Many To Tour For N.Z.B.C. This Year

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30368, 18 February 1964, Page 9

Many To Tour For N.Z.B.C. This Year

This year the N.Z.B.C. concert series will have the special attractions of new resident and assistant conductors for the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra and more celebrity artists to tour New Zealand for the N.Z.B.C. than ever before, including for the first time a jazz group.

Selected from more than 100 applicants from all over the world, the Italian conductor, Juan Matteucci, will arrive in mid-year to take up a one-year appointment as the conductor of the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra. He is now a citizen of Chile, where he has been resident conductor and musical director of the Chilean Philharmonic for more than eight years. The assistant conductor is Laszlo Heltay, a Hungarian, who comes from his post as director of music at Merton College, Oxford.

There will be four guest conductors with the Symphony Orchestra during the year. The first is Clyde Roller, of New York, who is conducting the proms in the four main centres. Three days after the conclusion of the proms, Sir William Walton will conduct the first concert of his own works in Auckland. He will also conduct the orchestra in Christchurch, Wellington, and Dunedin.

Also in New Zealand at this time will be the Ameri-can-born violinist Berl Senofsky. One of a family of violinists, he had his first lessons from his father and won a scholarship at the age of six to a teacher of Menuhin, Louis Persinger. Senofsky served in World War H, and later won the Walter Naumberg Award, which led to his debut in the New York Town Hall. After winning the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Competition, he moved to Paris in 1955, and has since toured extensively throughout Europe. An orchestra which has toured a great deal is the N.H.K. Symphony of Japan, which will pay a three-day, two-concert visit to the North Island in March. Formed in Tokyo in 1926, the N.H.K. has a wide repertoire, including works by modern Japanese composers, some of Whom are with the N.H.K., and whose works will be played in the Auckland and Wellington concerts. Since 1960, this orchestra has toured Asia, Soviet countries, Italy, Germany, England, France, and the United States. The New Zealand visit is sandwiched between concerts in Karachi, Singapore, Thailand, and Australia. Czech Conductor

The N.Z.B.C. Symphony’s second guest conductor this year is the 34-year-old Czech, Eduard Fischer. He graduated with honours from the Academy of .Music in Prague, and conducts nearly everything by memory. From his arrival in March, Fischer will be busy conducting 31 concerts in seven centres from Whangarei to Dunedin. A busy time will also be had by the Eddie Condon All Stars, a group of musicians who hold an important place in the development of American jazz of a type similar to that made by Louis Armstrong. The Condon group perform in March in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Patrick O'Hagan, the popu. lar Irish tenor, will make a return visit in May. He will be heard in the smaller cities as well as the main centres. Napier, Gisborne, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Lower Hutt, Invercargill, Timaru, Rotorua and Hamilton are included in his itinerary. Women Pianists Two women pianists paying their first visits to this country will also appear in May. Ingrid Haebler, a young Viennese who has won an impressive. array of international prizes, appears annually at the Salzburg Festival and has toured the U.S.S.R.. Europe and America. She will give solo concert? at Wellington, Hamilton and Christchurch, and will appear with the orchestra at Auckland, Wellington and Palmerston North. Also appearing in May with the N.Z.B.C. Symphony under Eduard Fischer is Gina Bachauer, who will make two Auckland Festival appear, ances. The third celebrity pianist to tour this year is Denis Matthews, who made his debut in London at Queen's Hall in 1939. In his midwinter tour of New Zealand he will give solo recitals in New Plymouth, Nelson, Auckland and Wanganui, and subscription concerts in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. A pupil of Denis Matthews,

the English pianist John Ogdon is considered, at 27, to be at the height of his career and his New Zealand visit will be counted a musical highlight. This large, looselimbed, black-bearded Englishman with prodigious talent, is as commanding of attention in playing as in his appearance, as his victory at the 1962 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow testifies. His Dunedin and Wanganui recitals include works he played at the Moscow competition. His Auckland and Wellington recitals feature works by Busoni, a composer he favours. With the N.Z.B.C. Symphony, John Ogdon will play Liszt, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky concert i.

Maureen Jones, the Australian pianist now living in Trieste, is to play with the orchestra in Wellington in July. Married to Dario di Rosa, of the Trio di Trieste, she joins him in giving recitals of music for four hands.

Young Violinist _n July, the youngest celebrity artist to tour this country for many years will begin his three weeks’ tour. Uto Ughi jthe 20-year-old Italian violinist, began learning the violin at four, and gave his first public concert two years later. Four years and a half ago, a critic said, after Ughi’s debut at Wigmore Hall, “Four or five years hence he should be a violinist to reckon with.” Christchurch, Auckland, Palmerston North and Wellington audiences may judge for themselves.

Jorge Bolet, a Cuban now living in North America, is perhaps best known here as the pianist who played the sound-track for the film of the life of Liszt, “Song Without End.” Last season he celebrated 25 years on the concert stage, and to mark the anniversary, travelled all over Britain, Europe, and North America, giving concerts and recitals. His New Zealand solo recitals will be in Auckland, Hamilton, Gisborne, Wellington, Timaru, Christchurch, Wanganui, and Nelson, beginning in September, and interspersed with concerto performances with the N.Z.B.C. Symphony under Matteucci in Wellington, Palmerston North, Christchurch, and Dunedin. At the same time, the renowned French baritone, Gerard Souzay, will be appearing in other towns. His two appearances with the N.Z.B.C. Symphony will be subscription concerts in Christchurch and Dunedin.

Another singer paying a return visit this year is Ronald Dowd, the Australian tenor now living to London. Since he last toured New Zealand in 1955, he has established himself to opera in Britain. His latest success was as Oedipus Rex to the English premiere of the opera of the same name by Stravinsky, who attended the performance. Another operatic success was as Jimmy Mahoney to “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahaggony.” He will be staging with the orchestra and will give solo concerts to Christchurch and Hastings A South African, Georges Sebastian, will appear with the Symphony Orchestra to August concerts, and Ella Lee, a Negro soprano, has been engaged to fulfil engagements when Miattiwilda Dobbs was unable to tour.