LENINGRAD via HOLLYWOOD BOWL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1052, 23 October 1959, Page 4

LENINGRAD via HOLLYWOOD BOWL

"|. SEEM to have bits of paper in all of my pockets these days," said John Hopkins, conductor of the National Orchestra, when The Listener saw him recently. Carefully transferring a vagrant document to his already bulging passport he told us that fairly soon he hoped to spend a few hours lying on a beach at Honolulu, one of the only rests he will get on his coming overseas tour. "TI leave by air for San Francisco on November 3, stopping briefly at Honolulu, on the way. I will be spending about a fortnight in the States as an exchange visitor, at the invitation of the U.S. Government-the idea is that they will look after me for fourteen days, and see that I meet whoever I want to within that period. It’s all arranged by the State Department and at this stage it looks as though I am in for a-hectic fortnight." He hoped to visit four of the main colleges of music while in America said Mr Hopkins-the Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music at Rochester, New York; Mills College in California, and the Curtis Institute at Philadelphia. "IT want to visit these places because much of the work they do and the way they go about it is relevant to any future establishment of a conservatorium of music here in New Zealand. There will also be many things to interest the Bursary Committee, of which I am a member." He also hoped ta meet the conductors and people on the concert management side of some of the American orchestras, said Mr Hopkins, "to find out their approach to some of the problems which beset all orchestras"; and to visit some of the opera organisations-from the Met. in New York to some of the "opera workshops" which are a feature modern operatic development in America. "I hope to pay a visit to the Hollywood Bowl-the State Department think that they can arrange for me to go out there with the sound engineers-to learn something of the techniques they have developed for presenting orchestral concerts in the open air. This will, of course; bear on similar concerts held in New Zealand, such as those at the Brooklands Bowl in New Plymouth." Later in November he would fly to London, said Mr Hopkins. After seeing a number of people there on musical matters, he hoped to be able to take a brief holiday to see his father and rf -)

mother, as well as his wife and children who will have been back then for some time. "On December 12 I am to conduct the London Philharmonic in a concert at the Festival Hall. The programmethe Overture to The Bartered Bride, Ein Kleine Nacht Musick, Beethoven’s Emperor and Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony — is rather conservative, but that is the general pattern over there these days. It is not the agents’ fault; experience has taught them to be cautious. By contrast, this shows how we in New Zealand are striding ahead — we are able to cover a very wide repertoire." Soon after this concert he would go on to France and Belgium, then to Czechoslovakia by the end of December, said Mr Hopkins. He was to conduct four or five concerts in the latter country, but only two dates were final as yet. These were for January

7 and 8, when he would conduct the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra in Bratislava.

"Karel Ancerl tells me that this or-chestra-the same size incidentally as the Czech Philharmonic-is a very fine

one. The programmes for these concerts are not decided yet, but I am hoping to play Douglas Lilburn’s Festival Overture as well as some English music. "After Czechoslovakia, my next stop is Austria. I have no conducting engagements fixed there-though some are under negotiation-but at any rate I would like to hear some music there as well as visit music schools in Vienna." By about January 20 he would be back in England, where he has to conduct four concerts, three with the BBC, and another concert with the London Philharmonic, said Mr Hopkins. The BBC concerts, which would be broadcast, not public, would include a lot of New Zealand music. "About February 4 I will be off again -this time to Russia. I have not yet heard officially which orchestra I am to conduct there-though the Leningrad Philharmonic has been mentioned-nor do I know the programmes, but I hope to play some Lilburn there also-and English music. After that I will be coming straight back here to conduct the Auckland series of prom. concerts." The conductor for most of the 1960 prom. season-who will appear with the National Orchestra in Dunedin, Invercargill, Christchurch and Wellingtonis the ABC’s Assistant Director of Music, Joseph Post. Before his appointment to this position, Joseph Post was Associate Conductor (under Sir Eugene Goossens) of the» Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He has twenty-five years’ experience as a conductor behind him and has conducted various overseas orchestras, including the BBC and the Halle.