No Stony Ground

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 886, 27 July 1956, Page 30

No Stony Ground

CAN only asstime, from what I shall reveal later, that this column is being read, and duly gratified, I wish to record my modest pleasure. I was moved some weeks ago to lament that concért announcers felt impelled to fill the gaps béfore a Goricert began with musical annotations hastily swotted up from, I later discovered; Percy A. Scholes. Far from éflightéfiihg this reviewer, they moved him to dance with rage, I must now record, theréfore, that iit two ¢oncefts recéntly broadcast, the ariiouricers béhaved admirably; no cosy shippets about this ot that composer, merely the fame and the date of the composition. Badura-Skoda’s Mozart concert was prececed by a brief programme fiote on his career, and then, blessedly, silence, with faintly off, the expectant hum of the audience. My* compliments. While I am on coficert broadcasts, I must say that it has been pointed ott to me that the orchestral playing itt the Mozart cdéncerto which I criticised séverely last Week, was admirable in the hall, and far from being the worst playing this séason, has sofne claims to being ¢onsidered the best. All I can say is that I have éars; and to the best of my belief, they are in good nick; musiciah friends who heard the broadéast confirm my findings, and if this great disparity exists, then it is the technicians, or maybe the conditions of that broadcast, which we must blame. This is @ theme to which I shall later return.