THE MUSICAL CLIMATE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 944, 13 September 1957, Page 11

THE MUSICAL CLIMATE

Sir,-I have only just seen Mr Richard MHoffmann’s statement that "New Zealand audiences are sadly out of touch with the world of new music." That is certainly not true in the field of chamber music. I am enclosing some selections of programmes presented by the Federation which I hope you will be able to pass on to Mr Hoffmann before he starts giving New Zealand an undeserved reputation for ultra-conser-vative musical tastes. There is hardly a programme among them which does not prominently feature an important contemporary work. To call our audiences "largely social ones" is a complete misjudgment of our musical public, and shows a surprising lack of insight in one of whom one would expect at least some feeling for New Zealand’s musical temper. After listening to music in many places overseas, I have found our audiences, on the whole, far more venturesome in the exploration of new fields of musical enjoyment than their counterpart in some old-established centres of culture, such as Italy or France or even England. The recent outstanding success of the Parrenin Quartet, specialists par

excellence in contemporary music, proves precisely Mr Hoffmann’s point that "New Zealand is a young country which should be receptive of new ideas." It is. : I agree with Mr Hoffmann’s complaint about the "unimaginative programmes given here by famous concert artists from overseas," but. the reason for these is not what he supposes. Some famous artists have no imaginative programmes in their repertoire because they find the demand for them negligible elsewhere. But in most instances we have their concert management to blame, which does not know its own public and misleads the artist into believing the sort of misconception which Mr Hoffmann appears to hold.

F.

TURNOVSKY

President, N.Z. Federation of Chamber Music Societies. a, The programmes have been forwarded.9)