Annotations of Annabel

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 16, 2 November 1928, Page 13

Annotations of Annabel

DZD =@AREST : Labour Day, 4.30 p.m., on the ‘top ‘ofthe Packakariki Hill of Difficulty, was of a beauty the memory of which will gild many triste hours of doubt or disaster. Wide expanse of water Pasting in the glow and glitter of New Zealand atmosphere at its best and brightést, the far line of horizon quivering into radiant vapour where it met the vanishing point of the glint of sunlight on the sea, that unblazed trail which leads, perchance, to some island of the blessed or twilight of the gods. LL this, and more also, to be observed at leisure by those who had eyes to see, as the long line of motor-cars queued up, tightly wedged into tricky procession, impatiently awaiting pleasure of debonair driver of a huge lorry which, laden with sacks bulging and bulky enough to have been looted from the eave of Ali Baba, had chosen this untoward hour to block the path of progress, and proved as difficult to dodge as a doubtful past or the butcher’s bill. When at long last our turn came, the indolent Jehu smiled derisively at our headlong effort, on apparently only one wheel, to reach the other side of the hill, which, but for ‘Richard’s admirable handling of the ear, might well have proved the other side of Jordan. | ANY waters cannot quench love. Are we not assured of it in Holy Writ; and we hear much of the

emotion from our youth up, particularly, perhaps, in the sweet and twenties. Now comes a play, "Many Waters,"’ the plot hinging upon the love of a man and his maid, belonging to the "working class," as it is termed, an arbitrary distinction in these turbulent days when the old order has changed and all sorts and conditions struggle for a living. Introducing in the first Act a middle-aged couple, the action is switched back to the nineties, and they are shown in their courting days, clad in the droll fashion of that sartorially inartistic period. After marriage in 2 registry office-in which officers, witnesses and whole entourage are capitally presented-there comes the "everydayness of this workday world"; domestie tribulation, loss of money, as vulgar and precious a possession to one class as another. A cherished daughter finds herself "in trouble," and by quietly dying, finally and irretrievably cuts the Gordian knot created by her lapse from the conventional. Plodding on, we come upon the elderly lovers as they appear in the opening of the play. cheerful, unself-conscious, choosing a little musical comedy to enliven what they regard as a humdrum life, not realising that their history holds those elemental forces of comedy, tragedy. mirth and courage that down the ages

have proved the inspiration of painter and poet. [NTERESTING to hear that the Hawthorndale prize for the best imaginative work during the past twelve months was awarded to Henry Williamson for "Taris the Otter.’ One remembers with delight this author’s tender delight in England’s loveliness and the shy woodland ways of. birds and beasts, the sympathy and beauty of his analysis of the outlook of a child in that revealing book, "The Beautiful Years." So that one finds him a fit compeer of Mr. Sean O’Casey With his "‘Juno and the Paycock," and Mr. R. H. Mottram with that great study of French character in war-time, "The Spanish Farm’; both of them Winners of the coveted honour, which has been existent since 1919 and is open to anyone up to forty years of age. WITH the accomplished and _ cosmopolitan Francesca, I found myself at the recital given by Miss Vera Moore in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall, where the audience, made up of the musically elect of Wellington, accorded the artist an extremely sympathetic and receptive hearing.

CLAD in flowing rose-coloured draperies, fresh from triumphant experience in her own hown town, the artistic Edinburgh of our Dominion, Miss Moore appeared a mere slip of a girl, with a retiring manner and entire absence of self-consciousness, Her art is virile, intellectual, of intuitive comprehension and accomplishment, and alike attuned to Debussy’s most captivating theme and the extraordinary range and brilliance of the Schubert Sonata in A minor. RREVERENT interpretation and ability to convey their majestic beauty and devotional spirit marked the pianist’s rendering of two Bach Chorales, forerunners of our hymn tunes, and arranged by Leonard Borwick, at one time Miss Moore’s teacher, who did much to encourage and foster the talent of this brilliant girl. Francesca, critical and knowledgable in matters musical, liked best the Chopin Etudes and group of old-world studies, played with amazing balance, clarity and technique; while, for my part, I found entrancing Ravel’s "Barque sur Ocean," which seemed to envision in sound a light, bright painting of the modern school, instinct with glinting shadows, movement and sunlight shot with gold. welded into a vivid, impressionistic whole. Your

ANNABEL

LEE