Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 811, 11 February 1955, Page 24

Open Microphone

AT THE CONSOLE

7HEN the organist J. V. Peters was recording one of Bach’s Preludes and Fugues in the Christchurch Cathedral the other day (for a series of NZBS programmes to be broadcast later) the recording staff were startled by murmurings from the console and the unresolved and unexpected ending ‘of the work. Through the microphone the organist explained: "Sorry, but one of the organ stops came right out of the panel. I got rid of it into the

lap of the person alongside, but I couldn’t possibly carry on, as Im left sitting here with an arm-

ful of trombones, But Jj. V. Freters Nas become accustomed to such experiences during his career as a top-flight organist. He was born in Christchurch and is a Lecturer in Music at Adelaide University. At present he is visiting his home town on holiday. After taking his Mus. Bach. degree at Canterbury University College under Dr. Vernon Griffiths, he left New Zealand on an ex-serviceman’s bursary, He studied at Trinity College under Herbert Ellingford, took a second Mus. Bach. degree at Durham University, became organist to St. Saviours, Ealing, and later Director of Music at the Collegiate Grammar School, Southwell, Minster, Nottinghamshire. He went direct to Adelaide from England. There he lectures in degree work, teaches organ in the Elder Conservatorium, and; gives weekly recitals in the Elder Hall. For the Bach Festival at the University last June he gave the six seldom-played Bach Trio Sonatas in two recitals. He says he prefers 17th and 18th Century music, and. favours the neo-baroque rather than the conventional organ style. Not surprisingly he is an admirer of the Belgian composer Flor Peeters, and has included two of his compositions in the series to be broadcast. Mr. Peters is married to a Christchurch girl and has two sons, Jeremy, 2ged four, and Richard, aged two. He told us that he hopes to spend at least part of his holiday doing some ie down in the Sounds.

TRY ANYTHING ONCE

~ "CLIM, vivacious, blonde and = unmatried," is part of the interesting description of an interesting young

woman named June Whitfield, who, with Alma Cogan, is taking the place of Joy Nichols in the Take It From Here series now being heard from Commer-

cial stations of the NZBS. "Please make. it clear that Alma is the singer

-I’m the one who does the voices," was June’s plea when the series first went on the air in Britain. Explaining how she got the job, she said she "vaguely thought" she'd ting up and ask

for an audition when Joy Nichols left the team. but before she could do anything about it the TIFH scriptwriters, Muir and Norden, trang her. As an __ actress June believes it pays to try anything once, as_ her career illustrates. After training as a

dancer when she was a. child, she went on to win the Gertrude Lawrence prize for her character acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Since then, between straight parts, she has twice been a pantomime Cinderella, has understudied the lead in The Desert Song on tour, and has played in such varied productions as the revue Penny Plain, the musical comedy South Pacific, and the dramatic play Women of Twilight. She made her stage debut as assistant stage manager at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre after leaving the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1944. She has said that she first met the microphone, as a crying baby in a BBC Focus orl Nursing programme. -_

IN MEMORY OF "Te

\A ANY listeners will remember the """ readings of Professor T. D. Adams, | of Dunedin, who, from 1937 to 1947, was a regular broadcaster from 4YA. Professor Adams died at the end of 1953, and his widow, Lucy S. Adams, has written a memoir to him entitled Thomas Dagger Adams (A, H. and A.

W. Reed) which contains a chapter dealing with his work as a broadcaster. Professor

Adams’s readings were always popular, and one of his earliest broadcasts received the following praise from a radio commentator: "I have no hesitation in saying that I do not hope to hear a more pleasant radio reading voice than his. The session was excellently arranged: there was a judicious combination of prose. and verse, and the musi-

cal interludes provided by selections made by Dr. V. E. Galway, had a distinct and subtle relationship to the reading matter." Later, The Listener commented: "Professor Adams is becoming one of the Dominion’s first notable radio personalities. Perhaps he may not wish this, but a person who does difficult work so supremely well has to chance the rewards that may come his way." Mrs. Adams notes that her husband broadcast 378 programmes of readings, ranging over the whole of English literature from Shakespeare and Browning to Kenneth Graham _ and Stephen Leacock. "In all his readings," Mrs. Adams says, "he had a quiet, unobtrusive humour which, blended with his equally unobtrusive learning, gave his broadcasting a rare quality that made a lasting impression." This sentiment was expressed in a slightly different way by the "Two Faithful Listeners," of Maoribank, who in 1943 wrote a letter to The Listener containing a 12line poem which began: We love your voice, We love your choice Of things to read. There is no doubt that "T.D." (as he was familiarly known) brought enjoyment to a very wide audience on each of the 378 occasions on which his voice was heard from 4YA. A

VERSATILE CONTRALTO

x "THEY told me I sing like a Slav. A Polish woman rang up and asked me if I was Polish and married to a

New Zealand husband. It was quite a compliment, really." Christina Young, the Wellington contralté who is being heard from YC and YZ stations in a series of four recorded programmes, was telling us about her experience when she first sang some Polish songs in Australia (her second NZBS_ programme consists of seven songs by Chopin and Karlowicz, sung in Polish.) "I became

interested in. singing Polish songs in Sydney, where I was on the committee of the New Aus-

tralians Cultural Association," she said. "Each month we had a social evening, one half of the evening being devoted to British artists and speakers and the other to one of the migrant groups, 15 or 17 of which belong to the Association." Christina was brought up in Wellington and had her first big success when she sang in a performance of Elijah which Sir Malcolm Sargent conducted for the Royal Wellington Choral Union in 1936. He advised her to go to London, where she continued her studies under Madame Cappiani. She was one of the singers who represented New Zealand in the choir at Westminster Abbey at the Coronation of King George VI. She sang for the BBC and did concert work in Britain, and during the war spent a lot of time singing for ENSA. "I volunteered for service overseas with ENSA and was. sent to North-West Europe." she said. "We sang in France, Belgium and Holland, and as there were no service-women except nurses in Germany while the war was on, we were particularly pleased when our unit. was the first to cross the Rhine."

Christina Young is giving a series of talks from 2YA on her experiences with ENSA. She is also singing with the National Orchestra at a Proms concert in Wellington on arch 7, and will broadcast from 2YA with the Harry Botham Orchestra. She said that after her return to New Zealand in 1946 she did a broadcast tour for the NZBS and then went to Australia, where she sang with the ABC. "I came home again with the idea of making a short visit. But I'm enjoying being back here more than I thought I would. I’m living in Khandallah and I have a lovely garden there, and I don’t feel very keen to leave it."

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS, ' ON AND OFF THE RECORD