The Week's Music...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 894, 21 September 1956, Page 18

The Week's Music...

by

SEBASTIAN

;;-ROM time to time we hear a broadcast programme designed primarily for the entertainment or edification of children; but which is successful or valuable enough to warrant its repbroadcasting at a later date and a later hour for the more worldly-wise and jaded ears of other children up to the eighth decade. Such a one is the series of programmes (NZBS) expounding the nature of orchestral instruments, given by James Robertson; in his usual bright manner he chats informally about the ‘instruments, and interlards his words with anecdotes, explanations by the players themselves, and profuse and apt musical illustrations. By taking the instruments two at a time, he is able to sum up each session with a duet that shows off most of the capabilities of the players ima graphic manner. He obviously enjoys doing this work, and his enthusiasm is infectious enough to make up for the fact that the series was originally for a juvenile audience. The players do not sound quite as happy about it, but their chief work being illustrative, this doesn’t matter so much. I’ve no doubt that many children stay around to hear these programmes again; and their parents may well gain something, too.

The Robert Masters Quartet continues to delight us (YC links) with its sensitive playing of familiar and more obscure works. They seem to be able to vary the tone of their ensemble to suit the work in hand, no mean feat for a chamber group; for instance, the G Minor Quartet of Brahms _ breathed warmly its rather sultry moods, while Fauré’s second Quartet seemed altogether lighter in treatment as well as in texture, though the era and emotional content of the two works are not strikingly different. I was surprised, by the way, at the similarity of the two Fauré Quartets as played by this group, especially considering the time lapse between their dates of origin. Maurice Clare and Janetta McStay (NZBS) are still being heard in their series of violin and piano recitals. One I heard recently contained a_ very pleasant Sonata by Respighi, with all the colour of his 20th century lyricism. The sweep of the melody here was irresistible, and the violin tone itself particularly lovely; in fact, just the sort of tone that the sonata must have been written for. The accompaniments of Miss McStay are almost ideal, clear but not obtrusive, and always artistic. The result is a composition and not, as so often, a competition. \