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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 900, 2 November 1956, Page 20

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NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD PBPO PLL

ORATORIO HAS POWER

) VIDENCE of the power ora- : torio still has was given by the visiting tenor William Herbert in Haydn’s Creation, and even more forcibly in Bach’s St. Matthew. Passion in Wellington | recently. Mr. Herbert has proved one

of the musical surprises of the year, and all who heard him will be

pleased to know that he wants to come back to New Zealand "as soon as possible." When we talked with him before a rehearsal of the St. Matthew Passion, he had just finished a tour of both islands for the New Zealand Federation of Chamber Music Societies. In his programmes he had sung-a great deal of lieder. "This is the thing I almost enjoy most," he said. "Here I found the audiences were very keen on it and it

has made me very happy." He is especially fond of Schubert, and, at present is working to extend his repertoire in the whole field of lieder. On the other side of the world, however, most of William Herbert's appearances are in oratorio. He often sings in Holland, where each Easter there are more than 140 performances of the St. Matthew Passion. There he does Handel in English, but Bach in German-which he finds a good deal easier, The life of an oratorio singer of his distinction’ is very busy. Back in Britain he will start on a round of performances that will take him all over England and Northern Ireland. There may be Elgar's Dream of Gerontius one night, a journey of 300 miles to sing in Haydn’s Creation the next night, and so on through the current repertoire. After this,"" Mr. Herbert told us, "the Messiahs start, which takes me all over the place from Belfast to Southampton." Although he has sung many times in the St. Matthew Passion, Mr. Herbert has not lost his interest in the role of the Evangelist. Audiences, conductors and interpretations are always changing. At a performance of this work in Manchester, Vaughan Williams conducted the Halle Orchestra and choir. "To my amazement," said Mr. Herbert, "I discovered it hadn’t been done there for over 40 years. Barbirolli, however, who has a great following in Manchester, thought it a good idea to revive it with Vaughan Williams conducting. Vaughan Williams. has his own ideas about the work-in some of the tenor arias, for instance, he has a continuous weaving accompaniment on the piano. In_ his hands the whole thing is just different. At first you’re inclined to raise your eye-

brows, then his performance »impresses itself upon you." Manchester at this time had not been converted to the harpsichord, and Mr. Herbert feels that the piano will still be used in many performances of the Passion. "Lofthouse playing a Goff instrument is -the ideal," he said, "but you have to consider Miss Smith, of the local bookshop as well, for she wouldn’t be able to manage it ona harpsichord. = Great singers Mm Herbert as been associated with include the late Kathleen Ferrier, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Irmgard Seefried. Besides singing the great classical oratorios, he has also become a noted interpreter of the music of living British composers, and Edmund Rubbra dedicated to him his. setting of the sonnets of Spenser, which Mr. Herbtrt first performed in England. Three years ago’ Mr. Herbert married Jeanne Harries, an English girl who worked as a mannequin for Digby Morton, the fashion designer. A delayed broadcast of Haydn's Creation, in which William Herbert is heard as a soloist, will be broadcast from 2YC on November 11. +

TALENT QUEST FINALISTS

| ERE are four more finalists in the Mobil Song Quest, who will represent their districts at the final concert in the Wellington Town Hall on December 3. Patricia Barry, from Nelson,

was a pupil of the late Mrs. M. Macfarlane, a Nelson

singing teacher with a New Zealand-wide reputation. Miss Barry has appeared successfully at Competitions Festivals in all the main centres, and has broadcast from 2XN since 1950, and also from 2YA and 3YA, ‘Wendy Adams, Whangarei district winner, is well known to 1XN listeners and Whangarei| Operatic Society audiences. She has appeared in all local Operatic Society productions from the time she left school. Kenneth

Bullin,. Taranaki district winner, is a teacher and a prominent member of the New Plymouth Choral Society. He has been successful in Competitions Festivals, and is a frequent broadcaster from 2XP. Recently he under-studied Donald Munro in a New Plymouth Choral Society production. Donald Jack, Otago district winner, won the Men's Vocal Championship in Christchurch in 1954, and the Arthur MacDonald Memorial Scholarship last year. He has been a soloist im Messiah, and has sung the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance. He is a dental student at the Otago University.

ARTHUR MARSHALL, whose BBC | *™ talk My Favourite Villainess was | heard recently from YC stations, was a | language master at a famous English | public school when he first broadcast, | 20 years ago, about outrageous women from girls’ schools. "Some of my clder colleagues were shocked," he recalls, "but the Headmaster was on my side." Since the late ‘thirties he has been reviewing books for the New Statesman, and revently he edited a collection of entries in its weekly competition. Mr. Marshall says with a_ characteristic gurgling chuckle that his present position as private secretary to a Cambridge scientist is "quite a change from irregular verbs."