GOING DOWN...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 488, 29 October 1948, Page 10

GOING DOWN...

Theatre Organists in the Doldrums

returned to the staff of -the NZBS after three years studying music in London, brings back. the news that, as, a profession, theatre-organ playing is in a bad way in England, and many of the wellknown organists. are now trying other fields. Reginald Foort (often heard on recordings in NZBS programmes) has, for example, given up the theatre and is touring, giving recitals in cHurches. Fi sece. ROBB, who has just

Mr. Robb, who went to London to improve. his general musical knowledge, studied with Foort, played for a time at the Leicester Square Theatre and at the Odeon in Tottenham Court Road, and gained his A.R.C.M. (teacher’s diploma for _ singing). The reason for the situation in which theatreorgan players now find themselves is, he explained in an interview with The Listerrer, that the cutting down of the American film quota has meant heavy staff retrenchment in theatres. While overseas Mr. Robb took the opportunity. to see all he could in the’ way of concert halls and theatrical entertainment. "Some of the London presentations were magnificent," he said. "Others were bitterly disappointing, and far from what I had expected. (I did a broadcast on this subject for the BBC. They were amused there. JI gathered that | some BBC people held

the same views as I did, but naturally enough hesitated to express them.) I even saw Mae West on the stage. It might seem queer to say this, but she simply didn’t get her act across. On the other hand I saw an extraordinarily clever stage act by the comedian’ Sid Field, who did a skit on a theatré organist at work. It was quite the funniest I saw in London, He just sat at an imitation console and fooled while someone played an organ offstage. There was so much truth under all the nonsense that it would appeal particularly to anybody knowing much about theatre-organ playing." "How does the amateur theatre movement in New Zealand compare with what you saw in London?" "I went to professional performances which were not a bit better than work I have seen done‘in New Zealand by amateurs." "Yet the London stage has the name for producing some of the best entertainment in the world?" "Well, it seems to me that once some of the London performers made their reputation, they "were content to _sit back and live on it for years." The London County Council was playing its part in bringing music and

ballet to the people, and supporting fine concerts for children in the Albert Hall, said Mr. Robb. Then there were the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s open-air concerts in the parks at various, times, and the lunch-hour performances. The promoters of such cultural activities as the exhibition of sculpture in Battersea Park made the best possible use of the natural settings. In Denmark and Sweden, too, open-air concerts were most popular and one could hear some of the finest singers in the world for about 1/6.

During the war many members of the New Zealand Forces were shown hospitality and provided with holidays all over Britain through the work of Lady Frances Ryder and Miss MacDonald of the Isles, and their organisation known as the Dominions’ Fellowship Trust. The Listener asked Mr. Robb if that work was being wcarried over to peace-time activities. "The Dominions’ Fellowship Trust is now helping Dominion students,’ he said. "For instance, through its good offices I was givén tickets for the Royal Box at Albert Hall, and on one occasion sat there with the Queen. The Trust has its hostesses all over England, Scotland and Ireland, ready to show hospitality and give a helping hand to people from the Dominions. Through the Trust I was able to meet Sir Adrian Boult and other equally famous musicians. "But one thing that struck me was the number of people from the Dominions — New Zealand, _ Australia and Canada-who go to London perhaps on scholarships, and without enough money of their own to do all they should. The cost of living is (continued on next page)

(continued trom. previous page) tremendously, high. Living in Chelsea I had to pay £1 a week for transport alone. Even a single man on £5 a week finds it very hard to make ends meet. Anyone who goes to London to study and hasn’t some‘cash of his own must be prepared to put up with hardships. Still, they’re worth the experience." Visitors from the Dominions trying to make their way in, music or on the stage in London seemed to forget that there were 40,000,000 people in England. All serious aspirants naturally gravitated to London and that meant terrific competition for jobs. But to offset that in some measure, there was the great goodness of the people of London, to New Zealanders especially. They did all they could to help. He himself had been lucky enough, for example, to get into the Albert Hall about three times a week on tickets supplied by "musical friends and acquaintances.