Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 950, 25 October 1957, Page 18

Open Microphone

eV7" NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD

FrOR the performance of Gustav Holst’s suite The Planets, and other works, the National Orchestra engaged a second harpist. She is. Margaret Cardno, an English girl who, as many Aucklanders will guess, is daughter of Wilfred Cardno, project engineer for Cleveland Bridge and Dorman Long on the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Born in County Durham, Miss Cardno first studied the piano and, in 1952, won the County Music

Scholarship to the | Northern School of Music at Manchester. There she played the harp for the first time and became increasingly attracted to it. "It became my first love," said Miss Cardno. "In order to get me to play the piano at all my teachers made me give piano recitals. But I was able to study the harp, too-under Stanley Morrison and Charles Collier. Incidentally, Stanley Morrison was principal harpist in the BBC Northern Orches_tra, which was then conducted by the new conductor of the National Orchestra, John MHopkins. I often attended the orchestra’s conéerts, and have met Mr Hopkins." Four years of study in Manchester ended in

January, 1956, when Miss Cardno came out to New Zealand: It was not the first time she had gone abroad with her father, Miss Cardno said. When she was 15 she went to Portugal and lived for a time near Lisbon, where her father’s firm was building a bridge. But her stay there was only temporary. She is likely to stay far longer in New Zealand, however, for she recently became engaged to the New Zealand clarinettist Alex Aitken. « Margaret Cardno first appeared with the National Orchestra in July, 1956, when she played second harp in Brahms’s Requiem. "It was quite a surprise packet," she said, "to be called on so soon after my audition with Mr Robertson, as I had been without my harp for three months, and hadn’t had much time for practice. Later I played with the Auckland Junior Symphony Orchestra at concerts in Auckland, Whakatane and Rotorua, and then, last April I played with the National Orchestra again in its Opera Workshop."

Since leaving England two years ago Margaret Cardno has quickly settled into the New Zealand way of life. She has worked as a kindergarten teacher, joined the Auckland Choral Society and is a committee member of the Auck-

land Musical Appreciation Club. She enjoys tennis, swimming and badminton, but her chief hobby is geology. Oddly enough, her geology expeditions do not meet with the full approval of her engineer father. He objects when the weight of odd rocks in the boot exerts a cantilever effect upon his car. yi Ve

LOOKOUT SPEAKER

nm FAMILIAR voice to stay-at-homes on many Saturday nights is that of Lookout speaker R. M. Hutton-Potts, of Invercargill, Mr Hutton-Potts (the R.M., by the way, stands for Ronald Macgregor), who stayed in Wellington for a couple of days last week, described himself for The Listener then

as a born aritter 4 started work in a lawyer’s office,’ he said, "and drifted off into the

newspaper business, Krom the reportorial and editorial side I later made another drift, to the business side." Now Managing Editor of the Southland _ Daily News and Managing Director of the Southland News Company, Mr Hutton-Potts admits that outside of international affairs his main interest is earning a. living. He describes his tour of duty on the Royal Monetary Commission that sat some 18 months ago, however, as "13 months’ hard labour." Mr Hutton-Potts’s first experience of radio was as Question Master on a local discussion group. This led to other talks and they in turn to commentaries on the news. Two things he finds indispensable for the latter work are a good secretary and a first-class filing system. "If Lookout talks have any merit, it is due in the first place to the long and laborious accumulation of the basic material. I have a very thorough filing

system, and work from air-mail editions of most of the important overseas journals. This, of course, only gives me source material, some of which I may not get an opportunity to use." Because of the need for Lookout to be an _ up-to-the-minute commentary, material prepared by Saturday morning often has to be changed to include new facts. Sometimes, though luckily more rarely, one may have to do a complete re-write because of important news breaking in the 6.30 p.m. news broadcast. "Distance enables a Lookout speaker to take a bird’s-eye view, something more difficult if you were involved. The real job is to put the news into perspective against the background of past and present events, and-as far as any one man can do-to interpret it. Obviously nobody is likely to offer a worthwhile personal opinion on all the subjects that have to be dealt with in Lookout. When I broadcast I am _ not primarily offering an opinion: that only arises as an ultimate conclusion from the way the facts marshal themselves for me personally. I repeat, no" one

person knows enough to offer a final opinion." Yes, he got a number of letters from listeners, said Mr Hutton-Potts, most of which were greatly appreciated. "Some, however," he added, "lead me to the conclusion that I am lucky. to be still alive." * OLLOWING the BBC’s decision to fractionalise the Third Programme by cutting off two hours of its time, a departmental meeting at Broadcasting House amused itself by suggesting a change of name (writes Atticus in the "Sunday Times"). Easily the most popular offering: the Two-thirds Programme. * REQUEST has been received for infgmation about Janos Starker the famous cellist: Starker, who was born in Budapest in 1924, has been a master of his instrument since he was ’

14, and when at the end of World War II he toured Rumania, Austria, Switzerland and France, European critics spread his fame throughout the world. In 1948 he went to the United States as first cellist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and joined the

New York Metropolitan Opera the following year. In 1953, when the Metropolitan conductor Fritz Reiner (a fellow Hungarian) went to Chicago to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he took Starker along with him as first cellist. In May and September, 1956, ~ Starker played to London audiences, including in his programme the Prokofieff Cello Concerto, Op. 125 ©

-usually avoided by .cellists because of its extreme difficulty. It was only the second time it had been. performed. in London, and he used his Stradivarius cello, one of the largest instruments the Italian master made..Now an American citizen, Starker still works under Fritz Reiner, gives private cello lessons, and travels among community orchestras as a string consultant.