THOUGHTS ABOUT MUSIC

Evening Star, Issue 26151, 12 July 1947, Page 10

THOUGHTS ABOUT MUSIC

The combination of circumstances which' brought together recently in Auckland four notable orchestral conductors was probably as rare and as unlikely to recur as a fortuitous "conjunction of planetary bodies, or other stellar phenomena. I am not well versed in astronomy, so employ such figures of speech with due diffidence.. But the meeting of this quartet of eminent musicians was certainly rather remarkable. It comprised Andersen Tyrer, Eugene Gooseus, Warwick Braithwaite, . and Boyd Neel all top-rankers in their profession, and he it noted, all with unusual names—which would delight the heart of Alan Mulgan.- The first-named needs no further comment in this column. Goosens was a bird of passage; just passing through Auckland on his way. to assume the directorship of Sydney Conservatorium, but tarrying dong enough, to conduct a couple of concerts by the -National Orchestra in Auckland.

A friend in that fair northern citv has'sent me a very interesting letter concerning musical doings there, ahd from it I gather that Auckland has not only, experienced the greatest musical thrill in its history, but has given our National Orchestra the biggest reception to date. Eugene Goosens expressed himself as , being highly delighted .with New Zealand’s splendid orchestral ensemble, and said their playing was “ really marvellous ’’ in view of such brief training as they had received. My friend also described a rehearsal by Goosens as something very unusual, but at the actual concert Goosens relaxes, considerably, and puts complete trust in the players. This results in greater confidence and unanimity, and the effect is occasionally remarkable. Listening to a broadcast, I was much struck by the majestic and sonorous rendering of Liszt’s ‘ Les Preludes ’ — to which Goosens seemed, to impart a grandeur that, intrinsically, the music hardly possesses. Incidentally, when asked what he considered is the world’s

(By L.D.A.)

finest orchestra, Goosens replied unhesitatingly: “ The Boston Symphony.” This opinion corroborates that of the late Sir Henry Wood, who used to go further by asserting that the “ Boston ” was directed by the world’s greatest conductor, Serge Koussevitzky—a view which is only logical when you come to think of it. The National Orchestra players liked Goosens, but,' from recent accounts, they like Warwick/Braithwaite §till more. This will be of particular interest to the latter’s many Dunedin friends and admirers. There are no better judges of a conductor than the men who play under him—they can sum him up instantly and detect the slightest weakness or shortcoming, and as a rule their verdict is pronounced in unmistakable terms—sometimes in the. colloquial vernacular peculiar to orchestral musicians. Consequently, when.these performers declare, unanimously and. enthusiastically, that Warwick Braithwaite can “ deliver the goods,” we may accept it as a fact ■ —though I may add that the broadcast of. Braithwaite’s first concert in Auckland had already established his New Zealand reputation * * * * * Boyd Nee] has already received such Press notice that further comment from me might 6eem superfluous. But I was interested in his dual aptitudes for music and medicine. It would appear to be impossible for any man to follow two such arduous professions simultaneously, had we not the classic instance of Borodin, the celebrated Russian composer, whose unswerving devotion to both music and medical science provides the one exception to the rule that no man can serve two masters. An echo of this tug-of-war between the medicinal and musical arts has, been furnished in the case of a brilliant young Dunedin pianist, often mentioned by me, whose future career may or may ot combine the concert platform with the hospital theatre. It remains to be seen whether the cultivation of a bedside manner is compatible with the traditional vagaries of the virtuoso.