Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 925, 3 May 1957, Page 18

Open Microphone

---_ LPB LLL EEE OPO NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD

ACCOMPANIST

bes | FOUND it a very interesting" ex-perience-it is more exacting than radio,""-said Raymond Lambert, Australia’s foremost accompanist, when he told us about his television debut in Melbourne. "There is the lighting, the make-up, all of which gives you the impression of being in a motion picture

studio. Mr Lambert, who has just finished a short tour of New

Zealand with the violinist Ricardo Odnoposoff, said his television programme was made up of shortish pieces greatly varying in mood. "It is not possible to perform anything too austere, such as a sonata," he said. -Aware that Mr Lambert is widely experienced as an accompanist for both singers and instrumentalists, we asked him whether he-had to adopt very different techniques for each. "That is quite & difficult question,’ he said. "It’s mainly a matter of sensitivity. I was fortunate in that my father was a violinist of note, and in this way I became acquainted with the violin repertoire. I also studied the instrument and came to understand its technique. When you are accompanying a violinist you must consider the difficulties and the technique of the instrument-such things as the length of the bow, for instance. When playing for a singer you have to sing-inwardly, of course. The breathing is very important, and to convey the true mood of the song you must understand the words.’ Accom-

panying really comes into the domain of chamber music." Raymond Lambert told us he usually limits himself.to one major tour each year. The ‘rest of the year in Australia is spent teaching and giving concerts,

He has introduced many new works on the Australian concert platform, among them Prokofieff’s Third Piano. Concerto and the Symphony on a Mountain. Air, by D’Indy, which he also played here

with the National Orchestra. During this visit he has been pleased with our pianos except that he found many of them still a little new and thus suffering froma certain rigidity. "They tend to be a little heavy,’ he said. "Most of them are new and simply need more playing-or a little attention from an expert from time to time." Mr Lambert has enjoyed’ his present tour, and he hopes it will not be another 10 years before he is back. "Next time I would like to give some solo recitals," he added. ‘4

FOR FOLK SINGERS

-INCE his new series of All Day Singing has been on the air, Henry Walter has been asked by many listeners whether the records he plays are available in New Zealand. "They’re available only from the United States," he tells us, "and that, unfortunately,

means dollars. ‘Lhis makes it hard for the orcinary person to get them, but teachers’ asso-

ciations and kindred organisations may have better luck. In fact, I would like to see dollars made available to them for this purpose, so that children in groups may learn to sing folk songs. They, take to this music far more than they do to formal religious songs or _ choral works." In New. York, for in- | stance, an organisation called the Jew- ' ish Young, Folk Singers, formed to keep children off the streets; sings in Yiddish, German, English and Spanish, and from being individuals with little sense of community, they have become a group conscious of the essential community of all peoples. We asked Mr Walter also where we could learn more about folk songs-their origins, for instance, and their words. Some good books have been published, he says, and he mentioned particularly The Fireside Book ot Folk Songs, edited by Margaret Bradford Boni,’ and Folksong, U.S.A., by John and Allan Lomax. ~~

: OPO BEGAN IT

an BUG-EYED spacemen notwithstanding | -or should it be notwithflying?--mocern children can still be fascinated by old-fashioned animal stories, as. was ‘shown by the popularity of "Dolphin SSikoens " the film on BBC Children’s Hour television recently (writes T. W.

Goodwin, from London). Teachers found children eager to dis-

.cuss Upononis iate lamented tourist attraction, and New Zealand visitors to schools could not escape questions about it. Opo seems to have started something, because in. the fortnight since then there seem to have been an exceptional number of radio programmes in London in which New Zealanders or people who have lived there have taken part. Children’s "Commonwealth \ Magazine" was followed by "Commonwea!th of Song,". which included the Christchurch tenor Leslie Andrews, who has been singing in England for several years after studying at the Royal College of Music. On the Third Programme, the Auckland tenor Andrew Gold gave a recital of new songs. He will be leaving London. shortly for Singapore and the Far East before touring the Dominion during the winter. Some of his recitals will be broadcast. As chairman of the New Zealand Music Society he has been

largely responsible for the series of recorded concerts of Dominion music and drama students in England heard from NZBS stations. A highly successful BBC producer is Alan Burgess, who was a guide’ at Fox Glacier with the Sullivans in 1938. No Risks, No Romance, the title of the book he wrote about his round-the-wotld trip as a member of the crew of the Cap Pilar and his hitch-hiking through New Zealand, sums up his attituce to life. He is now writing and producing, a series, Skin of My. Teeth, about people who have — narrowly escaped death, but few radio features have had the dramatic success of his most recent, which saved people from death. Despair Is My Parish told the story of the Telephone Samaritans, a voluntary bocy of great-hearted men and women who bring comfort and _ assistance to any despairing Londoner who dials MANsion House 9000. Founded by an Anglican clergyman nearly four years ago, the organisation has helped more than 500 people, many of them on the point of suicide. Before the programme ended, many calls were received at the vestry of St. Stephen Walbrook both offering help and seeking it. Some of the callers said that they had been contemplating their last hours when they heard the broadcast by chance. Research for this feature was done by Michael Hardwick, who directed and wrote documentary and travel films. for

the New Zealand National Film Unit from 1947 to 1952. He was later on the editorial staff of Freedom, and wrote The Royal Visit to New Zealand; which is said to hold the Dominion best-selling" record for a work of nonfiction. Another young BBC writer who knows the Dominion well is W. T. Savage who, after working with the Hudson Bay Co. and trolling for salmon on the Pacific Coast of Canada, landed in New Zealand with only a _ few shillings. As waiter,’ bus conductor and postman he worked his way through the country before settling down in England to turn his varied experiences to profit.