Led Jacques String Orchestra

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 520, 10 June 1949, Page 21

Led Jacques String Orchestra

CCOMPANIED by the pianist Wainwright Morgan, Ruth Pearl, the wellknown young British violinist, is to give a series of recitals from the four main centres. She is visiting New Zealand with her husband, Stanley Jackson, R.B.A., a painter of considerable reputation in England and America, who has been commissioned by the New Zealand Government to illustrate some forthcoming educational publications. Their three-year-old son, Simon, is at home with his grandparents. Ruth Pearl studied at the Royal College of Music, London, and later in Hungary. She was for nine years leader of the Jacques’ String Orchestra, with which she has played since its establishment. During the war Ruth Pearl was working for CEMA (Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts) which arranged recitals for civilian factory workers. She attributes her present concert-platform composure partly to her earlier training at lunch-hour canteen concerts, when she had to play steadily through the clatter of cutlery and the banging of trays. "I didn’t for a moment blame them for being restless," said Miss Pearl, "because if you don’t like classical music there’s nothing worse than having it foisted on

you. However it made it hard on the ones that did." But CEMA and ENSA did marvellous work in bringing good music to those who before had had few opportunities for hearing it. Contrary to general expectation the war-time boom in music has continued well into the peace. CEMA (now known as the Arts Council) still continues its work of subsidising and encouraging musical activities, which weans that concerts and recitals . by top-ranking artists are now within the reach of those with limited incomes. Ruth Pearl hopes to give listeners in New Zealand a taste of the lesser-known violin composers, such as Joseph Gibbs and Tartini, in her own words "a mixed bag of old classical mubic." Ruth Pearl will be heard from 2YA Wellington, on Sunday, June 26, Tuesday, June 28, and Thursday, June 30; from 4YA Dunedin, on Sunday, July 3, Monday, July 4, and Thursday, July 7; from 3YA on Sunday, July 10, Monday, July 11, and Wednesday, July 13; from 1YZ Rotorua, on Monday, July 18, Wednesday, July 20, and Friday, July 22; and from 1YA on Sunday, July 24, Wednesday, July 27, and Friday, July 29.