72 LISTENER MARCH 7 2020
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
The Best of the Week
SATURDAY MARCH 7
Music Alive (RNZ Concert,- 3 0 p m). No doubt in celebra-
tion of International Women’s
Day on March 8 and perhaps
mindful of the 172nd
anniversary of Kate
Sheppard’s birth-
day on March
10, there are
two concerts
featuring
female com-
posers this
week. This
recording from
2018’s Suffrage
125 celebrations
features works
by Ethel Smyth and
Clara Schumann and New
Zealand composers Gillian
Whitehead, Claire Cowan
and Salina Fisher. The APO
is conducted by Tianyi Lu
and New Zealand pianist
Modi Deng is the soloist on
Schumann’s Piano Concerto in
A minor. In addition, Hollie
Fullbrook, otherwise known as
Tiny Ruins, performs several
numbers, including Olympic
Girls and Me at the Museum,
You in the Wintergardens.
Tomorrow, Opera on Sunday
(6.00pm) features the first
opera by a woman, La liberazi-
one di Ruggiero, by Francesca
Caccini. If you’re wondering
where the Metropolitan Opera
Season went, it contin-
ues on Monday with
a performance
of Berlioz’s La
Damnation de
Faust, with
Latvian mezzo-
soprano Elīna
Garanča as
Marguerite, US
tenor Michael
Spyres as Faust
and Russian bass
Ildar Abdrazakov as
Méphistophélès.WEDNESDAY MARCH 11
Music Alive (RNZ Concert,
8.00pm). This week’s Deutsche
Welle recording is from Eight
Bridges, Cologne’s festival of
new music. The programme
begins with Kourliandski’s
2013 Riot of Spring, in which
some of the musicians walk
into the audience and invite
them to play. Violinist Teodor
Currentzis also conducts
works by Shostakovich and
Rachmaninov.by FIONA RAE
Send comments, queries or complaints about radio or tele vision
to: [email protected], or Talkback, NZ Listener, Private Bag
92512, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141.PLEASING PODCAST POINTER
Thank you for pointing out
BBC Radio 3’s This Classical
Life programme hosted
by 20-year-old Jess Gillam
(Podcast of the Week, February
22).
This is the type
of programme RNZ
management might have
come up with if it had
been focused on trying to
reach a younger audience
for RNZ Concert, instead of
focusing on getting rid of the
announcers to fund a new
youth station.
Vivienne Morrell
(Wellington)JOURNEY’S END
Whatever happened to the
third episode of Pilgrimage:
The Road to Rome (Prime)?
As far as I’m aware, we left
the pilgrims 100km from
Rome and the triumphant
(presumably) culmination
of their journey was due the
following Sunday.
Then it was bumped off
for some sporting event
and the same happened the
following Sunday. Since then,
silence, unless I missed some
obscurely timed screening.
Susan Ledingham
(Nelson)
Talkback responds: Prime tells
us that it removed Pilgrimage:
The Road to Rome to
accommodate delayed coverage
of the women’s domestic T20,
and when the coverage finished
early, it played the final episode
of Pilgrimage at 10.00pm. It
is, however, available free on
Sky Go.GOLDEN YEARS
R Thomas (Talkback,
February 1) and Peter
Harcourt are spot on with
their comments about
Bruce Mason.
Between 1946 and 1966,
the Community Arts
Service provided excellent
assistance in taking theatre
and arts to small towns in
New Zealand. My husband
was a member of the
branch in Te Awamutu.
On one occasion, Mason
was booked to perform The
End of the Golden Weather,
and after the performance,
the committee and wives
met with him for supper.
We were recalling this
day and both remember
what a stimulating
experience that was. My
husband, Garth, is now in
his nineties and I am not
far behind him.
Mason was truly an
outstanding New Zealander.
Ruth Cullen
(Cambridge)LEARNING BY OSMOSIS
When I was a botany
student, we learnt the Latin
names of grasses without
realising it, as our tutor
always said the common
name of the plant followed
by the Latin name.
If the same technique was
used by reporters on RNZ
when they sign off, then we
would learn at least a little
Māori from what they had
just said.
Clive Dalton
(Dinsdale, Hamilton)G
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IM
AG
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Radio
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Talkback
PODCAST OF THE WEEK
Drug of the week
It’s not a podcast at all, but the
latest book by the amazing
Michael Pollan, author of The
Omnivore’s Dilemma and How
to Change Your Mind, is avail-
able only as an audiobook – and
it’s a subject that is dear to our
hearts. In Caffeine, he looks at
the history and science of the
drug to which we’re (nearly)
all addicted. Available for free
with a 30-day trial on Audible.
tinyurl.com/NZLCaffeineClara Schumann,
Music Alive,
Saturday.Michael Pollan