THE WEEK’S RADIO 17th And 20th-Century Choral Masterworks

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29906, 21 August 1962, Page 16

THE WEEK’S RADIO 17th And 20th-Century Choral Masterworks

This week 3YC will broadcast two large-scale pieces of church music which are both reckoned as standing among their composers’ masterpieces, although one is 352 years old and the other only a few weeks.

Most persons who know Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 know the work as a vast oddly-arranged mixture of liturgical pieces and solo cantatas of a decidedly operatic nature. Monteverdi did not intend the work to make this impression and he was very careful to state on the title page of the collection that there were three distinct divisions—a six-part Mass, the Vespers “to be sung by many musicians" and “a few sacred pieces intended for princely chapels and apartments.” Until recently editors have combined the princely pieces with the true Vespers, alternating the two groups. However, the young English musicologist and critic, Denis Stevens, has brought out an edition which restores the true shape of the Vespers, and this edition was used in a performance recorded in Westminster Abbey by the 8.8. C., which will be heard from 3YC at 9 pm tonight In this form the great work is smaller but more meaningful in construction, and is still full of marvellous contrasts. Denis Stevens himself conducts the Ambrosian Singers and the Philomusica of London.

Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, the other big church work this week, was written for the opening of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral a couple of months ago and it was immediately acclaimed as a great work, fit to be placed with the Requiems of Mozart, Berlioz and Verdi Even so level-headed a critic as David Drew in the “New Statesman," confessed that more than a week after the premiere the overwhelming subjective impression of the work was still with him to such an extent that he found it hard to consider it objectively. “The War Requiem is in every sense a consummation, a Chapel of Unity which should embrace every race and creed.” he wrote “If our post-Hiroshima age had produced no other major work of art, it would assuredly be remembered for this one.”

On Sunday at 8.35 p m., the YC stations will broadcast a 8.8 C recording of the premiere in the new cathedral of the War Requiem The work is conducted by Meredith Davies and Britten himself and the vocal soloists are Heather Harper (soprano), Peter Pears (tenor) and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone).

New Debussy Discs

John Gray is devoting most of his "New Records" session tonight (YC's. 8 p.m.) to music by the great French composer First there will be his Cello Sonata, one of the ventures into classical form that Debussy made towards the end of his life This work is played by the great Russian cellist Rostropovich, with Benjamin Britten at the piano Debussy's songs need an interpreter of rare intelligence and sensibility and one of the very few singers to meet these demands in recent times has been the French baritone. Gerard Souzay. He will be heard singing eight songs, accompanied by Dalton Baldwin. from a new Debussy recital which several overseas critics have hailed as Souzay's greatest achievement. Most of the songs are settings of poems by Verlaine, including the first set of "Fetes Galantes." The Debussy group will end with the Petite Suite, played by the Suisse Romande Orchestra under the direction of Ernest Ansermet. This very early work was written for two pianos and was orchestrated by the composer’s friend. Hendri Busser The programme ends with Joan Sutherland singing the aria "Perche non ho de' vento,” from Donizetti's forgotten opera, Rosamonda d’lnghilterra” (Rosamund of England).

Pianists Of Past This week 3YC will broadcast two programmes of recordings made up to 39 years ago by famous pianists of earlier eras. Tonight at 7 p.m. listeners will hear Paderewski playing his inevitable Minuet in G, Vladimir de Pachmann playing Chopin’s Impromptu in F-sharp. 0p.36. Harold Bauer playing a Liszt Etude in D-flat, and Sergei Rachmaninov playing four pieces from Schumann’s “Carnaval.” Neither Paderewski nor Rachmaninov needs introduction, but younger listeners may not know of the picturesque Russian, de Pachmann (1848-1933), who often kept up a running commentary (in several languages! on his playing. This 1923 recording is relatively straightforward. however The English-born Bauer (1873-1951) trained at first as a violinist and toured England in that capacity for nine years until 1892, when Paderewski persuaded him to devote himself entirely to the piano.

Bauer will be heard also in the second programme (7 p.m., Thursday) with Ossip Gabrilowitsch (1878-1936) in

their classic 1929 recording of the Walts from Arensky's Suite. Op. 15. Gabrilowitach, a Russian, studied with Anton Rubenstein. He later went to America, where he married Mark Twain's daughter. Clara. She was a contralto and they gave many joint recitals. He was also widely active as a conductor. Another from the distant past is Moritz Rosenthal (18621941). a Polish-born pupil of Liszt who was one of the greatest pianists of his generation. He was 80 w’hen he made this recording of Liszt's Chant Polonais No. 5. Joseph Lhevinne (1874-19441 will be heard giving his famous performance of the Schulz-Evler transcription of ''The Blue Danube." and Mischa Levitzki (1898-1941) plays his own Arabesque Valsante. He was a pupil of Dohnanyi. The remaining pianist. William Kapell. would still be at the height of his career today had he not been killed in a plane crash in 1953. He plays Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 11 in A minor.

Russian Songs Because of the language problem the extensive literature of Russian song is little known to Western listeners. Tchaikovsky and Glinka, for instance, both wrote large numbers of songs and some of them may be heard from 3YC at 9 p.m. on Saturday, sung by the celebrated Russian soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, the wife of Rostropovich. Mme. Vishnevskaya, incidentally, was originally to have been the soprano soloist in Britten's War Requiem, but she was unable to take part and the plan of having a soloist from each of the three protagonists in the European war had to be dropped. Short Play Elizabeth Dawson’s short play, "The Juke Box" (YAs, 3 p.m., Sunday) concerns a snack-bar proprietor of Italian parentage, who has never been out of England but thinks he is homesick for Italy. But his daydreams .of returning to Italy with his teen-age daughter are only an excuse for his lazy, hand-to-mouth life. But the arrival of his daughter from the farm where she has been brought up changes everything. The cast of Bernard Kearns's N.Z.B.C. production includes Gina Curtis and Dennis Clinton of the "My Fair Lady" company, and Heath Joyce, Mildred Woods, Irma Wood. David Hindin and Willis Williams.

August marks the centenary of Debussy’s birth and