Concerts for shoppers and others

Press, 12 May 1981, Page 20

Concerts for shoppers and others

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra will give two concerts this week in the Christchurch Town Hall —

the subscription concert on Saturday, and a shoppers' concert on Friday, at 5.30 p.m. Steuart Bedford will conduct both performances, and the Australian pianist, Roger Woodward, will be the soloist. The Friday concert will feature Mozart’s Overture to “The Magic Flute.” Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, “Till’s Merry Pranks” by Richard Strauss, Serenade from Hassan by Delius, and Tchaikovsky’sl . fantasy overture, “Romeo and Juliet.” The feature of the Saturday concert will be Sir Michael Tippett’s Symphony No. 1, which had its New Zealand premiere performance in Auckland on May 2. Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 will also be performed. The. English-born conductor, Steuart Bedford, who is making his first tour with the Orchestra, is co-artistic director of the English Music Theatre : Company and. an 'artistic director of the Aldebilrgh Festival. His most close association is with the performance of comtemporary .mustic, ’ particularly that of Benjamin Britten.

Roger Woodward is making his third tour with the NZSO. His repertoire ranges

from the works of the classical period to those of present-day composers, and his reputation was founded on his championship,of contemporary works, many ; of, which were written for him. ’ He believes that ■ modern works should be at least as well represented in his programmes as the music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Roger Woodward performs with such orchestras as the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Cleveland, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Los Angeles, and Israel Philharmonics, and the five major London orchestras. ~ . Offbeat art

One of the offbeat art exhibitions of the year is on display in the Robert McDougall Art Gallery. The exhibition comes from Japan, under the sponsorship of the New Zealand-Japan cultural exchange . programme and the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, and features a range of fine examples of tjie Japanese way of, elevating the status of somethihgTWesterners habitually discard —. the package. ■- Its title is “Tsutsumu — the art’of the Japanese;packagc.” ' ~

Although many people think of Japan as an industrial power producing the tools of the electronic age. many traditional wrappings are still made and used in Japan. The Japanese love of nature is reflected in the choice of materials such as wood, bamboo, straw, clay, paper and ceramics. Containers are created for confections, pickles, tea, sake, fish, noodles and dried glue. Some are intricately woven into basket shapes, or long, cylindrical shapes; others are near their natural state. Some methods of packaging are very simple, such as the rope binding for dried fish. Huge, strong, straw barrels for sake contrast with delicate paper wrappings for sweets. Some containers are as highly prized as their contents because they are art objects in themselves; the craftsmen who made containers concentrated on making a container which would be beautiful rather than merely useful. The emphasis is on a harmonious blend of colour, texture, and shape. The organisers of the exhibition say that in an age when the protection of the environment is being emphasised but many disposable packages and products

ire still used, it is valuable :o look at how the Japanese ,iave developed the art of jackaging, from the practical and artistic viewpoints.

Music with twirls A symphony orchestra from a private college in Tennessee will give a concert in Christchurch on May 20, in the Teachers' College _ auditorium, during a brief tour of New Zealand. The members of the orchestra are drawn from the 2000 students of the institution. the Southern Missionary College, and are conducted by one of their teachers, Professor Orlo Gilbert, who has developed the orchestra over the last 14 years.

On its first overseas tour, in 1979, the orchestra visited seven countries in Asia, giving 21 concerts in three weeks. On its present tour it will visit several Pacific countries — Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Hawaii. The 71 students in the touring group will stay in the homes of local residents so that can become familiar with the life-styles and cultures of the countries they visit.

The itineraries call for concerts in civic auditoriums, and occasional concerts in schools and universities, and the budget for the tour is about $130,000, which has been raised by the members of the orchestra.

The orchestra’s repertoire includes such works as Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Bernstein’s Overture to “Candide.”

The piano soloist with the orchestra will be Dr J. Bruce Ashton, professor of music at the college. Two student violinists, Linda Im and Jenine Fryling, will also appear as soloists. A less conventional performer with the orchestra will be the American national champion baton twirler, Julie McClarty. Seventeen years old, blueeyed and blonde, Miss McClarty is from Collegedale, Tennessee. She holds three baton twirling titles: “Miss Majorette Queen of the East, 1981,” “Eastern States Regional Twirling Champion,” and “Tennessee State Military Strut-off Champion.” Since she began to take baton lessons 10 years ago, she has won more than 1000 trophies and medals in twirling competitions. She also, in three consecutive years, won the Drum Majorettes of America national two-baton championship. She has twirled three times at Disney World in Florida, once leading the band with a two-baton routine while an estimated 40,000 spectators lined the parade route. She has twirled flag, hoop, solo, and twobaton routines in parades, high schools, talent shows, civic clubs, and retirement centres, but her most unusual audience consisted of convicts at the Alabama State Prison Farm, from whom she and the band were separated by a high wire fence. The big show While the Canterbury Repertory Theatre Society’s next production, “Let Sleeping Wives Lie” by the hus-band-and-wife team, Harold

Brooke and Kay Bannerman, is in rehearsal for its season from June 5 to 13, plans are under way for what the society, hopes will be its most spectacular production since “Henry VIII” in the first Festival of Shakespeare at the Theatre Royal in 1961.

The new play is “Vivat! Vivat Regina!” A historical drama written by Robert Bolt, it tells the story of the contest for the throne of England ' between Mary Stuart and Queen Elizabeth I. The production will be staged from August 1 to 8. and will be directed by Jennifer Blumsky. : Open auditions for the roles of the two royal women (the only female roles in the play’apart from some extras) and a cast of 25 men will be held in the Repertory Theatre Green Room on Sunday, from 2 p.m. Some extras will be required, too. Recalls will be held next Monday night. The roles are said to include some superb -cameo roles in which a good actor can make a particular impact, and Jennifer Blumsky says she hopes the play will arouse the interest of actors who have not been seen on the stage for a while. Rehearsals for “Vivat! Vivat Regina!” will begin early in June. Early music

A residential school devoted to early music will be held in the spring at Samuel Marsden Collegiate School, Wellington, under the direction of the Wellington musician, Robert Oliver. The school is being arranged by the Early Music Union of Wellington in association with the Wellington Polytechnic, and will run from August 29 to September 6. “Early music” is defined as being all music written before the end of the eighteenth century. Activities planned for the school include classes for viols, keyboard instruments, baroque and renaissance woodwind, dance, lute and singing, a baroque orchestra, renaissance groups, and daily concerts by students and tutors. Enrolments will be open to any person with an interest in early music, regardless of technical standard.

The sponsors say the aim of the school will be to provide group tuition in aspects of technique and interpretation for players of early instruments, singers, and dancers. Opportunities will also be given for discussion of repertoire and interpretation, and for the performance of early music in groups under direction from experts.

Bruce Haynes, professor of baroque oboe at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, will direct baroque woodwind classes, a tutorial panel from within New Zealand will be assembled, and a number of associate artists will perform and contribute, expertise over the whole instrumental range. New hand

The Christchurch Harmonic Chorale has a new director. He is John Pattinson, a member of the music staff of the University of Canterbury, and. a wellknown Chriistchurch piano 4nd, organ soloist, accompanist, and conductor.

John Pattinson had his first contact with choral music when, at the age of eight, he joined a local church choir in the north of England. For years later, he was its assistant organist, and when he was 15 he gained his first independent position as organist and choirmaster.

Later he became a student at the University of Manchester and. simultaneously, at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where he was an organ pupil of Eric Chadwick, and studied cello with Paul Ward and composition with Humphrey Procter-Gregg. His work with choral music increased during this period, and he was president of the University Chorus and a member of the Halle Choir.

After leaving university, he began a busy career as teacher, lecturer, recitalist, and conductor, both in the Midlands and in the South of England. From 1974 until his appointment to the University of Canterbury in 1979 he was head of music and performing arts at the North Staffordshire Polytechnic, during which time he made frequent radio and television broadcasts as a conductor and as accompanist, notably with the University of Keefe Charles Ives Choir and with the Michael Garrick Jazz Choir.

He is now a lecturer in music at the department of extension studies, of the University of Canterbury. He. directs the Amici Chamber,; Orchestra and the Ham Wind*”. Ensemble, is a regular con-' ■ tributor to “Composer of the . Week,” and is a national* • broadcasting artist. <

Commission The Wellington potter, Roy.' Cowan, has been sioned to make a large’-* ceramic sculpture for the,; foyer of the. Reserve Bank> building which is nearingl; completion in Auckland. Cowan’s design was, ■ selected from a number oL; submissions by New Zealand ' artists and craftsmen. He.; describes his design as “a simple adze form in ceramic generated from a continuous flow of ornament in two dayers; an inner column in. deep red stoneware and an*; outer shell in salt glaze on af* porcellaneous base, white; with drifts of colour.” ;; The commission was. ar-> ranged by the recently estab- 1 ■ lished New Zealand Craft/* Centre in Wellington. String seminar A seminar for teachers.; and players of string instru-;. ments has been arranged for , ? this week by the ' Christchurch Conservatoire. ; ? The seminar will be run by. • an English cellist, Christo- J pher Bunting, who will give.two lectures tomorrow, a-, final one on Thursday morn-/, ing (when his subject will be”' the philosophy of teaching), and a lunch-time concert to » wind up the seminar on ■; Thursday. > One of the tutors at the,.; conservatoire, lola Shelley, .' will be Bunting's piano ac-;'.,* companist in the recital, . which will be given at 1.10 ! p.m. in the Centre Gallery of. ’ the Christchurch Centre. The;. lectures will be given at 4? p.m. and 7.30 p.m. on= . Wednesday and 9 am. on Thursday-, in the conservatoire's board-room.