THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 521, 17 June 1949, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Never a Dull Moment ‘HE life of a plant explorer is to be commended as an occupation. It is never dull, never without interest; there are still new species awaiting discovery, some of them, probably right here in New Zealand. This is the opinion held by Dr. Knowles Ryerson, Dean of Davis College of Agriculture, University of California, who led the U.S» delegation to the Pacific Science Congress. Be that as it may, Dr, Ryerson himself is certainly never dull’ in the series Leaves From a Plant Explorer's Notebook, the ‘first of which will be heard from 1YA at 9.30 --p.m. on Wednesday, June 22. The recordings were made at a public lecture: given in Auckland during the Congress. Listeners have had to wait rather a long time before hearing them, but they will find Dr. Ryerson worth waiting for. This notebook is no dusty catalogue of multi-syllabled Latin names. It is more a lively story of real adventure in an tinusual field, told with a rich vein of humour throughout, and including topics as far removed from pure botanical science as a description of a ceremonial dinner tendered by @ Berber chieftain in a remote North African village. . In Praise of Ruskin F the writings of John Ruskin are to a great extent neglected these days, 50 years ago. he was the subject of remarkable adulation by a host of friends, disciples, and admirers. At the close of his life ‘he was loaded with honorary degrees and. memberships of many clubs and societies, "Ruskin Soeieties" were formed throughout Britain, and his works had an enormous circulation in the United States. Perhaps he is best remembered to-day for his social writings, or for his’ influence on the thought of men like Gandhi. Sir Kenneth Clark, speaking in the BBC series Famous Men, describes him as the most eloquent, the most imaginative, and the most: illuminating preacher of his day. He reminds listeners how well Ruskin’s later works repay reading by all who have a sense of social justice. Sir Kenneth Clark, formerly Director of the National Gallery in London, is. now Slade Professor of Fine Arts at Oxford, a chair originally created for Ruskin himself. His talk will be heard from 1YA at 9.45 p.m. on Wednesday, June 22: 4 Musical’ Sherlock cf AFTER studying several pages of a certain composer," Igor Stravinsky once said, "I sense his musical personality and then, like a detective, reconstruct his musical experience." He did in fact make imitation and conscious borrowing a part of his technique. in composing Danses Concertantes, a paradist’s stylising of 19th Century ballet. Three years later he’ submitted his own evolutionary style to a similar process. Working objectively through his own music as if it had been written by someone else, he produced the Symphony in Three Movements, a synthesis comprising elements of several early compositions, all fused into a distinctive final style. He conducted the first performance of the work himself, with the

New York Philharmonic, on January 24, 1946, and a recording made with the same combination will be heard from 3YA in a session of Modern Orchestral Music at 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 22.

Piped Piper with Music OBERT BROWNING was a keen music-lover for many years. of his life, but it hasn’t gone on record that he ever thought of setting to music his own poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin. He could no doubt have represented the mayor and corporation by the big

bass drum and angry fanfares on the brasses, the Pied Piper by saucy flutings on the piccolo, the sound of rats’ feet by harp arpeggios, the cries of the children by the strings, and so on. However, The Pied Piper was set to mtusic (though not apparently for full orchestra) by the distinguished English composer, Walford Davies. It was recently broadcast in Britain as.a radio programme by the Northern Ireland Singers conducted by Edgar Boucher, with Frank Capper (baritone), John Johnston (clarinet), and Havelock Nelson (piano). Recordings made at the time by the BBC will be broadcast from 2YC_ at 9.30 p.m. on Thursday, June 23,

J Napoleonic Escapade NEW radio serial based on Vaughan * " Wilkins’s historical: novel Being Met Together starts from 3YZ Greymouth at 4.0 p.m. on Thursday, June 23. It is a romantic tale of the Napoleonic era, covering events from the American, War of Independence to the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Against this background is told the story of Anthony Fell, a man born in strange circumstances in Virginia, whose father and uncle were killed in battle against the English, and who grew up with a carefully-nurtured hatred of all things British. He considers that to fight England is a sacred duty, and the building of the first submarine and an ill-advised attempt to rescue Bonaparte himself from St. Helena are two of the highlights of a life of intrigue and escapade on an _ international level. Vaughan Wilkins is a former assistant editor of the Sunday Referee and the Daily Express, and will be remembered for his other historical novels And So Victoria, and Seven Tempest.

Oxford Music Festival /AUGHAN WILLIAMS'’S Sixth Symphony in E Minor will be heard from 2YC at 9.0 p.m. on Saturday, June 25. It is included in a programme of works recorded last year by the BBC at the Oxford Festival of Music by British Composers, and played by Sir Adrian, Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In the same programme Frederick Thurston plays with the Orchestra Stanford’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, a work designed as a tribute to Richard Muhlfeld, for whom Brahms wrote his clarinet works. The Sixth Symphony is in four movements, played without a break, and after its first performance last April it was described by Harold Rutland in the Radio Times as the finest yet produced by the composer. "The Sea Symphony is more inspiring," he said, "the London more lotable, No. 4 is more vehement, and in the Pastoral and No. 5 there are qualities of mysticism absent in the new work (unless they are to be found in the remarkable Epilogue). It is a testament of truth and beauty." British Agent MONG the stories of great courage in the war, that of Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas, G.C., stands high. It is told in the BBC programme British Agent, which was recorded from a broadcast to British listeners in a series The Undefeated. Yeo-Thomas was a secret agent who was parachuted into France ‘to work with the underground. On hi third mission he fell into the hands o the Gestapo, and after vicipus tortures and .almost unimaginable hardships in Buchenwald and Rehmsdorf concentration eamps he survived to testify as one of the chief witnesses for the prosecution’ at the Nuremberg Trials. Wing Commander, Yeo-Thomas himself edited the script of this programme, and he is represented in the broadcast by the British film actor Eric: Portman. British Agent will be heard from 3YA at 9.22 ‘p.m. on Sunday, June 26.