THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 548, 23 December 1949, Page 26

THINGS TO COME

| ITH any luck, on the shores of Wanaka or the sands of Purakanui, the distracting shouts of the young may be hushed, the patter of the little feet stilled for one blissful half-hour daily over the next few weeks, while the family is tethered within sound of the radio, The regular Women’s Sessions, be_ing over for the year, Station 4YA is pre‘senting something new-entertainment | specially for the family group-at 2 o'clock every afternoon (Monday to Friday). While Jack and Jill listen enthralled to Jungle Witchcraft or Hunting the. Blue Whale, Mother will no ‘doubt have the good sense to put up her feet (she may even sneak forty winks) while the tumult and the shouting dies. Story of a Castle (CAERNARVON Castle is one of the most magnificent landmarks in Wales. It was built in the 13th Century to be a royal residence as well as a great fortress, and.looks the part-even in its ruined state it is majestic. A Welshman, E. Morgan Humphreys, who lives near the castle, describes its many

contrasting moods, from its dark, -forbidding look in the early hours: of a stormy day to the impressive picture it makes in full moonlight, in one of the BBC talks, Landmarks of Britain. He touches on the history of the castle, tells of its 15-foot thick walls which have

stood fast through the centuries, and describes the remains of the kitchenstill to be seen, with its water channels and cauldrons. This talk,.the fourth in the series, will be heard from 3YA at 8.40 p.m. on Tuesday, December 27. Celtic Art of Bax "HE music of Sir Arnold Bax was slow in gaining acceptance owing to an over-complexity which constituted a drawback to full- understanding by a wide public. But from 1910 or so onwards, there was for a time a tendency on his part to simplify, with an increasing appreciation on the part of his audiences. The story oes that Bax is of Celtic extraction, but in fact he comes of old Surrey stock, and his ancestors were followers of Penn, the Quaker. Yet he has been fascinated by Irish legend, the Irish scene and the romantic and mystical Irish temperament. He distinctly remembers his first conscious apprehension of the ideal of beauty at the age of six. He was taken to Arundel Park at sunset and in his own words "as we stood \there an unimaginable glory of flame developed in the west so that all the wooded heights seemed on fire. ...- I watched speechlessly. To my childish perception this visitation was sheer all+ conquering splendour and majesty, untroubled by the sense of the transitoriness of all lovely things. The hour was immortal." The first signs of a deliberate simplification of his music are to be found in The Garden of Fand, which

listeners to 4YZ will hear at 10.14 p.m. on Tuesday, December 27, by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. Titled Music A MAN with a title and a private income who essays to write serious music has no chance of escaping the charge of "dilettante." And the charge, once hurled, is very likely to stick, whether the noble composer is a dabbler or not. Lord Berners, although an unusual musical satirist, is no dabbler. He is a sure craftsman, and a most capable orchestrator, who spent his earlier composing years making a guy of other composers and’ other musical traditions. His first success on a large scale was a ballet commissioned by the Russian impresario Diaghilef. This was based on the tradition of pantomime, and was called The Triumph of Neptune. For the score, Lord Berners modernised characteristic pantomime pieces with style and taste. It was first produced at the Lyceum Theatre in London in 1926 and was received with enthusiasm, as it was in Paris later, Listeners to 1YD can hear The Triumph of Neptune, in the classical hour between 2.30 and 3.30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 28. Checking Up "REMEMBER when we went to that concert sometime last winter and so-and-so took the tenor part?" ' "That one at the Town Hall on August 3?" : : "No, it can’t have been the third, because I was down staying with Aunt Winnie from the first to the twelfth." "No you weren't. That was July. Aunt Winnie went into hospital on August 2, the day after I got my new costume." "Anyway it wasn’t so-and-so taking the tenor part, He’s small and bald. This one was dark with a lot of hair. I re--member him all the time throwing his hair off his forehead." "No. That was the conductor. The dark tenor was in another show altogether. . ." Listeners who want to settle their arguments on the year’s musical activities should listen to Looking Backward from 1YD at-7.30 p.m. on Saturday, December 31. This Was 1949, from 2YA at 7.30, and The Passing Year from 4YA at 8.0 p.m. on the same day. Wesley’s Journal OHN WESLEY, the founder of Methodism, left a record for posterity in his Journal, which is the subject of a talk by James Laver in the BBC

series, The Written Word. As a feat of application alone the Journal is a remarkable achievement, for Wesley kept it almost continuously from 1735 till 1790. Those who have read it will remember that it opens with his mi§sionary voyage to America, but its main interest lies in the faithful description of the growth of the Methodist movement in Britain. Laver is a novelist, essayist, poet and playwright, both for stage and radio. He is also Keeper of Prints at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and an authority on dress through the ages. He has written a biography of Wesley. Listeners to 2YA will hear James Laver’s talk on John Wesley at 3.15 p.m. on Sunday, January 1, From Soap to Opera As a boy the Malian opera composer Verdi was assistant to a grocer in the market town of Busseto. Thanks to his employer, who placed as much importance on music as on soap, flour and sugar, he began to take an interest in various musical activities of the town {not the least notable being piano duets which he played with his employer’s daughter, for they led to his subsequent marriage with her). When the ci-devant grocer’s opera Otello was produced at Milan in 1887, the Musical Times employed a special correspondent who sent over a glowing five-column description of the work and of its reception-‘one of the greatest personal triumphs ever awarded to a composer." Otello, in which Arrigo Boito collaborated, is regarded by many as one of the most remarkable of all operas, partly because of the phenomenon of a man more than 70 years old being able to write music so passionate and virile. Otello will be heard in the Music From the Theatre series from 3YA, starting at 8.05 p.m. on Sunday, January 1. The Sunday che Higa Talk, Weather Forecast and Overseas News and Station Notices at 8.45 p.m, will intervene before the continuation of the opera at 9,22 p.m. Jabbin, Jabbin *- AT 8.18 p.m. on Sunday; January 1, 1YA listeners will hear the Australian baritone Victor Carell in an extremely diversified song recital. Mr. Carell ‘has sung in many places. He was. studying in Rome before the war (under Vincenzo de Giorgio), he has sung for the BBG, and for two of the American radio networks, In Canada he toured with Anna Neagle, and for six months sang the lead in Meet the Navy, the tong-run Canadian Navy show, After a period of active service he returned to Australia and is now touring New Zealand with the Annie Get Your Gun company. In his 1YA recital he will sing two songs from opera; Handel’s Xerxes, and Moz-

art’s Don Giovanni, a Creole song, a Negro slave song, and four Australian Aboriginal songs with crisp, onomatopoeic titles like Jabbin, Jabbin, and Bangee Rang An-An-Ah,