THE WEEK’S RADIO Practising The Piano

Press, Volume C, Issue 29616, 12 September 1961, Page 8

THE WEEK’S RADIO Practising The Piano

Concert pianists are often asked: “Do you still have to practise?” “Yes,” says Denis Matthews in this month’s edition of “Talking About Music,” from 3YC at 7.30 tomorrow night. Hb practises for anything from four to seven hours a day. Paderewski at the height of his career spent up to 17 hours a day at the keyboard.

"But it’s not the number of hours that matters,” says Denis Matthews. “It’s the way they are used. Lots of pianists are simply wearing out their pianos for nothing.” To amateur and professional alike, he offers some sound, first-hand advice based on the way he spends his own time at practice. He hangs up a few of his favourite “mottos for the walls of pianists’ minds” and demonstrates how he solves some specific technical problems of the concert repertoire. Another speaker in the programme is Rudolf Offenbach, who was Covent Garden’s prompter for a number of Wagner seasons. He took the job at short notice, with little knowledge of what it entailed. Some of his more nerve-wracking experiences are described in the programme, including the night Kirsten Flagstad had a memory blackout in “Die Walkure.” The third speaker is Todd Matshikiza. the composer of the African musical. King Kong, This musical born in Johannesburg amid the beat of township jazz, had a notable success in London. It is the story of a boxer, “a big, gorilla-sized creature.” With illustrations from the musical, Todd Matchikiza describes how it came into being, and explains some of the complex African rhythms that gave it inspiration? Cathedral Music At 9.45 p.m. on Monday 3YC will broadcast the first of four programmes entitled "With Heart and Voice.” which give some idea of the style, range and performance of English cathedral music during the last 500 years. The series is devised and introduced by Watkins Shaw, one of Britain’s foremost authorities on religious music. The first programme deals with the music of the 16th century and goes through the reign of Elizabeth I to that of James I. Thomas Tallis. William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons are the kev figures whose compositions are performed by the choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral. In the second programme a string ensemble joins the Manchester Cathedral Choir to give some idea of the music being composed for the church in the last 30 years of the 17th century, with examples bv Purcell. John Blow and Pelham Hum. frey. The use of an organ gives the listener an authentic idea of the sound and balance of the music of the 18th century in the third programme. which was recorded in Salisbury Cathedral. William Boyce and Maurice

Greene arf the great names here, but there are also interesting anthems by James Nares and Jonathan BattishiU. The final programme covers the last 100 years and was recorded in York Minster. Wesley represents the mid-Victorian era. Stanford the turn of the century and Herbert Howells and Francis Jackson the present day. Aspects Of Science "Two Aspects of Science" (3YC, 9.30 p.m. tomorrow) is a shortened version of Sir George Thompson’s presidential address to the British Association for the Advancement of science. The two' aspects of science he discusses are the way in which it can increase man’s control •over nature and the scientific approach to man’s efforts to understand the nature of things. Sir George Thompson is emeritus professor of physics at London University. /V.Z. Man's Play The radio play, "Low Voice in Rama,” which will be heard from the ZBs at 9.16 pan. on Sunday, was written for the 8.8. C. by Bruce Stewart, a New Zealand actor and writer who is now living in England. The N.Z.B.S. has broadcast several of his plays in recent years and "Low Voice in Raima” is an N.Z.B.S. production by Earle Rowell. A powerful play with a basically religious theme, it concerns the discovery of a missing plane in the Australian desert. The only survivor is the pilot, Squadron-Leader Strachan. Two of his crew have been killed in the crash, one of the passengers has been shot and the others have died of thirst, in spite of the feet that Strachan himself still has some food and water left. He is examined by a court of inquiry, and in a series of interrogations and flashbacks the true story is revealed. ‘ Clemence Dane’s play. “Eighty in the Shade,” which listeners will hear in a radio version from 3A at 7.30 tonight, was written specially for Dame Sybil Thorndike. It was first produced in London in 1959. An 80-year-oid actress, Dame Sophia Carrell, is celebrating her birthday. Her son, from whom sihe has been estranged, comes home from Sicily where he has been living as a writer. He is distressed to find that his mother is completely dominated by her daughter. Dame Sophia now finds herself divided between love for son and daughter and her solution of the problem is a tragi-comic one.