Conductor in search of a protege

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32967, 13 July 1972, Page 14

Conductor in search of a protege

A conductor in search of a protege—this is one way in which New Zealand-born John Matheson, guest conductor of the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra, views his role.

In a Christchurch interview yesterday, punctuated by frequent telephone calls from family friends, Mr Matheson made a plea on behalf of talented young musicians in New Zealand. Almost no opportunities, he said, seemed to have been given for young conductors who live in New Zealand to work with professional orchestras. "It astonishes me that the N.Z.B.C. has never had any young resident New Zealander to conduct its symphony orchestra,” he said. “Surely there is some fault here. The N.Z.B.C. should have been watching for young talent” “If there is any young man, or more than one, who is keen on conducting, I’d dearly like to hear from him and have a word or two,” Mr Matheson said. Mr Matheson, who is first conductor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, is on his first professional visit to New Zealand since he left in 1949. Though he conceded that it might be a “blood-curdling” experience for a young conductor to face a professional orchestra for the first time, he said that the experience would be invaluable to him. “Such experiences were the makings of many of us,” Mr Mathson said. Mr Matheson, who is 44, said his yearning to return to New Zealand to live for at least part of the year had never left him during his often “tortuous” years over-

seas. London, perhaps the centre of world music at present, was often a little like indigestion. “You can get too much of it—not that I’m unhappy, mind.” "It is only recently that I have been able to get some clear time,” he said. "You see, I even know what I will be doing at Covent Garden in 1975. It will be Wagner’s ‘The Ring’ series.” The telephone again rang in the background—and Mr Matheson made contact with an old family friend who he had not seen since he left the small Otago township of Seacliff in 1936. "Certainly,” he told the caller, “I want to meet you again in person. Let’s have the chance to talk, as I want to pick up all the traces I can about my early life, and parents, and so on.” “Ah yes, where were we— Wagner?” Mr Matheson then spoke of the works of Richard Wagner, which he said were his first musical love. “You know, this composer’s works have been rarely played by orchestras in New Zealand, which is a great pity. Half the country already knows them in a way, because the legends which Wagner uses in his works are so very similar to the Maori legends we know so well.” Beginning this evening, Mr Matheson will conduct the first of three concerts by the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra. A concert in Timaru on July 17 will precede five concerts in Dunedin, where Mr Matheson was bom and educated.