THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 518, 27 May 1949, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Play, Rae! F a BBC comedian cracks a joke and gets a bellow of laughter from the studio audience he knows he’s doing nicely. If he also gets a smile from the Variety Orchestra ranged behind him, he knows he’s doing very nicely indeed. Apart from the Revue Orchestra the BBC’s Variety Orchestra are, in fact, probably exposed to a’ more constant barrage of rib-ticklers than any other body of broadcasting musicians, and by now they are connoisseurs of what makes people laugh. Day in, day out, they provide the musical background for a high proportion of BBC variety shows, but every so often they have a chance to show what they can do on their own under their mercurial conductor, Rae _ Jenkins. Band Call is a case in point. These popular half-hour broadcasts in the BBC’s Light Programme are great favourites with listeners in Britain, and _transcriptions of them have now been /issued, The vocal side of the programme 'comes from Denny Dennis and chorus. Band Call starts from 3YA at 7. 30 p.m. on Monday, May 30. Hats Off to Genius T was Schumann who in 1831 opened the eyes of the world to Chopin’s greatness with his immortal propouncement on Opus 2: "Hats off, gentlemen: a genius!" The two composers under- | stood each other. Berlioz and Chopin

} : did not. Liszt, on the _ other hand, was wild- | ly enthusiastic over Chopin’s works and his playing. He spoke of Chopin as "the pianist of sentiment par excellence. Nothing equals his light- | ness and sweetness of , toueh, nothing. can. again be compared | with the originality,

distinction, and charm of his works." | Seeing this is Chopin centennial year |(he died in October, 1849) listeners _ should enjoy a better and better selec- ' tion of his works as October approaches. | To get off to an early start, Station 1YA will present in their classical hour at | 2.30 p.m. on Thursday, June 2, Chopin's | Concerto No. 2 in F Minor. It will be pal played by Malcuzynski (piano) and the Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Paul Kletski. Cambridge Festival PART from the large cities, there are few musical centres in Britain with a record to equal that of the ancient University town of Cambridge. Famous | musicians have studied and taught there, and it has been the scene of many notable productions. Early last year the BBC collaborated with the Cambridge Arts Theatre Trust in the Cambridge Music Festival of four concerts, which were broadcast in the BBC Third Programme. These recordings were made from the Guildhall at Cambridge and comprise the first part of the third concert. In it Sir Adrian Boult conducts the 'BBC Symphony in thfee works, the overture Nina passa per amore, by Paisiello, Michael Tippett’s Concerto for

Double String Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony in F. The ‘works will be heard in a programme, Cambridge Music Festival, from 4YA at 7.30 p.m., on Thursday, June 2. Forewarning ] EST-TUBE as the title for a programme suggests a certain amount of compression, and is probably a wry comment by the compilers on the difficulty of fitting what purports to be "A Survey of Scientific Research in Progress at Canterbury University College" into 15 minutes. Test-Tube is in the nature of *a prerequisite or a softener-up for those members of the public who it is hoped

will be at the University on the following Friday and Saturday, when the Science Faculty will keep open house, and amaze and dismay visitors with continuous lecturettes and demonstrations in the fields of "Chemistry, Physics, Zoology, Botany, Geology, Geography and Psychology." \Those listeners who are by nature disinclined for audi-ence-participation may feel that mere listening to the Test-Tube programme from 3YA on Tuesday, May 31, at 7.15 is quite enough, but the majority, the compilers hope, will be lured thereby into taking the practical course that follows. The Sea is Full of Noises [F: as the old jingle runs, any noise annoys an oyster, then the oyster must be one of the most exasperated inhabitants of the sea. For there is plenty of noise under the surface, as scientists discovered during research in connection with submarine warfare, and much of it is of biological origin. Shrimps make the most widespread and continuous disturbance-a never ending crackling such as might be caused by a bonfire of dry twigs. The most spectacular under-sea voice is perhaps that of the porpoise which sounds rather like a large dog with hysterics. Fortunately for the superstitious among mariners and travellers these noises can only be picked up with the aid of special instruments, but listeners may hear a recorded selection of them from 1YD at 9:30 p.m., on Wednesday, June 1. The commentary is by Dr. Martin F. Johnson, of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California, and his remarks were recorded during the recent Pacific Science Congress. Modern Tragedy T has been said that the greatest human tragedy ‘of our time is that of the people we know by the coldly official label "Displaced Persons." New Zealand is offering new hope and a new

homeland to a small percentage of them, and it is therefore pertinent that we should ask what manner of men and women are these? What lies behind that label? These questions will be answered from 1YA at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 2, in a talk, Displaced Persons, recorded by Miss Kay Kinnane, of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, while she was in Auckland recently on her way back to Australia after studying with the BBC under an Imperial Relations Trust bursary. Miss Kinnane~ visited D.P. camps in Germany in her spare time. She went, in her own words, "with a suspicion that these people might be the scum of Europe, pitiful human dregs left by the war." She left the camps convinced she had never made a greater mistake in her life, and that despite their tragic history the D.P.s would, by their citizenship, amply repay the kindness of any nation accepting them. Her story is one which should be heard by everyone, if from no other motive than a sense of fair play towards the immigrants soon to arrive from Europe. What's in a Name? {Tt is still possible to start a good, brisk argument over the exact function of the clergyman in James Bridie’s play, A Sleeping Clergyman. The cleric is asleep in an armchair at his club when the play opens, and his snores punctuate the conversation of two fellow members as they recall the story of the Cameron family. Bridie, a Scottish physician, and author of many plays with a provocative theme, himself adapted the play for radio, and it was first broadcast by the BBC in March last year. Listeners will be able to start arguments and come to their own conclusions if they tune in to 2YA at 7.30 p.m. on Friday, June 3, when A Sleeping Clergyman, tracing three generations of a medical family, _will be broadcast in the BBC Radio Playhouse series.