Itinerary Of Stravinsky “Disappointing”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29623, 20 September 1961, Page 14

Itinerary Of Stravinsky “Disappointing”

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, Sept. 19. Dunedin music lovers expressed disappointment today that the 79-year-old composer, Igor Stravinsky, would not conduct the National Orchestra in any performances of his works in the South Island. Stravinsky will be guest conductor of the orchestra in Auckland on November 14 and in Wellington on November 18.

Karel Ancerl, the artistic director of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, which toured New Zealand in 1959, will return to be guest conductor of the National Orchestra in four concerts this month, all of them in the North Island. Professor Peter Platt, head of the department of music, University of Otago, said he was “very disappointed” Stravinsky was not coming to the South Island. “I would have thought there would be plenty of people in Christchurch and Dunedin who would go to hear and see such an international figure,” he said. Director’s Comments Commenting on the Dunedin . disappointment today, the Director of Broadcasting (Mr J. H, Schroder) said Stravinsky would be in New Zealand for only a very short time, and he was an old man. It would be inconsiderate to Stravinsky to expect him to travel too great a distance. It took a great deal of time and expense to move the orchestra from one place to another. “Christchurch is out because there is no hall there large enough, to carry the costs of a concert,” said Mr Schroder.

Dunedin was in “the happy position” of having a big hall, but “to our great regret” a concert could not be arranged. “Similar reasons” were involved in the arrange-

ments for Ancerl to conduct concerts only in Auckland and Wellington, said Mr Schroder. He had exhaustively summarised 10 years’ history of New Zealand Broadcasting Society concerts and found Dunedin and Christchurch were in fact “very liberally treated ” There were very few differences between the treatment of both islands. “Hardly any artists worked the North Island only,” said Mr Schroder.