Breaking The Barrier

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 885, 20 July 1956, Page 19

Breaking The Barrier

BS THINK the idea is a fine one, and I wish we could have another concert like it very soon," said Owen Jensen, when , The Listener asked him for his comments on Auckland’s first youth concert. It was given by the National Orchestra in the Town Hall on Wednesday, July 4, and although the audience was not as large as Wellington’s, there was, said Mr. Jensen, no «doubt about its enthusiasm, "Mr, Robertson’s idea is to break down the barrier between audience and orchestra, and this was happening; but it needs another concert with the same audience,

if it were possible, to achieve that purpose. The young people were obviously there to enjoy themselves," Mr. Jensen went on, "and it is understandable that they preferred Tchaikovski’s Capriccio Italien to the less familiar works. However, the Kabalevsky Symphony was, as Mr. Robertson explained, loud and short, and its themes were easily understood." It was a very well-chosen programme, Mr. Jensen said. There were two performances that deserved special. men-

tion. One was the brilliant trumpet playing of Mike Gibbs in "Stardust," one of the jazz. items on the programme. The jazz was well received and accepted in the spirit in which it was givenmore as a contribution to entertainment than culture. Secondly, there was the first movement of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in D Minor, in which players from the Auckland Junior Symphony Orchestra paired with the National Orchestra players, The soloists were two young

Auckland violinists, David Nalden and Lief Hansen, who gave a most promising performance. For such a programme, Mr. Jensen concluded, it was a difficult matter to choose works that were not too far ahead of youth’s musical experience, nor so simple that the orchestra played down to its audience. But being a new idea, he feit that the concert could have been given more publicity through the colleges and the city’s youth organisations.