LECTURE-CONCERTS PROPOSED

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22343, 5 March 1938, Page 12

LECTURE-CONCERTS PROPOSED

The N.B.S. Hoard Now then (a statesman's words here borrowed for their effectiveness), this is where the National Broadcasting Service comes in. Everybody knows it is hoarding a considerable portion of the listeners' licence fees in Wellington for that conservatorium of music and the spoken arts, the ultimate objective of which is to provide home-grown artists and raise the Dominions musical and other cultural standards. There are not many gifts a child should be more grateful for than an understanding and appreciation of the best orchestral music, and I don't see why the National Broadcasting Service should not ferret into its sock, and finance the whole of Mr de Mauny's excellent scheme. Further, there is no reason why the number of these lec-ture-concerts should be limited to three. If one assumes that 500 children attend each of the concerts, the probability is that 50 may have the rich and glorious world of orchestral music opened to them; that would be a fair enough return for £2OO or £3OO. A hundred times more than that is spent each year in attempting to persuade children to read the best in English literature, and I suppose any English teacher is pretty well satisfied if one pupil in 10 of his .pupils gets the right idea. Every argument supports Mr de Mauny's proposal, and the National Broadcasting Service could arrange to have the concerts broadcast through the chief stations. One feels sure that the National Commercial Broadcasting Service would have the enterprise to sponsor the plan were it not unhappily designed merely to improve the taste of the young. However, there it is. I can say nothing more in support of something that carries its own self-evident recommendation. The Cresswell Brothers Mr Douglas Cresswell, whose talks on Canterbury stations and other subjects were among the best things of their kind ever broadcast from 3A, has been engaged by the National Broadcasting Service to give a series of talks in the North Island. That is a well-deserved tribute to his radio talent. Mr Cresswell is among the very few who seem to have studied the construction of radio talks, and I think he has been the most successful so far in devising a distinctly personal form." He is a brother of Mr D'Arcy Cresswell, whose readings with musical interludes are still the Friday night feature at IYA. The Cresswell family is certainly giving good service to New Zealand broadcasting. , A Maori Concert After hearing the broadcast of the Maori concert given as part of the Catholic centenary celebrations in Auckland on Tuesday evening, I, for one. had the feeling that such Maori combinations might be heard more often from National stations. The "Wheresmummers," of course, run a number of Maori features, but there's no reason why the Shelley gang should not fol.ow them. Maori voices are always pleasant to hear, even though production may not always be perfect; and then there is always such naturalness in Maori metholis. Ham-stringing formality is ever absent from their concerts. From the comments of the Auckland announcers on Tuesday, it was obvious that the overseas visitors on this occasion were thoroughly enjoying the entertainment,. and the special kind of pleasure the Maoris provide could be given more frequently to listeners by the NationalBroadcasting Service. First "Whirligig" Talk The "Whirligig of Time" series of talks was satisfactorily inaugurated on Wednesday from 3YA by Mr G. T. J. Wilson, who contrived successfully to reduce a great amount of learning to simple terms when he spoke on '.'The Place of Personality in History." He had an enormous field to cover, and how he did so much in so short a time is merelv a tribute to his ingenuity in condensation. His manner was pleasL antte forthright; it is to be. hoped

that he will be heard on the air again. Ziegeuner Trio The Ziegeuner Trio, consisting of Henri Penn (pianist), Philip Cohen (violinist), and David Sisserman ('cellist), made their bow at 3YA on Wednesday with Beethoven's "Trio Op. 97" (the "Archduke"). This should be fairly well known to listeners in recorded form, and it can be said in praise of the Ziegeuner Trio that its playing did not suffer in comparison with that of the world's best. The pianist, of course, did not have the sharpness and limpidity of Cortot, but the performance as a whole was excellent. They will be heard next in a Tschaikowsky programme from Wellington on Tuesday evening. Coming Featuers There are two items to be noted for the coming week. Miss Fay Compton, the English actress, will broadcast through all the National staions on Mondny evening at 6.30. On the same evening 4YA will put on a studio presentation of J. B. Priestley's play, "Laburnum, Grove."