MUSIC IN THE FAMILY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 784, 30 July 1954, Page 16

MUSIC IN THE FAMILY

"[Ts spelt with an aitch," the lady explained, "like the one in the Bible. My father used to say we descended from the world’s first hiker, because Enoch walked and talked with God." Thus Yvonne Enoch. lecturer and Pianist, in a recent interview with The Listener. Like most people with unusual names. she’d been mis-spelt before and was getting the record straight. Miss Enoch, however, is unusual not only in name. A concert pianist of some note, she Gdmbines her talent with a desire and capacity to teach. "Lots of Pianists give recitals," she says, "but not many tell what they’re about." A series of her lecture-recitals are at present being broadcast by YC stations on Tuesdays. The dissemination of music in the Enoch family is something of an hereditary trait. Miss Enoch’s grandfather, she says. founded the music publishing firm of Enoch and Sons, and was one of the founders of the Royal College of Music. "I’ve a letter at home written by Edward VII (then Prince of Wales) saying what a good idea it was to have a Royal College, and would Mr. Enoch call at St. James’s Palace to discuss it." Also among the family archives is an autograph book containing handwritten notes and music from such famous composers and musicians as Brahms, Elgar, Grieg, Puccini, Massenet, Paderewski and Stravinsky.

Before the war, Miss Enoch ‘studied for a short time under Arthur Benjamin at the Trinity College of Music for three and a half years. and for a time under John Hunt, a pupil of Artur Schnabel. "Then, during the war,’ she says, "I never touched music for six years." The reason was a hostel she ran, used largely by Norwegian seamen who succeeded in escaping from their country during the occupation. It was not till near the war’s end that she returned to her profession. Then. at Toynbee Hall, she began giving voice training, and providing music for the school’s drama productions. Later she joined the Young Vic Company, arranging and conducting music for its productions and training actors in musical parts. "I had to do some amazing things," she says. "I even learned to play the squeeze-box-what do you call it-the concertina." This and a spell of teaching the musical side of drama at the Old Vic School served, she says, to bring her back to the musical life she had missed during the war. From 1949 on, Miss Enoch played, and studied with Adela Verne, whom she describes as a remarkable pianist and Paderewski’s favourite pupil. She has performed with the London Symphony at Albert Hall, at. the Wigmore and Cowdray Halls, and has travelled throughout Britain, giving recitals and lecture-recitals, mostly the latter.

While in New Zealand Miss Enoch will ‘lecture for the Community Arts Service, as well as broadcasting for the NZBS. The. six lecture-recitals scheduled for the YC stations are: "Oriana and the Golden Age," about Elizabethan music; "Great Cathedrals of Music," which deals witb Handel, Bach and the Baroque composers generally; "Red High-heeled Shoes," about the France of Louis XIV to XVI, Mozart and Haydn; "Boney Was a Warrior," dealing with the Napoleonic period and Beethoven and _ Schubert; "Off with the Old and On with the New," about the Romantic mr-vement and such expones. * of it as Schumann, _ * .iszt, Chopin and Bia ‘ms: and, "Backwards or forwards," dealing with the neriod Debussy to Bartok. The programmes, under the title of Life and Music, are to be" heard from all YC stations at 9.30 on Tue: day nights.