LIGHT PROGRAMMES FOR STRINGS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 725, 5 June 1953, Page 24

LIGHT PROGRAMMES FOR STRINGS

HOWCASE, a new series of 15 weekly programmes arranged, compered and conducted by Terry Vaughan (below), will start this Saturday, June 6, at the four YA stations. A small group of some of the best-known string players in Wellington, assisted by woodwind from the National Orchestra and two singers, will present what Mr. Vaughan calls "a display of light music which the perform-

ers seem to enjoy as much as I do." He chose the name, he said, because the programmes are "bright and showy, each beginning with something by one of the best of the light melody-makers, George Gershwin." From there on they cover a wide field spanning Leroy Anderson and Romberg. For instance, in one programme listeners wil] hear "The Irish Washerwoman, Her Husband and Their Little Boy, Danny," in which the

violins represent the Irish Washerwoman, the bassoon her husband, and the oboe Danny Boy, all arguing in contrapuntal style. Another example is "Grandfather Does the Mexican Hat Dance," with the bassoon portraying Grandfather trying to keep pace with the spirited caperings of the rest of the orchestra. The vocalists are Ngaire Crawford (soprano) and Jim Greenlees ¢baritone). They were selected, said Mr. Vaughan, because they represent the "half-way mark between ‘straight?’ and ‘popular’ singers." Terry Vaughan tells me _ he has also recorded another series of programmes called Three Fours, traversing chronologically the works of the waltz composers from Brahms and Schubert to the modern David Rose and Richard Rogers,