The Living Arts Slow bookings, but series on

Press, 27 March 1979, Page 22

The Living Arts Slow bookings, but series on

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s 1979 Christchurch subscription concert season in the Town Hall will go ahead as scheduled, although early bookings were not as high as the N.Z.S.O. had hoped for. The orchestra’s management says it hopes that the total audience at each concert will justify this faith in the musical discernment of Christchurch people. The first of the six concerts will be presented next Wednesday, April 4. The programme is a mixture of old and new under the guest conductor, Walter Susskind (returning for his fifth season) the N.Z.S.O. will play Weber’s ‘‘Oberon’’ overture, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, and Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto, in which the soloist will be the Australian-born Roger Woodward. Waiter Susskind has a high regard for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and has made particular reference to the

way in which the orchestra'has improved since his first visit in 1967. The orchestra, in turn, has a high regard for Mr Susskind. He has been an international name since the late forties, when he was the first conductor of the Scottish National Orchestra, and he has spent much time since then in Australia, Canada, and the United States. He' now lives in London, where he makes regular appearances with the major orchestras. He is a frequent conductor at the “Proms” and in the Royal Festival Hall and other leading concert halls, and makes many guest appearances in the United States and other countries. The Schoenberg Piano Concerto was the composer’s only work of this type. Although it was written in 1942 it is very much in the grand nine-teenth-century concerto manner (which Stravinsky called the “Olympic Games tradition”). Roger Woodward will

be making his. second appearance in Christchurch; in 1975 he appeared in two N.Z.S.O, concerts conducted by Brian Priestman. After the first, in which he played a Mozart concerto, C.F.B. in “The Press” described his playing as “of astonishing delicacy.” The next day he played the Bartok Concerto No. 2, and C.F.B. wrote, “ ... the magnificent performance by Mr Woodward ... was an electrifying experience of stunning proportions.” A recent London performance of the Schoenberg Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Festival Hall brought this comment from Dominic Gill in the “Financial Times”: “He found many beautiful things in this music, the sighing poetry, as well as the quick, deft prosody, of the opening section; the dark, sharp-edged contrasts of the slow-move-ment cadenza; the floating colours, eddying in and out of the orchestra texture, of the finale’s ghostly waltz.” Roger Woodward was born in Sydney and received his early education from Winifred Pope, Sir Eugene Goossens, and Alexander Sverjensky. He completed his formal training in Poland with Zbigniew Drzewiecki.

After winning first prizes in three piano competitions he made two debuts, one with the Warsaw National, the other with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

He now performs with such orchestras as the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Cleveland, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Los Angeles, and Israel Philharmonics, as well as the five major London orchestras, and with such conductors as Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta. Erich Leinsdorf, Kurt Masur, Eliahu Inbal, Sir Charles Mackerras, Lorin Maazel and Witold Rowicki. For the last seven seasons he has also participated in the Festivals of Vienna, Edinburgh, Venice, Paris, Angers, Lisbon, Metz, and Brussels, and in the Henry Wood

Promenade Concert series at the Royal Albert Hall. Woodward’s early reputation was founded on his championship of contemporary works, many of which were written for him by composers with whom he has closely collaborated, such as Barraque, Berio, Boulez, Bussotti, Cage, Feldman. GehIhaar, Lutoslawski. Meale, Penderecki, Stockhausen, Takemitsu and Xenakis. But his repertoire ranges back to the great works of the classical period. Highlights of later concerts will include a performance of Delius’s “SeaDrift” with the Royal Christchurch Musical Society on May 5; an appearance by the American pianist, Stephen Bis-hop-Kovacevich, with the outstanding young American conductor, Henry Lewis, on July 4; Lili Kraus in a Mozart concerto, with the virtuoso conductor Piero Gamba

also conducting Brahms’s Fourth Symphony, on July 31; the return of Uri Segal on September 8 to conduct Beethoven’s “Choral” Symphony with the Christchurch Harmonic Society; and the N.Z.S.O. cellist, Wilfred Simenauer, giving the first Christchurch performance of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No 1 on October 6. Subscription season bookings will close tomorrow.

Pots on display Several groups of potters from the upper half of the South Island will display their wares at exhibitions in Christchurch in the next month. The first will be the Rangiora Potters, who have their base in an old cottage at Fernside. They will mount an exhibition in the CSA gallery, opening today, and will show works selected as the best of those produced by members of the group during its 10 years of existence. The selection was done by the wellknown potter, Michael Trumic, who will also show some of his own work — he is a guest exhibitor. A sculptor, Valdimir Rous, will exhibit with the group, and there will also be displays of screen-printing and weaving. The Studio 393 group, which works above an old bakery in Montreal Street, will also open an exhibition this week. It will feature salt-glazed ceramic ware by two young Nelson potters, and greenstone jewellery and woodcarving by ■ a West Coast craftsman. The potters, John Madden and Christine Gregory, have a workshop in the Whangamoas. They make domestic ware. The jewellery and carving are by Bill Mathieson, who lives in Paroa.

The exhibition will open on Saturday, and will run for one week. The Rangiora Potters will continue their exhibition until April Later in April, the Halswell Potters will put on an exhibition in the CSA gallery, with Adrienne Lamb and Jewel Oliver as guest artists. This group, like the Rangiora one, has its head-

quarters in an old farmhouse, and its members work in earthenware, stoneware and porcelain, and emphasise glazes, and hand-built pots as well as thrown ones. Formed eight years ago, the group now has a membership ot 80. Another Matthew The work was written for the Court Church of Dresden in 1966, and respects the liturgical custom that instruments should be silent during Passiontide; it is scored for soloists and unaccompanied 4-part chorus. In 60 minutes, Schutz presents the complete Gospel narrative without the interspersed arias and chorales of the oratorio type of Passion, yet in equally expressive and moving music. The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, with its high domes and reverberant acoustic, should provide an appropriate setting for this alternative, “St Matthew Passion.” Singers wanted Two works, C.P.E. Bach’s “Magnificat” and “The Creation,” a rock canatata, are on the agenda this year for the University Choir — a group which is not exclusive but is open to anyone who wishes to sing the works. Rehearsals have been limited to 12 Monday nights, and the performance will take place on August 12. Persons interested in singing these works should register with the secretary at the University of Canterbury School of Music, or get in touch with the choir’s director, Graham Hollobon. The first rehearsal will be next Monday evening.

First hearing The first performance!;! a piece by ChristchurcS s composer in schcMs, Dorothy Buchanan, will open a concert by 'rt» Amiri Chamber Orchestr| in the Arts Centre Gallerf on Sunday afternoon. Het“Three Sketches fey Strings.” written in 1971 illustrates different as| pects of twentieth-century compositions. The soloist will be a French hornist, John Ur 4 who will play Mozart’l first Horn Concerto, ace then take part in the last movement of Mozart'S “Musical Joke.” This is $ work written in his may turity in which Mozart ridicules the characters istics of contemporary second-rate composers. ; The first half of thj concert will conclude wit| Vaughan-William’s, “Fan* tasia on Greensleeves,” io which Tony Ferner will play the flute solo. Afterwards the orchesi tra will continue its seriej of early Hadyn symj phonies with No. 45, the “Farewell” symphony.