member’s personal, as opposed to party,

opinions? The answers to these *questions, and to many others dealing with Se gancovimng life, will be heard in the series The British Parliament Today, which starts from 4YA at 7.15 p-m. on Wednesday, September 1. Those who enjoyed the BBC’s Four Centuries of Parliament and who want to be right up to date should find much to interest them in these programmes. As_ usual, some first-class speakers have been chosen-all eminent politicians. They are Lord Hankey, Commander Stephen King-Hall, the Hon. Harold Nicolson, Christopher Hollis, Wilson Harris, and Sir Fred Clarke. Cheap But Not Nasty BOUT 14 years ago Allan Lane one day found himself. unsuccessfully searching a bookstall at a Devon railway junction for a book to read on his journey. He was unsuccessful because what he wanted was a good book at a cheap price and he found that the books which did appeal to him were obtainable only in the more expensive editions. He decided there was a demand to be filled, and, enlisting the support of his two brothers, his’ plan was put into effect. So began Penguin Books, the story of which is told by Richard Lane, one of the three ‘brothers, and another representative of the firm, Robert Maynard, in an interview recorded during a recent visit to New Zealand. They recall the early days of the enterprise when the _ three brothers had their headquarters in the

— tall crypt of a church; the scepticism of other publishers; their success not only from,a business point of view-1,200 title and 130 million copies since 1935 -but in increasing the general interest in reading worthwhile books; and tell also of a publisher's war and post-war problems. . The interview will be heard in' the 2YA programme Talking Penguins at 7.15 p.m. on Friday, September 3. Queen of the Tasman ‘TIME was when proud New Zealanders regarded the Awatea as one of the fastest and most modern ships afloat, and in these days of shipping austerity when Tasman travel is strictly rationed, memories of her are likely to be fond and fanciful, if somewhat dim. The lifestory of the Awatea, from her arrival in New Zealand in 1936 until her sinking by enemy bombing in 1942, makes a fascinating story as told by M. J. Foley, who was a steward on her all through those six hectic years. He tells how she broke the Monterey’s Tasman crossing record in 1937, became a troopship in 1939, carried the advance party of the 2NZEF from Wellington, air force personnel to Canada, Canadian troops to Hong Kong, and finally, in her last adventure, commandos and American rangers to North Africa for the 1942 invasion. In November, after many attacks, she was sunk by enemy aircraft off the port of Bonjie, thus ending her eventful career. The first talk in this series Queen of the Tasman will be heard from 2YA at 4.30 p.m. on Sunday, September 5. Piano Tone HOSE who read the viewsreel paragraph in our last issue on Piano Tone and who want to form their own opinions about the qualities brought out by different concert pianists should listen to 2YC at 8.0 p.m. on Sunday, September 5. They will then hear a ses-* sion Four Famous Pianistes, which includes recordings by Eileen Joyce, Ania Dorfman, Moura Lympany, and Kathleen Long. ~