The Week's Music...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 896, 5 October 1956, Page 22

The Week's Music...

by

SEBASTIAN

WERE getting used to the concerts for schools by the National Orchestra, but it is rarely that they associate in performance with the schools themselves. When they do the result is im+ pressive, and this is due partly to rigorous rehearsal, and partly to the music of Vaughan Williams, whose works always seem to be chosen for such combined concerts. The case in point is in Folk Songs of the Four Seasons, some of which were sung (YC link) by the Dunedin Technical College Choir, with telling effect, especially in the ingenious setting of "Summer is Icumen In." Haydn’s 49th Symphony (La Passione) was played with considerable charm which made light of its serious moments, and inspired some of its tedious ones; and in the same pro-gramme-was there some implicit connection in the titles?--Strauss’s Don Juan received a rousing rendering that made it sound more like a festal overture. One of the hardest concertos to bring off at a live performance must be Bach’s second Brandenburg Concerto, The difficulties. bristle cactus-like on all sides; the fantastic technique required of the trumpet, the balancing of it with violin, oboe and flute, the: meshing of these with the strings, the co-ordination with

the continuo-all these and more must be perfected before a performance. Yet it has been done, as nearly successfully as one could imagine (4YC) with the aid of Ken Smith as trumpeter and James Robertson conducting from the keyboard in best Bach style. The trumpet never overweighted the other soloists, articulated beautifully, and, in fact, did all the things that a trumpet can hardly ever do; Mr. Smith is a true artist of his instrument. The whole ensemble worked well together, though some minor problems of balance had still to be solved. Altogether this was one of the most invigorating changes heard from the Orchestra for some time. Maurice Clare and Vivien Dixon played a Theme and Variations for two violins by Alan Rawsthorne (NZBS) with true intonation and considerable virtuosity. The work itself leans heavily towards atonality without being excessively unpleasant: spiky and pungent it is, but not malodorous, Still, it is a long way from being a hit tune, however skilfully played, and it was something of a relief to reach a more frank and obvious Sonata of Leclair, full of real tunes as opposed to slightly academic melody. Two violins are really rather nice: you get much of a quartet’s sonority with none of its uncertainties.