Concerts from Caves

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 17, 8 November 1929, Page 6

Concerts from Caves

Italian Experiments UST about the same time that 1YA was relaying a concert from Waitomo Caves, the Italian broadcasting authorities were carrying out concert relays from similar grottos. The writer of notes in "World Radio," under date September 18, thus comments on the Italian tests :- "Seeing the great care which is taken in the building of the modern studio with a view to securing the best possible quality in acoustics, it is somewhat surprising to find high-class symphony concerts being broadcast from a eave. Yet, I see that,in the grottos of Posthumia (in the Province of Trieste), a series of such concerts is taking place at the present time. An orchestra of one hundred and twenty members, under the direction of Signor Pietro Maseagni, is apparently the mainstay of these concerts, which are obviously much more than a mere stunt. The largest of the grottos holds no fewer than seven thousand" persons. Presumably this is not counting those who may elect to hang from the stalactites, or sit with tentacles on the stalagmites. Although I understand that the Halian Broadcasting Company has obtained permission to relay these concerts through Milan and Turin, it may be that the technical difficulties of relaying successfully from such a_ studio will prove insuperable, but otherwise the concert should certainly be worth hearing, if only for the interest of conjuring up in the mind the place from which it originates." .