Once She Met Brahms

Radio Record, 11 March 1938, Page 9

Once She Met Brahms

Written Specially for the "Record" by

EMILE

ADIO at present has a contradictory effect on musical culture. On the one hand it has created a much larger public of listeners who are interested in music. On the other hand it tends to stifle individual music-making in the home. The real home of music is in the family, and the music that is most enjoyed by the individual is the music that he helps to make for himself. Already there are signs that people realise this, and are not content to be merely listeners, even though they may not reach great heights. After all, comparatively few cricketers or tennis players appear at Lords or Wimbledon! Bach, and other great composers, wrote much music for their own homes and their own families. These are some of the views of Mrs. Stansfeld Prior. A.R.C.M., the well-known English pianist and lecturer, President of the Society of Women Musicians in London, who is now touring New Zealand and has been heard by listeners in lecture-recitals at the stations of the NBS. HEN I asked her if she would make constructive sug gestions for assisting the growth of music in New Zealand, she said what Moiseiwitsch and other notable musi cians have told the "Record." That New Zealand should have its own orchestra of professional musicians who can give their whole time to music. "The existing orchestras are doing excellent work, bur they are handicapped by having to put their music after

their ordinary dally work." She suggested an extension of our libraries of music. "And this idea of a conserva torium," she said, "sounds perfectly splendid." "TRAVELLING through the country, Mrs. Stansfeld Prior has been struck by what is being done in New Zealand to encourage the love of good music. She was interested by the use ‘made of recordings of great music in the universities for close study. The use of the recordings could help greatly to fill the gap left by the absence of world-famous orchestras and_ string ‘quartets. Nor did she find the children neglected. In Invercargill-and they were elsewhere, too, she supposed — she found children learning in percussioti orchestras. Too young to play violins or manage wind instruments, the children are given their early training in this way. They beat percussion instruments in time. They learn ‘rhythm, HD thinks that what New Zealand ix doing on the whole is remarkable, considering our distance from Europe, but she would like to hear far less jazz recordings. ‘There is still room in New

Zealand and other countries for a larger proportion of the works of great musicians, she thinks, and less of the croonings and jazz. There is good modern music that might be better known. Much of it was experimental, but among it there was to be discovered work that was worth while and would last. "One doesn’t value the old friends less because one inakes new ones. And one may sometimes go to a new place for a holiday though one still thinks the old holiday resort the better." But though she appreciates the moderns, she still treasures the memory of her meeting with Brahms. "Though when I tell young people that I once met Brahms, they look at me with astonishment as if I must be at least a century." HE was a student then in Vienna and had an invitation to the Musik Verein, a circle or music club at which tha works of young composers were heard by distinguished musicians who gave helpful criticism and advice. That memorable night Richter, the conductor, Hanslick the critic, and Brahms were all there. At the end of the programme they gave suggestions and advice in the most friendly manner.

"Then the tables were laid with beer and sausages, and at the back of my mind I had the thought: ‘If only one might just speak to Brahms. But I was only a young music student, toa insignificant ever to speak to him. "Then the end of the evening came and we had to get our wraps. We took as long as we could. Then, down the room came Brahms, thick set, heavy in build, with a magnificent head. What arrested one was his head. He was old then, and it was not long before his death. He stopped and shook hands with us and asked if we had had 4 pleasant evening." The young music student saw him once more at a concert in Vienna. Just before the beginning of the concert the whole audience rose and one would have expected the conductor’s appearance, but ‘it was Brahms, entering as a member of the audience, while all the people whispered "Der Meister kommt’the Master comes." Years afterwards Mrs. Stansfeld Prior went back to Vienna for the Brahms Centenary. Though born in ‘Hamburg in Germany, Brahms had lived in Vienna. It was 1933, the centenary of hig birth. The music for the celebrations was played by the (Continued on page 86.)

Once She Met Brahms (Continued from page 9), Vienna orchestra, under the German conductor, Furtwangler, so that Germany could have a share. That night Dolfuss, the Austrian Chancellor was in the audience, In welcoming the distinguished guests the chairman said how pleased he was that their own Doctor Dolfuss had spared the time to conie. Only a short while after that, Dolfuss wag shot. I ASKED Mrs. Prior if the lack of folk songs native to our country was not one reason for the influx of ‘the jazz and crooning that she deplored. The old folk tunes in England, she said, were frequently being unearthed and given in new settings by modern composers. Naturally one could not expect a new country like New Zealand to have its own folk songs. "But there are signs," she said, "that New Zealand is producing musicians and composers and I believe the time is not far distant when New Zealand’s composers Will produce its own notable national music." Mrs. Stansfeld Prior leaves for England again on April 7. This is her second visit to New Zealand in three year's, I asked her would she be coming again. "That," she said, "depe ded on circumstances." "But if a definite invitation came from the Ce:.cenary in 1940," She said, "would I not try!"