An Endless Enthusiasm for Music

New Zealand Listener, Volume 24, Issue 621, 25 May 1951, Page 6

An Endless Enthusiasm for Music

N Monday morning Sir Bernard Heinze and the NZBS concert manager, J. L. D. Hartstonge, were discussing programmes in the conductor’s room in Wellington. Across the corridor the National Orchestra tuned up in the big rehearsal studio; at Hastings on the following night the Australian would conduct the first concert of his tour as guest conductor. "Has that music arrived from Sydne yet?" ; ‘ "No, nothing has arrived. I believe they’re off-loading cargo from the flying: boats so they can! take more passengers across." : ; "Well, we'd better send a reply-paid : cable to the ABC," Sir Bernard said. "In the meantime, what are we going to do with this?" he asked, taking up one of the programmes. "I think we'll move that Mozart up to the beginning and put the concerto in the usual place before the interval. Now what about the audiences at Hastings? Do you think they take their music too seriously up there? If not, perhaps we *could finish the programme with Waiata Poi," "I think they would like that." At ten-thirty the Director of Broadcasting introduced him to the Orchestra, and in reply he said, "I’m one of. those people who go through life with an endless enthusiasm for music. I can’t understand people, even professional musicians, not being enthusiastic about music. To me the meaning of music lies in the sheer joy we get out of making it." He tapped the music stand with his baton. "Can we begin please with Leonora?" The Orchestra liked his efficient manner and his vitality. In the past they have had some distinguished guest conductors, notably Eugene Goossens and Warwick Braithwaite. They were obviously going to enjoy playing under Heinze. Personal Effort in Music When The Listener met him in the efternoon he had just finished three

: hours of rehearsal. We asked him to elaborate on his idea of enthusiasm and the joy of making music. "I can’t believe anybody has an intelligent love of music unless he has been moved to express a sound with which he himself is pleased," he said. "No matter how modest the sound is, whether the man is one of 60 basses in a performance of Messiah or twelfth violin‘in an amateur orchestra or leader a string quartet, it’s all the same. ThHat-the need for personal effort-is ‘what I ‘believe to be the absolute essential for the intelligent appreciation of music." "You were a pioneer in the introduction of symphonic music to school children?" j . "T believe that a great deal can be done by introducing music to young people, not only in listening but in the making of music. I mean by that the forming of school choirs and their own orchestras and bands. So far most uf our schools in Australia have choirs, but very few have reasonable proficiency in instrumental group music. We need more small orchestras and chamber groups in schools. "We have. free children’s. concerts which are attended by about 175,000 children a year all over Australia. These were pioneered by me in Australia in 1924. I also initiated subscription concerts in Melbourne in 1925 at my first season-we had 64 subscribers in a Town Hall which could seat 2500.' Today we have 10,000 subscribers, which will give you some idea of the rise in public recognition of symphonic music. We also have free Sunday afternoon concerts in the Town Halls in the main cities, and these are enthusiastically attended; and ‘orchestral concerts at popular prices,’ as we call them, a popular type of concert." An Old Identity

"You have been associated with broadcasting for a considerable time?" "Yes, I am the oldest broadcasting identity in the Commonwealth; I began in 1924 when broadcasting was first set up there. I’ve been told, I don’t know whether it’s true or not, that we broadcast the first symphony concert in the Southern Hemisphere. I’ve been continually associated with broadcasting ever since, and have seen many changes both in broadcasting techniques and in the impact of radio on the artistic world. "In the early days it was a question of invitations to come along and make a noise your friends could listen to. No fee attached to performances. It wasn’t long before it took on a highly professional guise and became one of the most important things in the practice of music. There was no permanent orchestra in those days. Permanency was a couple of years in arriving, and it came in the form of.a small group of chamber musicians, ten or twelve in number. "It’s hard to trace all that’s happened in the interim. When we find broadcasting institutions controlling in the main the musical destinies of our countries it is safe to say (at any rate, in Australia) that there is no possibility of setting up a permanent symphony orchestra without the funds available from community contributions to the upkeep of broadcasting. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne

Symphony Orchestra (or vice versa if you prefer it) now have a status equal to some of the world’s greatest orchestras. Contributions to their upkeep do not come entirely from broadcasting, but the popularity of symphonic music in recent years, especially through the medium of broadcasting, has made it politically safe for government and civic bodies to segregate sums of money for the upkeep ‘of these orchestras. "The action of the government is something for which we are grateful, but it must not be forgotten that the trail was blazed by brosdcasting, that through tadio much of this need for symphonic music in our lives came about. That applies also to England. Until the establishment® of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1928 there was no permanent orchestra in London-indeed, in England, with ther exception of the Hallé. Debit Entries "So whatever the critics of radio and its impact on our lives say, we have to thank it for the establishment of these great orchestras. Unfortunately, it is not all on the credit side of the ledger. The availability of broadcasting programmes, combined with tHe development of the gramophone, has been largely responsible for the destruction of music in the home. I don’t know what it’s like in New Zealand, but in Australia music-making in the home has

practically entirely disappeared, and in its place is a radio set or a gramophone. The making of music at any time when it is felt to be needed can be done by pushing down a switch or setting down a gramophone needle. I have grave doubts about the future of living music on such a basis." "Do you think that will remain the basis in the future?" "T would like to believe that the ultimate influence of radio on the mind of the public at large will not be in the form of passive listening to others, but as an inspiration and guide to the acquisition of higher standards of performance among amateurs and music lovers in general. Then will the blessings of science have become truly apparent in the cultivation of the musical mind." "Music in Australia," he said in reply to a final question, "has reached a pitch of public favour and appreciation which a decade or so ago wouldn’t have been dreamt of. And the most spectacular development of all has been the development of the symphony orchestra." Programmes for Christchurch Following Sir Bernard Heinze’s concerts in Napier, Hastings, Palmerston North and Wellington (a studio recital), the National Orchestra will have a (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) strenuous programme-three concerts in as many days-in Christchurch next week. At the first, on Tuesday, May 29 (to be broadcast by 3YC at 8.0 p.m.) the major work will be the Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, by Brahms. There will be two works by Mozart, the overture to The Marriage of Figaro and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Other items are Elgar’s Cockaigne Overture and Bolero, by Ravel. A varied programme has _ been arranged for the lunch-hour concert in the Civic Theatre, to be broadcast by 3YC at 12.15 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30. Opening with Nicolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor, it will include Mozart’s

Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, Massenet’s Le Dernier Sommeil de la Vierge, the Romeo and Juliet Overture by Tchaikovski, Dance and Polka from the Age of Gold Ballet Suite, by Shostakovich, and Tales from the Vienna Woods, by Johann Strauss. The Christchurch pianist Ernest Jenner will play Bach’s Piano Concerto in D Minor with the orchestra at the final concert on Thursday, May 31. The symphony on this programme is Tchaikovski’s Fifth, in E Minor. Works by Wagner (The Meistersinger Overture) and Debussy (L’Aprés-midi d’un faune) will also be played. This concert will be broadcast by 3YC at 8.0 p.m.