THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 493, 3 December 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Introducing Biffer IFFER, of the BBC Children’s Hour, now makes his bow to New Zealand listeners through the NZBS, and to anyone who has not yet met him, it should be said that Biffer is well worth knowing. He is a black cocker spaniel, the

creation (so far as radio is concerned) of E. Lewis Clarke, and his adventures, as told to young listeners, have made him one of the most popular BBC Children’s Hour characters. But there was a real Biffer and many of the stories are founded

on fact. When he was a puppy he was given to Mrs. Lewis Clarke’s two children, who appear in the stories as "Little Master" and "Little Missus’’; he took a full share in the family life and died at the age of 14, just 10 days before the first Biffer story was broadcast. The first episode of Biffer Again will be heard from 3YZ at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 7. Aubrey Beardsley [IFTY years ago this year Aubrey Beardsley, artist and illustrator, died at the age of 26 and the anniversary will be observed by a talk on Beardsley’s personality and work to be given ‘by John Reid from 1YA next week. "Beardsley was in the midst of the "decadent" movement of the ’nineties and was. associated» with such aesthetes as Oscar Wilde, Ernest Dawson and Lord Alfred Douglas. His subject matter, his debt to Japanese prints, 18th Century France and Greek vases, his dissipated life, and his satire on 19th Cen‘tury English life make him, Reid con--siders, a representative figure in the fin de siécle group, while his illustrations for The Yellow Book, for Salome, Morte d’Arthur and other works established him as a master of line and design. The talk will be heard in 1YA’s Mainly About Books session at 7.15 p.m. on Wednesday, December 8. Missing NTO a sleepy, small-town branch of the firm of J. J. Duke and Company comes a new manager-Miss Bramble. Miss Bramble, whose second name is efficiency, is a thorn in the side of all sluggards, and she soon has her new office in a whirl of unaccustomed activity. She writes every week to head. office in London, suggesting improvements, trying to increase trade, and Mr, Duke’s replies are courteous and sym-pathetic-until one day, without ~ any apparent reason, she is fired. What is the explanation? What murky goings-on has the efficient Miss B. unwittingly come upon in her enthusiasm? decides to go to London and’ find out, with some amusing and unexpected results, not ‘the least of them being the discovery that Mr. Duke, the head of ‘the firm, has been missing for an indefinite period. And what has hapened to him? Listeners will hear this lighthearted mystery unravelled if they tune

in to 2YA at 8.0 p.m. on Wednesday, December 8, when the latest NZBS play, Missing, will be broadcast. Rachmaninoff Concerto {ORE than one tie with the 19th Century was broken by the death in 1943 of Serge Rachmaninoff, the Russian. composer. Not only was he a survivor of the old Russia, with personal memories of Tchaikovski and Arensky; he was a. romantic untouched by any modernism later than Liszt’s. And in a third sense he was a link with the past, for he belonged to the disappearing tradition of the composer-virtuoso. A recording will be heard from 2YZ at 9.30 p-m. on Wednesday, December 8, of his Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 19, played by Benno Moiseiwitsch (pianist) and the London Philharmonic Orchestra

conducted by Walter Goehr, Of Rachmaninoff The Times said in an Obituary tribute; "He knew every kind of sound that could come out of a piano and for sheer euphony and enchantment of sound .... he had no equal in his gen- ' eration. It is this sound-saturation, this richness of musical imagery, that commands admiration for his concertos," The American Theatre [s the contemporary American theatre more vital than the British theatre? Who are the leading American playwrights, and what part did the Little Theatre movement play in fostering the

development of an indigenous drama _ through its encouragement of men. like Eugene O’Neill, Clifford Odets, and Thornton Wilderto name only a few of the dramatists who have become widely

known in the past few decades? Alternatively, what influence, if any, have Hollywood’s celluloid productions had on the course of American drama? Listeners to 4YA may be able to find out the answers to questions like these if they tune in at 7.15 p.m. on Wednesday, December 8, to the first of three talks by H. V. Baigent on The American Theatre. ‘ Gilbert and Sullivan HEN the six-episode serial Gilbert and Sullivan: the Story of a Great Partnership, was broadcast by the BBC

in 1947 it brought a flood of appreciative letters from listeners and enthusiastic notices by the radio critics, and there was similarly warm response from New Zealand listeners who heard the Programme from NZBS sstatians this .winter. Because of the popularity of the production, Station 1YD has decided it is justified in repeating the broadcasts northern listeners heard from 1YA in June. The first episode, which, with its introductory talk by Sir Malcolm Sargent, lasts an hour and a-quarter, will be heard at 8.0 p.m, on Sunday, December 12. Tauber’s Last Recordings SOME of the last recordings made of the voice of Richard Tauber, whose death in January .of this year was such a loss to romantic music, will be heard in the Richard Tauber Programme from 3YZ at 8.0 p.m. on Thursday, December 9. The guest artist in this halfhour of songs and instrumental items is Mimi Benzell, one of the stars of the Metropolitan Opera, New York. When this session was originally broadcast in the BBC Light Programme, she wasappearing in The Nightingale in London and scoring a great personal success. This session will include some operatic arias sung by both Mimi Benzell and Richard Tauber, accompanied by the Melachrino Orchestra, conducted by George Melachrino. Philip Neill Prizewinners ()NE of the conditions of the award of the Philip Neill Prize in music (New Zealand’s annual award for original composition) is that the winning work will if possible be broadcast. This year the award was shared by two compositions, both scored for two pianos. They are Variations and Fugue on a Theme .by Handel, by Donald Byers, and Passacaglia and Fugue, by John Ritchie, and listeners to 3YA will be able to hear them played at 8.10 p.m, on Friday, December 10. The pianists will be Professor V. E. Galway and Professor Vernon Griffiths.