THE WEEK’S RADIO Anniversary Concert

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30172, 2 July 1963, Page 16

THE WEEK’S RADIO Anniversary Concert

The world premiere of a new work by Sir William Walton will be heard from 3YC at 8.30 tonight in a 8.8. C. recording of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s one hundred and fiftieth anniversary concert in London earlier this year. The composer himself is the conductor of his new Variations on a Theme of Hindemith.

The work was written specially for the occasion and also as a tribute to Hindemith, who was soloist in the first performance of Walton’s Viola Concerto in 1929. The theme comes from the middle movement of Hinemith’s Cello Concerto and there are nine variations and a finale. In the remainder of the programme, Sir Adrian Boult conducts two works by other composers who have been closely associated with the society.' Cherubini’s “Anacreon” Overture was in fact chosen by the Philharmonic Society of London, as it then was, to begin its inaugural concert on March 8, 1813, and Cherubini himself conducted. The other work is Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7 in C, which was given its first English performance at one of the society’s concerts in 1927. Gogol Masterpiece Nikolai Gogol said of his dramatic masterpiece, “The Government Inspector”: “I decided to gather into a heap all that was wrong inside Russia, and as far as I knew of it, all injustice committed in those places and in those cases where more than anywhere justice is demanded of man, and to deride them all at once.” It took courage for a Russian to do this, writing in the first half of the 19th century. Yet curiously enough, “The Government Inspector”—to be heard from 3YC at 7.30 p.m. on Friday —was produced in the presence of the Tsar, who found it amusing. The rest of the Russian Establishment, how-

ever, was not so amused, and their vicious attacks led to Gogol’s departure from the country. In Antony Groser’s N.Z.B.C. production, Alan Jervis plays the part of the penniless young intellectual, who is mistaken by the corrupt bureaucrats of a small town for the Government official they are expecting to arrive. The translation is by D. J. Campbell in this, the fourth play in the “Playhouse” series. British Folk Songs Six 8.8. C. programmes under the title “The Ballad Hunter,” the first of which will be heard from 3YA at 6.12 p.m. bn Sunday, are the result of a search throughout the four corners of Britain for folk songs, old and new, by Alan Lomax . and other collectors. Lomax, born in Texas, has been collecting folk songs all over the world since he was 17, and he looks on Britain as one cultural unit —not that the differences between English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish songs are not delightfully apparent, but he feels each has strong bonds with the others. Some of the songs in the programmes are sung by Ewan McColl, a collector himself, but otherwise they are sung by the people of the four countries who are preserving the tradition of folk songs without even realising they are doing so Their efforts, many of which were recorded “in the field,” are preserved in the 8.8. C. folk song archive, which contains some 2500 items. Because of the difficult conditions under which some of

the songs were recorded, the recordings sometimes fall short of present-day technical standards, but it was felt their rarity and exceptional interest warranted their inclusion. Skiffie makes a surprising appearance in the first programme, for Lomax explains that, with its different beat from the American original, skiffie has taken its own form and become a genuine part of British popular art. Ancient Hymns In medieval times, Georgia, which was officially converted to Christianity in 337, was one of the leading centres of the Eastern Church, and the church there took over an existing preChristian musical tradition. About the ninth century all existing church music was codified into a cycle covering the year The notation used in Georgian music also dated back to pre-Christian times and until recently the key to the sysetm had long been lost. But now a Georgian musicologist has deciphered the ancient notation and translated it into the modern system. The story of how this was done is told by Rex Keating in a U.N.ESjC.O. programme. “The Lost Hymns of the Caucasus.” to be heard from 3YC at 7 p.m. next Monday Some of these hymns, from tenth and eleventh ’century manuscripts and dating back sometimes to the eighth century, are sung by the State Choir of Georgia, in Tiflis. Eva Turner

One of the finest British singers between the wars was the dramatic soprano. Eva Turner. She was engaged by Toscanini to sing at La Scala in 1924 and thereafter she sang all over Europe, North and South America and ait Covenit Garden She was especially

famous as Aida and Turandot and she sang the latter role right up to her retirement in 1949. In a 8.8. C. interview with the critics, Alec Robertson and Philip Hope-Wail-lace. from 3YC at 8.5 p.m. on M niday, Dame Eva Turner tells of her early training. speaks frankly of her early career and talks abour teaching methods. She was a pupil of the same Bristol teacher as Dame Clara Butt and she has some doubts about modern methods. From Experience “The Bush and the Tree” (national link, 3.30 p.m.. Sunday) was adapted from a Granada Television play by John O’Toole, who was born in Ireland in 1920 and educated at a monastery school by Franciscan monks. He went to England at 16 and was apprenticed to an engineering firm. Since 1945 he has lived in Yorkshire, where he has been several years on the Earby Council and was the youngest chairman in the town’s history In a note to the published script of “The Bush and the Tree,” James Ormerod. the British television producer, says the play, which has a background of small-town local politics, has obviously sprung from the playwright’s own experience Apart from the bustle of local public life, the play is concerned with, that difficult time in a marriage when something must happen if mutual attraction is not to give place to boredom, indifference and tired acceptance. “The Bush and the Tree” was adapted and produced for the N.Z.B.C. by Roy Leywood. and the part of Alf Liddell, the new councillor who finds his principles conflicting with those of h’s party, is played by Neil Thurgood. a member of the “My Fair Lady” company. Polar Drama H. A. L. Craig’s play. ‘"Hie Frost of Heaven” (3YA 7.30 tonight) is an epic of man’s struggle against the relentless fury of Antarctica. Five men set out to reach the Pole of Lnaccessability, where na man has set foot; only two return. The play, produced for the N.Z.B.C. by Roy Leywood, gives an insight into the characters of men under duress. The five reflect; each has his own reason for making the journey; each has his own brand of courage, his own fears and his own fate.