Radio diary

Press, 27 July 1989, Page 11

Radio diary

By

JAMES HOMES

A Thousand and One Nights — An anthology of Operetta, National Radio 9.05 this evening, has Christchurch tenor Edmund Bohan presenting and singing the first of 12 programmes of music from Johann Strauss II to Ivor Novello. This evening: songs from “Die Fledermaus” and a “Night in venice.” Pianists Michael Houstoun and Diedre Irons can be heard in Concert from Wellington, Concert Programme 8 this evening. They play Bach’s Double Concerto in C, two movements from Oliver Messiaen’s Visions de I’Amen, and the presumed original two-piano version of Brahms Variations on a theme of Haydn.

Hermione Gingold presents a personal choice of prose and poetry in With Great Pleasure, national Radio 7.30 tomorrow evening. Gingold was on the stage as a child and her career took her through revue, cabaret and to Hollywood. Her continuing stage magnetism carried her late in life to success in a Sondheim musical.

French Opera continues on the Concert Programme, 7.30 tomorrow evening, with Gounod’s three-act opera Sapho. Premiered in Paris in 1851, ‘Sapho” was the first of 13 operas by Gounod. Mezzo Katherine Ciesinski sings the role of great lyric poetess Sapho, veteran tenor Salain Vanzo is

Phaon, and Sylvain Cambreling conducts the Chorus of Radio France and the New Philharmonic Orchestra.

Cantico del Sole, by Dunedin composer Jack Speirs, is heard in Concert from Dunedin, Concert Programme 8 Saturday evening. This canticle for soprano, choir and orchestra was written for the 125th anniversary of the Schola Cantorum of Dunedin last year. Also on the programme is pianist Richard Beauchamp playing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Flat, Mozart’s 29th Symphony and SaintSaens Organ Symphony (Symphony No 3 in ,C Minor), with organist Peter Avert. Gyorgy Lehel conducts the N.Z.S.O.