STRANGE COMPANY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 820, 15 April 1955, Page 19

STRANGE COMPANY

[P like to meet the ghosts of Debussy and Beethoven at the Orchestra's first 1955 subscription concert at Wellington on April 23. Or rather, I'd like to be a ghostlier ghost, listening to the two gentlemen of music chatting during the interval. Debussy’s famous Prelude a l'Aprés Midi d'un Faune is to. precede Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in © Minor (1YC and 2YC). Two masters, standing poles apart. ‘M. Debussy to Herr Beethoven: "My dear Beethoven, permit me to say how honoured I am to. find myself on the same programme as yourseif, even if it’s only. your piano concerto whici-you'll pardon my mentioning it-my. compatriot. Vinéent. d’Indy referred. to as the work of a ‘good pupil’-a ‘pupil of genius,’ I think he added. . ." "Pupil, sir! Pupil! Let me tell you that in 1800 I was already a master. In fact, I would claim this as one of my first | masterpieces. And — posteritywhose judgment I think you will agree is not altogether incompetent--posterity claims it as a masterpiece, too. True, I must admit that I was inspired a little by Mozart’s great masterpiece, his Concerto in C Minor; but-well, looking back, I see now that the stamp of my

personality was already on this’ music, what you yourself called ‘music of pride. of passion and of joy. But at least, people understand it. What does your piece, M. Debussy, your-what do you call it, "The Afternoon of a Faun"-_ what does it all mean? Fauns, indeed! Based o6n a poem-an_ unintelligible poem. What did someone call it? ‘A famous miracle of unintelligibility.’ " "My music, . Beethoven, makes the poem intelligible. It does not illustrate the poem, however, it is a contemplation of the words. It is, if you like, a dream of a dream. As such, it stands by itself. And your posterity places my Prelude, too, among the masterpiecesalthough perhaps in a different folio = great music. After all, there is a place for both of us. In your concerto, the anind gf the composer has looked out on life. I have looked inwards to. find music recollected in tranquillity. Your music stimulates the mind and stirs the emotions. Mine moves the senses. In the end it comes, perhaps, to the. same thing | --transcendent enjoyment." Maybe this spectral conversation wouldn’t go quite like this, but it could.

Owen

Jensen