THE NATIONAL ORCHESTRA
Sir-The fact that the National Orchestra did not attract full houses in Auckland should not occasion undue surprise. Such an experience is not peculiar to New Zealand. It was the end of an unusually packed year of music, the excellent programmes may have lacked the diversity that beckons crowds, students were preparing for examinations, and many people husbanding resources against the cost of holidays. Our genuine music-lovers are on the increase and will some day number sufficient to fill our concert halls. Occasionally a more popular programme (which I do not advocate) and a strong dose of press propaganda help to swell the house to capacity, but these additional customers attend largely out of curiosity and because everybody’s doing it, not for the intrinsic value of the music. As Honegger has written; "People no longer listen to music, they go to watch the performance of a famous conductor: or pianist." Stravinsky and Vaughan Williams have also written pertinently on this subject. It is eomforting, therefore; to read that certain performances of our orchestra, judged in the calm atmosphere of recorded music, have recently elicited the warmest praise from distinguished musicians in England. My point is that it was both absurd and unjust of a. press critic to have attributed the poor audiences in Auckland solely to the shortcomings of the orchestra and its conductor. Booking for the Auckland concerts was poorer than in several provincial towns. Is it reasonable to attempt to account for this by imagining the Auckland public saying in advance, "We are not booking this time because we know the orchestra is going to play
badly?"
J.C.
T.
(Auckland)
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 651, 21 December 1951, Page 5
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275THE NATIONAL ORCHESTRA New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 651, 21 December 1951, Page 5
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