The living arts

Press, 27 November 1979, Page 14

The living arts

Poet’s week The New Zealand poet Gary McCormick arrived in Christchurch yesterday to begin a round of public appearances as part of his tour of the country. He will read and discuss his poems at a variety of places in the city, ranging from the Robert McDougall Art Gallery to a garment factory, during the next week.

McCormick gave a lunch-hour performance in the Dux de Lux yesterday, and today will appear at the Lane Walker Rudkin factory in Sydenham. Tomorrow he will give a lunch-time reading in the McDougall Gallery at 1 p.m. and on Thursday he will perform in the Square at noon, and in the Mt Pleasant community centre at 2 p.m. On Saturday he will be in the New Brighton Mall. McCormick will also make appearances at the Arts Centre, in the Folk Club and the bookshop (where he will read and discuss his work at 11 a m. on Thursday), and at the Students’ Union at Ham. He will also make short appearances, by arrangement with the managements, at three hotels — the New Albion, the Oxford, and Noahs. Most of these events have been arranged as part of the gallery’s “outreach” programme. The gallery will have a busy time with “extracurricular” events this week, because as well as the McCormick reading, it will present a slide lecture by the environmental artist, Billy Apple, this evening, and a concert by Judith Cordeaux (violin) and Jennifer Quere (guitar) on Sunday afternoon. Premiere

The Amici Chamber Orchestra, in conjunction with the Arts Centre Association, will present a concert featuring wellknown works by Bach, Mozart, and Haydn, and the premiere of a new work by a Christchurch composer, in a concert on Sunday afternoon in the Great HaU of the Arts Centre. The concert will open with Mozart’s Violin Concerto in A major, K 219, with Jennifer Moreau as soloist This is one of five concerti written within eight months, when Mozart was only 19. The second work on the programme is Bach’s Brandeburg Concerto No 6. scored for the lower strings only — in this case two violas, three cellos and bass. Although the violas play most of the solo passages, they are joined from time to time by the other instruments. After the interval, a small group from the orchestra will present the first concert performance of Dorothy Buchanan’s “7 Interpretations” — inspired by the paintings of R o s e m a r y Campbell.

Trumpet, horn and trombone form the basis of the group, and the flute, clarinet, violin, and cello have solos in which their tone colours express the moods of the different paintings. As each instrument joins the group, it stays, and in the last two interpretations all the instruments are involved. The paintings will be on display at the concert, and both the painter and composer will be present. The concert will end with a Haydn symphony, No. 39 in G minor. This was written during a disturbed period in Haydn’s life, when his usual good humour was affected by a serious illness and possibly an emotional crisis. This is reflected in the music by a nervous tension caused by the contrast of relentless rhythm, and unexpected silences. Cast filled Casting has been completed for the production of “You Can’t Catch a Kiwi.” scheduled for next February. The main roles for children have been filled by Philip Rains and Daniel Rapley, who will alternate as Tony, Susan McKendry and Vanessa Carey as Midge, and Victoria Willis as Dick the Bully. The adult roles will be plaved by Peter Bannens (Camp Chief). Simon Gomex and Les Webster (the Convicts), Janice Tweedie (Mary), Alistair Beissel (the Minister), Doug Densem (the Insnector), Darryl Brown (Jim), and Colin Brown and Peter Watts (the Constables). More than 200 adults and children auditioned, and 60 children have been selected for the chorus. Rehearsals have begun. Bach oratorio

The Christchurch Harmonic Society will present one of the less familiar of the great choral works in its concert on Saturday in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. The work is Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, first perfomed in 1734. It is not an oratorio like “The Messiah” and others familiar to concert goers, but is a sequence of six cantatas, intended to be performed on separate occasions. In Bach’s time the first three would have been sung on Christmas Day and the two succeeding days, the fourth on New Year’s Day. and the fifth on the first Sunday of the New Year. The sixth cantata celebrates the Feast of the Epiphany, the end of the traditional 12 da vs of Christmas, when the infant Jesus was visited by the Wise Men from the East. On this occasion, however, all six will be presented together.

The church cantata, which reached its highest development with Bach, was performed in the Lutheran service in conjunction with the reading of the Gospel, as a sort of musical sermon. Bach used

an orchestra of about 12 players and a choir of 17. The soloists for this performance which will be on a rather larger scale, will be Heather Taylor (soprano), Judy Bellingham (contralto), Kenneth Cornish (tenor), and Howard Harvey (bass). The choir will be accompanied by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, and the choir’s musical director, David Childs, will conduct. Top billing

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra will be in the middle of an “East meets West” cultural festival when it takes part in' the Hong Kong Arts Festival next February, reports Bruce Kohn, an NZPA staff correspondent. It is scheduled to give 10 concerts between February 17 and March 1, as the orchestra attraction of the month-long festival. Other festival attractions will be Cantonese and Chiu Chow opera, Spanish ballet, the Arena Stage Company of Washington and the London jazz musician, Ronnie Scott. The publicity for the orcrestra in Hong Kong has been based on its achievement in taking the top position in the world popularity charts in 1976, with its recording. “The Great Classics.” Abba and Rod Stewart were beaten

out of the top sporf by the orchestra. But the programme for Hong Kong was far from “pop” in content, said a spokesman for the festival organisers. The programme includes music from operas by Gluck and Mozart, nine-teenth-century French and German music, and twentieth-century works by the Russian composers, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. The spokesman said the orchestra’s repertoire would also include works by three contemporary New Zealand composers, Lilburn, Rimmer, and Farquhar. The orchestra will be conducted by Michi Inoue and Owain Arwel Hughes. First recital The baritone, James Baines, who moved to Christchurch earlier this year from Wellington, will give his first Christchurch recital on Thursday, in the Centre Gallery at The Arts Centre. The programme features seven songs by John Dowland, one of the best-known musicians of Shakespeare’s time, and two baroque psalm-set-tings, by Marcello and Schutz. James Baines will be accompanied by Peter Low, who will play a virginal. The performance will begin at 1.10 p.m.