"A BIRTHDAY OFFERING"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 912, 1 February 1957, Page 5

"A BIRTHDAY OFFERING"

Sir-Mr. Mason has saved me the trouble of putting Mr. Crowe in his place, and has done so in his customary impeccable style. Maybe I am an "old dog who barks at what he cannot understand" but at least I am not a young puppy who is not yet house-trained. Mr. Mason refers to Mr. Crowe’s "undoubted musical gifts" with which I'am no more acquainted than Mr. Crowe is with my "musical Kitsch." I have seen Mr. Crowe’s name associated with the Society of Contemporary Music, but on the only occasion I attended one of their "concerts" I came away with a sense of bewildered nausea such as I experienced when I viewed the recent open-air display of "art" in Wellington. For Mr. Crowe’s edification my musical experience started long before he was born and my "musical Kitsch" had been performed by the Portland Symphony (Van Hoogstraten), the Boston Symphony (Serge Koussevitzky) and La Scala, Milan (Alberto Bimboni), Oddly enough these rather good conductors were all of mature years and could actually converse. After listening carefully to a repetition of "A Birthday Offering’ I see no reason to change my opinion. I would remind Mr, Crowe and Mr. Mason that the general student and the professional

musician are equally prone to form preposterous ideas of the demands which a great piece of music makes upon the technical experience of the listener. As Sir Donald Tovey said, "Nothing bores me more intensely than a composer with a new system of harmony." In any case, harmony is a very much larger musical category than any harmonic theorist, classical or revolutionary, has made of it. Mr. Mason is brilliant and talented, but much as I admire him I have never hesitated to "lambaste" him if I thought he deserved it. We are all entitled to our own views and controversy keeps the arts alive, but I cannot and will not remain silent when the very high standards I set for music and the theatre are, in my opinion, debased or outraged, Hence my "choleric temperament"? To Mr. Mason for his courteous, tolerant and eminently just letter I say "Thank you," though I cannot share his delight in "A Birthday Offering." In conclusion. may I quote from the music critic of Musical Opinion, London, whose reviews are published regularly. He says: "Mr. Horsley’s piano recital ... is drawn from the conventional repertoire save for the Sonatina of Douglas Lilburn .. . Mr. Horsley’s enterprise on behalf of his fellow-countryman is commendable, but despite his eloquent advocacy, it may be doubted if any member of the audience had the slightest desire to hear the work again. Its three brief movements are harsh, angular and percussive, containing little harmonic or melodic interest, and indeed, scarcely a single idea worth recording."

L. ASSHETON

HARBORD

(Lower Hutt).