Orchestra Records Two N.Z. Symphonies

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31750, 6 August 1968, Page 12

Orchestra Records Two N.Z. Symphonies

The N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra, with John Hopkins and Juan Matteucci conducting, made the first recording of New Zealand symphonic music at the week-end. Three works Douglas Lilburn’s Third Symphony and Aotearoa Overture, with Hopkins conducting, and David Farquhar’s Symphony, with Matteucci conducting—were recorded in four threehour sessions in the Wellington Town Hall. All associated with the project were very pleased with the results, Mr A. Vercoe, of Kiwi Records, said by telephone from Wellington yesterday morning. Both composers worked in close liasion with the conductors and the engineers, and both were extremely happy with the balance and quality of the sound, Mr Vercoe said. The recording will be released in New Zealand in a few months—probably early in November and certainly before Christmas—and Kiwi, which already exports many of its New Zealand recordings to the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia, will make determined efforts to have it released overseas. The substantial cost of musicians’ fees, expected to be about $5OOO, will be met by the New Zealand Council of the Australasian Perform-

ing Rights Association, an organisation with head offices in Sydney which exists to protect the rights of composers and to help promote their music.

A.P.R.A. and Kiwi had been associated previously in recordings most notably in Douglas Lilburn’s “Landfall in Unknown Seas”—but neither in New Zealand nor in Australia had A.P.R.A. sponsored anything on this scale.

It was also the orchestra’s biggest recording project, though not its first for Kiwi —several years ago, when it was still known as the

National Orchestra, it recorded a selection of overtures. Stereo reproduction plays an important part in the recording made at the weekend. A two-microphone stereo technique—with an extra microphone to give a lift to the harp, which had proved a difficult instrument to catch in pervious recordings—was used on Saturday and Sunday, Mr Vercoe said. The resultant sound was “very crisp and round.” All four recording sessions went very smoothly. “We had planned to record from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., and from 1.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. each day, but in fact we finished early at both afternoon sessions—at 4 p.m. on Saturday and about 4.20 p.m. on Sunday," Mr Vercoe said. Plans for a cover design for the completed recording have not yet been settled, but

a “very dramatic” New Zealand scene, photographed in the South Island, showing water in the foreground.

mountains- in the background and a huge cluster of clouds —“not the usual pretty thing” —is under consideration. If

this idea was rejected, Mr Vercoe said, the cover would show an abstract design, commissioned from a New Zealand artist.