HONNEGER'S "KING DAVID"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 902, 16 November 1956, Page 24

HONNEGER'S "KING DAVID"

ECAUSE of his fondness for experi‘menting ‘in sound, the famed French composer Honneger, who died in November of last year, was often labelled "clever" and not taken seriously. One of his experiments in sound impressions was "Pacific 231," inspired by his passion for railway engines.- An extreme venture in this field was "Rugby," which tried to capture the speed and excitement of a football match. Outside France, however, he is best known as the composer of two full-scale choral works, King David and Joan of Arc at the Stake. King David, which the composer describes as a éymphonic psalm, is based on a play by René Morax, and took Europe by storm in the twenties. The first New Zealand performance of this work-by the National Orchestra and the Phoenix Choir-will take place in Wellington on Tuesday, November 20 (YCs, 4YZ, 9.0 p.m.). It is written for soprano, contralto and tenor soloists, chorus and orchestra, with a narrator.

The work is in three parts and altogether there are 28 items, most of them very short, many of them containing only a page or so of music. The work ends with David crowning Solomon as King-just before his death he thanks his God with "Oh, how good it was to live! I -thank thee, God, Thou Who gavest me life!" This is followed by a triumphant "Alleluia" by the chorus, The first part of this concert (which will be given a delayed broadcast on the following Sunday) will be a performance of Handel’s "Dettingen Te Deum," written in 1743 when Handel was in the midst of his last great period of creativity. Handel uses the original early church chant "Te Duem Laudamus" as a Festival Hymn rather like a Jubilate. This use of the Te Deum has been a very popular one with composers from the time of Purcell to the present day. (YAs, 3YZ, 4YZ, Sunday, Novemter 25, 2.0 p.m.)