Good - humoured Music

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 821, 22 April 1955, Page 30

Good - humoured Music

"THE Orchestra’s next concert broadcast is not unti) May 5. Let’s seethat’s Thursday week, isn’t it? It’s the second subscription concert in Dunedin The second half will be broadcast on | YC link. The three works to be put on the air represent different aspects of what might be called early contemporary musict There’s Dohnanyi’s Variations on a Nursery Theme, Delius’s Song Before Sunrise, and Ravel's La Valse. Small things amuse small minds, they | say; but it’s just as well for a sometimes | jaded world that great minds can occa- | sionally find interest and amusement in trifles, The theme of Dohnanyi’s Varia | tions is one that almost anyone can play / on the piano. You will know it as "A B C D E F G" or as "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," depending upon which school of nursery philosophy you were brought up in. Mozart learnt it as "Alt, vous dirai-je, maman," and he, too, liked the tune well enough to elaborate it with some variations. Mozart’s piano variations bring out the gentle charm of the nursery song. Dohnanyi uses the tune with a humorous ‘twist: but his variations for piano and orchestra have their serious moments, too. Lyric. witty and then dignified, the variations take the tune

through a diversity of moods. There is a waltz and eventually Dohnanyi's theme is transformed into a chorale. Although the work is for piano and orchestra, it is not a concerto in the general acceptance of the form, for the piano, despite its virtuoso part, is much’ more a member of the orchestra. one of the boys, as it were, than a prima donna, Dohnanyi. a very fine pianist, always makes the piano sound effective. His music for the instrument is always grateful to play. The difficulties gelong to the piano. And the music always sounds at home on the piano. But this is accepting the 19th Century conception of the piano as a romantic singing instrument. For Dohnanyi, -born into the 20th Century-or almost, anyhow; he was born in Hungary in 1877never shook off the influences of. those early impressionable years. His model was Brahms, the texture that characterises all his work. But there is a more sensuous quality to Dohnanyi’s music. You could say it was a 20th Century composer looking backward and flavouring the 19th Century style with his own nostalgia. Next week we'll have a look at very different aspects of the 20th Century-

Delius and Ravel.

Owen

Jensen