The Week's Music...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 887, 3 August 1956, Page 22

The Week's Music...

by

SEBASTIAN

| \ HEN Vaughan Williams wrote a violin concerto subtitled Accademico, he cidn't imply that it was dryly academic, but that its form was of the /older type: and, in fact, it is anything | but dry, in spite of its minorish key. | I must confess I like it, and I liked the | playing of it by Ritchie Hanna with the Alex Lindsay String Orchestra (NZBS). Sprightly and contemplative / by turns, but always youthful as the | compeser’s forthright mind, it swung along in fine style; the slower and more | lyrical section, so reminiscent of "The Lark Ascending" and of Elihu’s dance in Job, called forth some really lovely solo playing, and indeed from the whole body of strings. In the same programme, and in strong contrast, John Stanley’s Concerto for Strings proved to ;be an attractive 18th century work; in &pite of the introductory blurb, stylistic differences from Handel were not at once obvious, and the concerto suffered not a whit from the similarities. The tuneful tunes, rhythmic rhythms and formal forms of the time make for musical pleasantries, however innocuous, and it would have made no difference to most of us had it been announced as a newly-discovered work of Handel-or Avison, or even Boyce. This orchestra itself, I think, is

still improving: the parts are more coherent, poor intonation has reachéd a minimum and the all-important sweep and confidence’ are conspicuous. No longer can the listener await the inevitable slips, but hears and enjoys the playing as though it were from a commercial recording. This is as it should be, and I hope the time when it and the National Orchestra can make such generally-available’ recordings is not too far distant. Paul Badura-Skoda has left us now, of course, and he has left us with some delightful memories of well-played Mozart. I didn’t mention before (because I hadn’t then heard it) the Piano and Wind Quintet, K.452, which he played with National Orchestra wind soloists (YC link): this was very beautiful, with some passages of ethereal tone and others of pure mischief; which odaly enough in this context sound quite compatible. The solo part-it. goes without. sayine-would melt even a cfitic’s heart, and the wind players excelled themselves in sympathy. ~After this, even such lovely playing as the B Flat Violin Sonata (with Francis Rosner), and the E Major Trio, K.542, had to come as anti-climax: but if this is the extent of bathos that you ever have to bear, you can count yourself fortunate,