A Week In Auckland

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 812, 18 February 1955, Page 24

A Week In Auckland

"THE Prom progratimes have been most ingeniotisly atfanged so as to give the maximum audience interest without altogether running the players off their musical feet and, wearing the pitch in this, the fifst innings of their 1955 Test. As it is, by the time they come up for ait after the Wellington season, which énds in a week or so, the players will have batted and bowled through some 60° pieces by 35 cémposers. Even more ingenious. are the broadcasting arrangements by which the overall programme is spread over four weeks of listening without duplication, unless you happen to be one of those adventurous fans prepared to go far afield om the dial to find just what you warit. The aspect that hits the eye in the Auckland broadcasts is the profusion of soloists — nine of them altogether. Twenty-one soloists will have appeared in the vatious Prom programmes by the time the season is over. Now, it is a well-known axiom that a soloist placed judiciously in an orchestral programme will have very béneficial effects on the

box-office. When the soloist is an instrumentalist, the attraction is, I rather suspect, a deep-seated satisfaction in following the combat between the gargantuan orchestra and the seemingly puny single instrument standing out in front. Even though we know who will ultimately triumph we rejoice in the thrust and parrying that brings it off. When the composer, however, calls his soloist v. orchestra effusion a "rhapsody" ‘we can almost be sure that he will be inclined to give the soloist a little more of the limelight. There are three rhapsodies to be broadcast this week-Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, with Maurice Till as solo pianist (1YC. February 21), Rapsodia Portugesa, by Halffter, in which the solo piano will be played by David ‘Galbraith (1YC, February 22) and Debussy’s Rhapsody for Saxophone and Orchestra, with George Hopkins on the saxophone (YC link, February 26). The Rachmaninoff is a set of variations which, far from cramping the rhapsodic style, is by way of being a springboard from which the lyricism is launched. Paganini’s theme is in no way distinguished but it had enough in it for Paganini himself to build some virtuoso variations on it. Brahms went one better with his two titanic sets on the same theme for piano. And now comes Rachmaninoff, adding the orchestra and spreading himself over 24 variations. If you are not too intent in expecting the theme to pop out recognisably in every variation, the music pretty well explains itself, and the adventure of discovering just what ideas Rachmaninoff gets from the theme is one not to be anticipated. The Rapsodia Portugesa is a pleasant romp for the piano with considerable assistance from the orchestra, a romantic breeze from the Iberian landscape. The Debussy, however, is definitely the saxophone’s piece, the testimonial of an instrument which is judged too often, unfortunately, by the company it keeps. In the hands of Debussy and George Hopkins, I think you will find it an enchanting musical companion, an instrument that can sing with the flexibility _of a prima donna of opera.

Owen

Jensen