Varied Proms Programmes

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29112, 26 January 1960, Page 9

Varied Proms Programmes

The programmes chosen for the three promenade concerts by the National Orchestra at the Civic Theatre on February 3,4, and 5 are in the' proms tradition of a mixture of light, bright music and great classics of the orchestral repertoire. The first concert will open with Weber’s stirring “Oberon” Overture, and includes the rhythmic and vital “Gayaneh” Ballet Suite by Khachaturian, Beethoven’s great Symphony No. 5 and “Cotib Ion,” a suite of old English dance tunes arranged by the Australian composer, Arthur Benjamin. Soloist in this concert will be Christchurch pianist, Maurice Till, . well-known as concert pianist and accompanist, who will olay Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which features some of the composer’s most brilliant writing for the piano. Soloist in the second concert will be the Dunedin soprano, Vincente Major, who sang the title role of “Madame Butterfly” in the New Zealand Opera Company’s production last year. A programme of largely operatic and ballet music has been built around the arias she v<i]l sing, amongst them “Vissi d’Arte” from “Tosca,” and arias from “Oberon” by Weber.

Other favourites on this programme are “The Ride of the Valkyries,” Polka and Fugue from “Schwanda the Bagpiper,” selections from “Aida,” the Dream Pantomime from Humperdinck’s charming opera, “Hansel and Gretel,” the “Sylvia” Ballet Suite, Rossini's spirited “Cinderella” Overture, and Johann Strauss's lilting “Accelerations” Waltz. The final concert features two extremely popular works— Tchaikovsky’s colourful “Nutcracker” Suite and an exciting orchestral arrangement of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, Haydn’s Symphony No. 88, and Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto are the major works in this programme. Peter Cooper, the New Zealand-born pianist who has made his home and a successful career in England, will be the soloist in the concert. Two items of particular interest in this programme are “Australia Mysterious and Beautiful” and “The Aborigines,” movements from a symphony by Alfred Hill. To open the concert is Handel’s D minor overture, in an arrangement by Elgar. Guest conductor for this year’s proms concerts in Christchurch is Joseph Post, Assistant Director of Music for the Australian Broadcasting Commission and one of Australia’s leading conductors.

Since joining the commission in 1933, Joseph Post has conducted all the A.B.C. orchestras and choirs, and from 1947 until he took up his present appointment in 1957, he was associate conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In January of last year he made his first television appearance, conducting the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In the

same month he also completed a series of open-air concerts with the same orchestra. Joseph Post is a graduate and former professor of piano and oboe at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, where he won a scholarship at the age of nine. His early experience in conducting was with church choirs and a chamber orchestra he founded- at the conservatorium. In opera his experience goes back to 1924, when, at 18, he played the oboe in a grand opera season headed by Dame Nellie Melba.

In 1932, when only 26, he was engaed as conductor with an international opera company brought out to Australia by J. C. Williamson’s. He has since conducted many operas for the Fuller Grand Opera Company, for the Australian National Opera Company, and in 1956 an outstanding Mozart season for the Elizabethan Trust Opera Company,