SPRING OFFERING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 943, 6 September 1957, Page 6

SPRING OFFERING

Next week Spring will be on as well as in the air. September 9-15 is this year’s Spring Week in broadcasting and numerous programmes appropriate to the season have been prepared.

OW that the "year’s pleasant king" (as Thomas Nashe once called the springtime) is returning to his throne, the NZBS is willingly offering such acclamation and rejoicing as befits a festival. Even if the rites of winter are still being performed on the now well-muddied fields, in other less trampled grounds the bulbs are flowing round the newly-calloused gardeners; and in the suburbs houseproud wives are beginning to push furniture and husbands around in the annual outbreak of spring-cleaning. However, when the victims of spring’s feverish activity collapse to rest or seek shelter from the not-yet-balmy breezes and the not-quite-departed showers, they need not lose Spring’s cheerful atmosphere. The programmes for -the next week, September 9-15, are positively blossoming with spring ‘sessions in almost all departments, as well as a few extra-ordinary efforts for the occasion. One of these is by that man of all trades, Bruce Mason. On the Wednesday night from the YAs, 3YZ and 4YZ, he will present his own seasonal salute with another intimate revue, Rights of Spring. The friends of Herr Professor Eusebius Apfel-Strudel will be pleased to hear that the on-the-spot diagnosis at his last lecture proved premature, and that the Professor recovered some 20 minutes later and is now in excellent health. Although he is extremely busy with his plans for the opening of his Academy of Phonetics, he was delighted to be asked to take part in the revue and has promised to deliver his "Ode to Spring." Mr Mason informs us that Brumasson, the French singer, has had to return to Paris, where he has a very full round of engagements. However, another distinguished visitor has arrived, the American musicologist Duke J. Mangel-Wurzell, who will give his musical impressions of spring. The official view will be taken by the Hon. Mark Hanniford, Minister of Weather and Seasonal Changes, who will tell listeners what changes may be expected to eventuate in the forthcoming months. One person who has already been affected by the season is Noddy, who has felt the sap rising even to his little wooden head, causing all sorts of complications. Several typical New Zealanders are also interviewed, and finally -so that everyone may have a fair go, Mr Mason introduces to the microphone a misanthropist who prefers to remain anonymous, and who tells us just what he thinks about the whole paraphernalia of the seasons.

Fortunately misanthropists do not write all the verse on spring, and from poems written in several centuries and countries a New Zealand poet has chosen a garland for spring for the YC link and the blossoms change with the hemispheres, but the poems. all show the response to the changing seasons. Poetry also forms the basis for the first serious spring music, when the YCs on Monday night will- broadcast (at 7.30 p.m.) a recording of the Wellington Scholae Cantorum, conducted by Stanley Oliver, singing Songs of Springtime, a

setting by the English composer E. J. Moeran of some Elizabethan poems. These are to be followed by the National Orchestra’s own Spring Music programme conducted by James Robertson. The soloist here will be the Australian violinist Ronald’ Woodcock, in ‘the Spring Concerto from the Four Seasons Concerti by Vivaldi. Other works to be heard are by Butterwerth, Delius and Dvorak. On Tuesday the YCs will present a recital of songs of spring sung by the soprano Anita Ritchie, with Margaret Nielsen at the piano, while in a lighter vein are the piano pieces and ballads about spring which the YA and 4YZ stations will play on Sunday at 8.15 p.m. On Sunday afternoon at 2.0 p.m. the YAs, 3YZ and 4YZ will present Schumann’s Spring Symphony. Two talks this week with a seasonal bias are Festival of Spring, a CBC programme on the history and folklore of the sugar maple (YAs, 3YZ and 4YZ, at 4.30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon). In this Asquith Thomson presents a picture of a country town in spring, and the comments of some of the inhabitants-a farmer, a crusty Scotsman, an old lady and a schoolteacher. Since spring traditionally has a strong effect on the fancies of young men, it is not surprising that the week’s new drama has romance as its theme, with comedy and intrigue in the develop-

ment. On Monday night the YAs and 4YZ bring Spring Meeting, a gay comedy about a mad Irish family who breed racehorses and live in shabby splendour, with eccentric servants and antiquated plumbing. The eldest daughter succeeds in marrying a young vet. and the youngest captures a most presentable young man in spite of their irascible father. The YC play for the week is another tale of wealth and wiving, The

Beaux’ Stratagem. In this Restoration comedy by George Farquhar, two impoverished gentlemen set out to snare wealthy wives, while two suitably endowed young ladies find country life and husbands exceedingly dull. Complications set in with the roguish activities of the innkeeper, but with the help of his fair daughter love conquers again. Roy Leywood produced both these plays for the NZBS.

Glamorous Night set the seal on Ivor Novello’s fame as a composer of light music when it was first performed on May 2, 1935, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It was a huge, spectacular production -the first of three which carried Novello to the peak of his success. For all that it was not modern. Glamorous Night gently tugs at the heart strings-is sentimental with a little drama thrown in to keep the plot alive. The setting is Krasnia, a mythical European State ruled by the weak King Stefan. The Prime Minister (Lydyeff) seeks to remove Stefan from the throne but is thwarted by Militza, the prima donna who is_ singing "Glamorous Night" at the Opera House. Militza, who is the idol of the populace, is the _ real power behind the throne, but Lydyeff is foiled in an attempt to kill her by a young English tourist, Anthony Allen. Forced to flee, Anthony and Militza fall briefly in love, and plot to free King Stefan by raising the loyal peas-

antry against the tyrant. This they do. In a touching finale, Militza elects to remain with Stefan, and Anthony, who is about to return to England, is rewarded for his heroism. Throughout the plot Novello has woven an intricate web of music which supplements and illustrates each situation as it arises. The music ranges

from stirring choruses to sweet love songs, from the Krasnian National Anthem to the Tzigane music of the peasantry. Pamela Woolmore sings the role of Militza, which is spoken by Rosemary Robertson, and Laurence Hepworth plays the non-singing role of Anthony Allen. Lorenti, Militza’s leading man at the Opera House, is sung by Andrew

Gold and spoken by Robert Newman; and the part of Cleo is sung by Ivy Davis and spoken by Noeline Pritchard. Lydyeff is played by Barry Linehan and Stefan by Athol Coates. The music was directed by Oswald Cheesman, assisted by the conductor of the Minstrels, Harry Woolly.