Peter Cooper's Itinerary

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 732, 24 July 1953, Page 16

Peter Cooper's Itinerary

_ "T HE pianist Peter C:-oper, whose performance at London’s famous "Q" Theatre was mentioned in last weeéek’s Listener, is to make 24 appearances. in New Zealand. He wi!l beyin his tour at Napier on Thursdsy, Juiy 30, with a programme including works’ by Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovski, Beethoven and Brahms. With the Nationa’ Orchestra, Mr. Cooper will give four concerto performances. These will be Chopir’s No. 2 in F Minor, at New. Plymouth on August 4. and Auckland on October 1, Beethoven’s No, 3 in C Minor, at Christchurch on September 17, and Tchaikovski’s No. 1 in B Flat Mino:. Opus 23, at Dunedin on September 22. Christchurch-born, Peter Cooper was educated at St. Andvews College and Canterbury University Ccllege. His piano studies began when he was seven. at first under Amy Alexander and later under Alfred Bunz. He made his first public appearance at 14. He won a scholarship to the Roval Academy of Music in London, but the cutbreak of World War II prevented his taking it up. By the time he did so at the end of the war, he had given concerts and broadcasts in New Zealand and Australia, had served 18 months with the Australian Army Medical Corps, and

had given more than 150 concerts for Australian forces in Borneo, Mcrotai New Guinea and Australia. Since the war, he has studied under Eric Grant in London and with Edwin Fischer in Switzerland. He has frequettly broadcast concertos and recitals for the BBC, and has been heard in the corporation’s Home, Light, Third and Overseas Programmes.° Peter Cooper now lives in London, where he does some teaching and is making his way as a composer. He will perform’one of his own works, the brief "Tango-Caprice," at recitals in ‘Chiistchurch, Auckland and Lower Hutt on August 18, August 20 and October 13 respectively. Another work by a New Zealand composer — Georg Tintner’s "Prelude"-will also be performed at these recitals, | ‘ Other performances scheduled for che main cen are at Wellington on August 10, "Dunedin on August 15. and Auckland om September 15. At these the programmie will cozisist of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C Sharp Minor, and Prelude*and Fugue in C Sharp Major, Beethoven’s Sonata tn C Minor, Opus 111, Tchaikovski’s "Dumka," and three excerpts from his "Months of the Year," and Scriabin’s Study in D Sharp Minor, Opus 8, No. 12. In addition to these engagements Mr. Cooper will give recitals in 14 smaller centres: Napier, July 30; Hastings, August 1; Invercargil:, August 13: Te Kuiti, August 22; Tauranga August 25; Wanganui, August 29; New Plymouth, August 31; Palmerston North, September 2; Nelson, September 10; Blenheim, September 12; Timaru September 19; Gisborne, September 28; Whange-ei. September 30; and Hamilton. Octcber 8. The more considerable works in programmes for these centres are by Beethoven, Chopin and Brahms. Peter Cooper last tuured New Zealand in 1949. (OR A ee NR Ne LT Na ma