THE SISTER ARTS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 633, 17 August 1951, Page 20

THE SISTER ARTS

N the emotions they express, painting, sculpture, architecture, music and literature-the eternal arts-are related. For all art is the record of man’s struggle to achieve beauty in colour, line, movement, word or tone. Among the arts two are closely related, and throughout their history the affinity between literature and music has inspired composer and writer alike. This sympathy between sister arts is the basis of a new series of programmes which 3YC will broadcast in the next few months. On Monday, August 20, listeners will hear the first of eight talks by H. S. K.*Kent on the literary background of musical. master-works. Beginning at 7.30 p.m., Jean’ Paul Richter and the Romantics ‘will be followed by Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major, which, when played at Weimar in 1894 was called the Titan Symphony after a novel by Richter, the 18th Century German satirist, novelist, and philosopher. This presentation is the first of a series of weekly Mahler symphonies, and is followéd in Monday’s programme by the Mahler song cycle, Songs of a Wandering Fellow. Music by Schumann, another of the Romantic composers influenced by Richter, completes the broadcast. "The fententie must be ciated, se wrote Hoffmann, "as if seen by an accurately observing eye-witness." Hoffmann. was writer, painter, . composer, madman and. genius. His. fame, swept the continent, but he holds his place today not so much on his own merit as on the work he inspired in others. His impact on composers of the time was tremendous. Schumann’s Kraisleriana, Delibes’s ballet Coppelia, Tchaikovski’s Nutcracker Suite and the furydriven. hero of Offenbach’s opera were all inspired by the creator*of the eerie Sandman and other tales of the macabre. ‘On Tuesday, September 4, Ernest Jenner will play Kraisleriana, beginning a weekly series of Schumann’s piano works, in which Olive Burson,-the following week will play Davidsbundlertanz, and Douglas Zanders, later, two Schumann sonatas. Z a " . ee rma 4

The programme on this occasion opens with a talk-on E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Fantastic, and Ernest Jenner’s recital is. followed by Offenbach’s opera, Tales of Hoffmann from the BBC series Ring Up the Curtain. Music from Coppelia and the Nutcracker Suite will be heard before the evening’s broadcast ends with a reading from the Tales of Hoffmann. > Hans Andersen and the Fairy Tale, the third programme by H. S. K. Kent will be heard from 3YC on Saturday, September 8, beginning at 8.15. p.m. Two works by Stravinsky, the symphonic poem, The Song of the Nightingale, and The Fairy’s Kiss, both from stories by Hans Andersen, will follow. An Overture and the Sinfonia Expan-: siva by the Danish composer Nielsen: will also be heard, and The Little Mermaid, one of Andersen’s most loved: stories, will be read by James Walshe in the course of the evening’s presentation. In ensuing weeks listeners will hear programmes on Schiller, Heine, Goethe and Cervantes (with music by composers whom these writers influenced or inspired), and finally Da Ponte, the librettist of Mozart.