A Sharp Liszt
NOTHER "radio portrait," this time of Liszt, helped to clear away the mist from him who of all Romantic composers, save Wagner, has had the most complete glamour-treatment. The Worshipper at Noon (the year’s most cryptic title) in ZB Sunday Showcase, painted a sharper and more likeable picture of Liszt than is found in, for instance, a recent French novel about Mendelssohn. Although the radio Liszt, with his keyboard pyrotechnics, his fondness for titled ladies, and his later taking of minor orders, was colourful enough, there was just that subtle difference in shading which distinguishes truth from fiction. Yet the BBC had not solved the problem of combining the life with the music. Is one to leave the music out? Impossible. Give whole works? No Time, Play snippets? Probably irritating, but no alternative. The musical snatches were understandable, therefore, but the snippets used were mainly over-familiar Liszt, with little or nothing from the great later Liszt whom musicians are just rediscovering. A pity-for Liszt the composer has still to be seen in perspective, and such a programme might have helped here. What might do the trick (script-writers please note) would be a serial version of Newman’s The Man Liszt, along the lines of Melba but, I dare to think, more rewarding, if less peachy.
J.C.
R.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 912, 1 February 1957, Page 26
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219A Sharp Liszt New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 912, 1 February 1957, Page 26
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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