Christmas Music In California Diverse

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28490, 21 January 1958, Page 2

Christmas Music In California Diverse

I “The Christmas musical fare in California has wide diversity. Although it is possible to hear several versions of ‘The Messiah,’ these are more the prerogative of parish church choirs than the larger groups which flourish in the universities, the convervatoria and the teachers’ colleges,” writes Miss Margaret Nielsen from America. She is a graduate in music from the University of Canterbury, who is on a Government bursary to study composition and pianoforte at the Mills College Graduate School, California. 1 “Benjamin Britten’s ‘St. Nicholas’ and his ‘Ceremony of Carols,’ .Honegger’s ‘Christmas Cantata’ and Vaughan Williams’s ‘Fantasia' all are given a good airing by a variety of choral'groups to audiences which are invariably large. Americans certainly enjoy the Christmas season and they exploit its posibilities in the artistic field to the full.

I “Only a few weeks before, they : had feasted to celebrate Thanksgiving Week-end, a few days devoted to family reunions and the expression of gratitude for past .'blessings—which in pioneer days lon the other coast meant a great deal. For all the emphasis placed on this purely American phenomenon, Christmas nevertheless Stakes pride of place. So far as ’university study is concerned, it iis a welcome break before we end the first of the two semesters • which comprise the full year’s i work. Living Music “Mills College is becoming an : accepted paft of my life. Its ‘congenial surroundings are idea] I for study and its music staff impress me more and more as time goes on. More than anything else, they stand for living music, and without talking much about it, it is easy to see that my piano teacher, Bernhard Abrahamowitsch, is happier when he feels that a student is prepared to work hard at a living composer’s music than a dead one’s. Not that he despised the accepted masters of the past But he stands for an attitude which accepts the performer’s responsibility to his fellow-composer. “This same attitude is apparent in the best outside organisations. The San Francisco Orchestra is this year commissioning an impressive array of new compositions by composers from near and far. An extensive one-month festival has been organised for April at the University of California. Sir Arthur Bliss | “Among the composers who are i writing new works for the festival lis Sir Arthur Bliss, Master of the Queen’s Music. He will come to Oakland for the first performance, but this will not be his first visit. Sir Arthur Bliss was on the staff at Mills College many years ago—in fact he lived in thte area for a period. -T , z . I “The more I meet people here, I' the more I am bewildered by the number of interesting figures of international significance who call (or have called) this home. Jack London was an Oaklander, C. S Forester resides on the slopes over-looking the harbour of San Francisco, Darius Milhaud and Egon Petri will soon return from visits abroad to the campus at Mills College. “I still find myself intrigued by unexpected gadgets. The warm air which blows one’s hand dry

after washing, worked electronically when the hands are placed between the two nozzles, is my most recent discovery. To find out the time, one rings a certain number and a ‘cute’ feminine voice responds immediately. To my hosts’ great amusement I thanked this young lady before hanging up. They informed me that it was a recorded voice which is ‘on tap’ 24 hours of the day. “On the subject of time, it is interesting to observe certain habits which one soon learns to understand and even imitate. Whereas in New Zealand we say, ‘Ten to four,’ the American says, ‘Ten of four;’ we say ‘Twenty past five,’ he says ‘Twenty after five.’ And they date their letters the wrong way round: 10.8.57 means October 8, not August 10 “By now the sputnik terror has subsided. Not that it ever existed outside the newspapers. On university campuses, to judge by Mills, the prevalent opinion was one of disdain at the childish hysteria which characterised much of the journalism. Musical Thrills “Two real musical thrills have been my lot recently. A violin recital by Ruggiero Ricci, sponsored by the Oakland Civic Music Association, was the first. This was something I shall always remember. Every work on the programme held untold delights. Ricci’s breathtaking technique was only one aspect of it. Gorgeous tone and a wonderfully imaginative approach to each composition, from Handel to Prokofieff, resulted in a delightful evening. “Then there was the performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto by Robert Casadesus with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Every note, every phrase, as well as the whole conception, from soloist and orchestra, represented a perfectionist attitude.

“Alfred Deller, the English counter-tenor, has been on tour in these parts. He and his colleagues completely enchanted a large audience at the University of California. It seems that many of his compatriots come to the United States to be appreciated. There is a surprising number who spend more than half the concert season away from home. In the northern hemisphere this season is much more specific than it is in New Zealand. Mid-November till May covers it,” Miss Nielsen says.