THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 501, 28 January 1949, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

The Puppet-Master J]: SME PERCY, who can be depended on to get the very most out of a part with a touch of the bizarre in it, has one that might have been made to his measure in Emery Bonett’s play | The Puppet-Master. In it he plays Raphael Bogatti, a specialist in the creation of new personalities, and Rita Vale is heard as a client whose treatment followed an unorthodox course to an unexpected end. This play was written especially for radio, and was recorded by the BBC _ Transcription Service. It will be heard from 3YA at 9.45 p.m. this Sunday, January 30. Whose Fault? N one of Wellington’s busiest streets recently a motorist who had been involved in a slight accident insisted on his car being left in the middle of the road till a traffic officer had taken measurements and full details, and this in spite of trams being held up for several minutes. The motorist was exercising his rights. On Monday, January 31, at 8.20 p.m., at 2YA, a motorist, a pedestrian, a traffic "cop" and an insurance man will hald a discussion on Road AccidentsWho is to Blame? A more difficult question to answer would be hard to find, for not infrequently it takes three or four lawyers, a flock of expert and ordinary witnesses, and a judge and jury to decide who is to blame. Still if 2YA’s discussion simply has the effect of drawing attention to: the disturbing number of street-accidents which occur in New Zealand every year, it will.be worth while. :

Meet the Dean MASS-OBSERVATION questionnaire we encountered once began, in its vulgar way, with the question "How Do You Like Your Literature?-Histor-ical, Biographical, etc." It occurs to us that Swift provides a fairly comprehensive answer to that question. In him you have history, politics, religion, poetrystraight or with a strong dash of satire. Moreover his life, even as recorded by the prosaic Encyclopaedia Britannica, was full, exciting, and tragic enough (Thackeray said, "To think of him, is like thinking of the ruin of a great empire") for a full-length morning serial. We can’t promise the latter, but from 4YA on Wednesday, February 2, at 7.15 p.m. Dick'Reynolds will broadcast_a talk Let’s Renew Acquaintance with Dean Swift. Music of Lekeu N its classical hour on Wednesday, February 2, Stafion 4YZ will broadcast recordings of two works by the Belgian Guillaume Lekeu, whose compositions are not often heard outside France and Belgium. Lekeu studied in Paris under G. Vallin, Cesar Franck, and Vincent d’Indy. In 1891 he competed for the Belgian Prix de Rome, at Brussels, and obtained the second prize with his cantata Andromede. The composition of his Piano quartet, begun in 1892, was halted by his death from typhoid at the age of 24, Lekeu possessed great gifts and, in his short life, produced works which will live because of their originality. At 2.15 p.m. listeners will hear his Adagio for

String Orchestra, Op. 3. played by the Boyd Neel String Orchestra (led by Frederick Grinke), and Sonata in G Major for Violin and Piano, played by Henry Koch and Charles Van Lancker. Boy Meets Girl-1400 A.D. WE charge that Constance Sheen’s talk on Medieval Courtship in the series Man and His Wife (4YA, Thursday, February 3 at 10.5 a.m.) _is subversive of marital discipline and order. If man

is going to tolerate this kind of talk in his unguarded absence he had better be prepared to meet the not-especially-lov-ing look in his wife’s eye when he comes home. Courtship as the Middle Ages understood it is a lost art, and no amount of protesting that when she emancipated herself from servitude she ipso facto emancipated him from chivalry, is likely to convince a woman that man was not the one who lost*it. Fortunately woman "is a loyal and realistic creature and she will probably take comfort from Dorothy Parker's reflection that even if her man is very far removed from a knight in shining armour he is, on the whole, "kind and clean, and good enough for

everyday." Listen to the Band AND music is ,something about which the majority of people are enthusiastic — either enthusiastically in favour of i¢ or enthusiastically allergic to it. And for those who fall into the former category the Auckland stations are being particularly kind next week. From 1YA there are to be two recorded

concerts. In the first, on Thursday, February 3, from 8.0 p.m. to 8.30, will be heard the bands of the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards and the Queen’s Royal Regiment. The second concert, a 40-minute programme in which the Fairey Aviation Works Band, the Grand Massed Brass Bands and the Polydor Brass Band ‘are heard, will start at 8.5 p.m. on Sunday, February 6. On the same day, 1YD will broadcast its usual Radio Bandstand programme at 5.0 p.m, Handel at the Proms iT HE Henry Wood Promenade Concert programme which listeners will hear from 3YA at 9.30 p.m. on February 2 will be an all-Handel session, featuring

the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Malcolm Sargent. Also taking part will be the Alexandra Choir and David Franklin (bass), with G. D. Cunningham at the organ. The Overture in D Minor is followed by the Coronation anthem, "The King Shall Rejoice," one of the four anthems written by Handel for the coronation of George II. in 1727. The next piece also has Royal associa-tions-the Water Music Suite, written for a Royal progress on the Thames, and so strongly approved by George I. that he commanded it to be repeated once before and once after supper. David Franklin is heard in the aria, "Arm, Arm Ye Brave," from Judas Maccabaeus, and Cunningham in the Organ Concerto in G. The programme ends with the orchestra and the Alexandra Choir in the "Plague Choruses" and Final Chorus from Israel in Egypt. Moby Dick and His Author REATIVE artists are normally abnormal and the writer Heriftan Melville was no exception, a fact which makes his life story interesting, and it will be interestingly, if briefly, told by M. K. Joseph, lecturer in English at Auckland University College,.in 1YA’s Mainly About Books session at 7,15 p-m. on Wednesday, February 9. At the age of 32, when he produced his outstanding work, Moby Dick, he had already behind him a life of adventure and five novels. His ability, however, was little recognised, and he retired from writing into 30 years of seclusion to takeyup his. pen again only at the end of his life. His work at these different periods is examined by Mr. Joseph, and his life related to it. Of particular’ intérest will be the speaker’s references to some of the American novelist’s lesser known works.