Guest Conductor from the Argentine

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 663, 21 March 1952, Page 6

Guest Conductor from the Argentine

"GUEST conductor from the Argentine-Juan Jose Castro, who last year won the Verdi Prize awarded by Milan’s La Scala Opera House~-is to appear with the NZBS National Orchestra towards the end of the 1952 Concert Season. He will conduct first at Wellington on October 21; and afterwards tour the North Island _with the Orchestra.

soloists from abroad-in addition to several leading New Zealand artists-will appear with the National Orchestra during 1952 concert tours of this country. — Outlining plans already made for the new season, J. L. Hartstonge, Concert Manager of the NZBS, said in Wellington this week that public interest would naturally centre on the visiting artists, and particularly on Juan José Castro, the South American composer-conductor who would appear with the Orchestra later in the year. Senor Castro, said Mr. Hartstonge, would make his first appearance here at the seventh Wellington subscription concert on Tuesday, Oc- . GUEST conductor and five

% 4 ‘tober 21. With the Orchestra he would then tour) the North Island, concluding with two concerts in Auckland, the ‘seventh and eighth of the subscription teries there. Senor Castro has been for a number of years one of South America’s betterknown musicians, and’ has conducted several of the finest orchestras there. In 1950 he conducted the BBC Scottish Orchestra in a performance of his own, Sinfonia Argentina, and towards the end of last year he was conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. Equally ‘well known as a composer, he was awarded the 1951 Verdi Prize by Milan’s La Scala Opera House, and this month he is to conduct in Milan the world premiere of his three-act opera _Prosperina and the Stranger. Following this engagement, Senor Castro. will travel to Australia, where he is to tour under the auspices of the ABC, and from’ there he will come on to New Zeeland im October. ‘His reputation as a. composer pro_perly began when he introduced his own works to the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. These works, of which Mekhano, a ballet, and the Sinfonia Argentina are the most notable, are composed in a broad native idiom, drawing often on

Argentine melodies. He has numerous other compositions to his credit, and New Zealand audiences may expect ‘rom him an impressive climax to the 1952 concert season. Following the Orchestra’s present tour of the South Island, during which concerts will be presented next week at Greymouth (March 31), Westport (April 1), and Nelson (April 3), the first of Wellington’s 1952 subscription concerts will be given on Saturday, April 19, ’ The soloist on this occasion will be Jiri Tancibudek, Professor of Oboe at the Sydney Conservatorium, and the first visiting artist of the season. Mr. Tancibudek has given numerous performances in AuStralia, among them selections of early chamber music of

which he is a student. Since he left the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Tancibudek’s reputation as a leading oboist has increased greatly, and when he came to. Australia at the suggestion of Sir John Barbirolli he was given a position as first Professor of Oboe at the Sydney Conservatorium. Also at the Sydney Conservatorium is‘ the violinist Adam Kriegel, who will tour New Zealand with Tancibudek for the New Zealand Federation of Chamber Music Societies. Under the Federation’s sponsorship they will present chamber music concerts in Auckland (Thursday, April 17), Napier, Hastings, Palmerston North, Wanganui, Wellington, Christchurch, Invercargill, Dunedin, Blenheim, Nelson, Gisborne, Tauranga and Hamilton. Mr. Kriegel will be heard with the National Orchestra in Christchurch on Thursday, May 15. Return of Richard Farrell One of the outstanding New Zealanders in music today, the pianist Richard Farrell, will return to this country early in May for a brief tour of the main centres, Christchurch audiences may well recall the success of Farrell’s final concert appearance in their city in 1951, and according to present artangements

— they will have the opportunity of welcoming this young artist on the occasion of his first South Island concert. The first of Mr. Farrell’s engagements with the National Orchestra, however, will be in Wellington, where, on Monday, May 5, he will play the Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Opus 30. This will be the second Wellington subscription concert. On Tuesday, May 13, Mr. Farrell will appear with the Orchestra in Christchurch at a _ subscription concert there, this time to present Brahms’s Concerto No. 2 in B Fiat, Opus 83. He will appear in Dunedin on Tuesday, May 20, going North from there for the third and fourth Auckland subscription concerts on June 5 and 7, when he will again be heard in the Rachmaninoff and Brahms Cancertos. His tour will probably conclude with a solo appearance in Christchurch on June 10. It is also possible that during his tour Mr. Farrell will visit some of the provincial centres. The first of the twa vocal soloists to tour with the National Orchestra thic

year is the Australian and New York Metropolitan Opera baritone John Brownlee. He is expected to arrive in this country, following a tour of Australia, during . the first week in July. Brownlee follows in a line of great Australian singers, and was himself a protégé of Dame Nellie Melba. He began his career in London, but since 1939, when he toured his homeland last, he has been at the New York "Met," collecting eulogistic comments from the American critics: Mr: Brownlee will appear in a number of provincial centres, as well as in

in the four main centres, for public platform solo recitals. He will sing with the National Orchestra during the fourth Wellington subscription concert on Saturday, July 19, and in the sixth Auckland subscription concert on Thursday, July 31. The English bass Norman Walker, already well known here as a recording artist, is expected to arrive during the first week in September, and will remain here for four or five weeks. During that time he will give solo platform recitals in each of the four main centres and two or three performances with the National Orchestra. The first of these latter engagements is scheduled for the Wellington subscription concert of Saturday, September 20, and the second will be in on Thursday, October 9. It is also likely that Mr. Walker will give broadcast performances yutside those already arranged with the Orchestra. Mr. Walker is particularly well known for his work in oratorio, but he will also be remembered in Christchurch as the husband of the mezzo-so-prano and pianist Merle Miller, formerly official accompanist at 3YA.