Radio
The Best of the Week
SATURDAY APRIL 1
Les Six: A Tenuous Entity (RNZ Concert, 1.00pm). William Dart looks at the group of French composers who challenged the Establishment during that heady period of creativity in post-war Europe, the early 20th century. It had begun in 1917 with a ballet by Erik Satie danced to backdrops painted by Picasso. Satie soon decided to create Paris’ version of The Five, the group of Russian composers intent on creating a distinct Russian music.
SUNDAY APRIL 2
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (RNZ Concert, 10.00am). Concert is going for baroque this week, first with this programme from Lincoln Center, featuring works by Telemann (the lighthearted Burlesque de Quixotte); Vivaldi ( Cello Sonata No 3 in A minor); and Bach ( Concerto in D minor for two violins), then a recording of the Bach Collegium Japan at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday’s Music Alive (7.00pm). The acclaimed ensemble, conducted by its founder, Masaaki Suzuki, performs three works by
Bach, including the Brandenburg Concerto No 2, as well as Handel’s Gloria in B-flat Major and Vivaldi’s Concerto in C Major for Oboe, Strings and Continuo.
The Sunday Feature (RNZ National, 4.06pm). Three-part series Contemporary Feminism comes to a close with a discussion about “ageing and agency”. Actor Miranda Harcourt and Massey University’s Claire Robinson join Kim Hill to talk about the visibility of older women in an age that worships youth.
Opera on Sunday (RNZ Concert, 6.00pm). Dvorák’s Rusalka features Kristine Opolais, the Latvian soprano who made her name in a disturbing Munich production of Rusalka in 2010. The Met’s February staging was a much more magical affair, with a mix of dancing wood sprites and 18th-century costumes – and a spot of steampunk for mezzo Jamie Barton, who is Jezibaba, the witch who gives the water nymph legs in exchange for her tongue. The Little Mermaid proto-story also stars Americans Brandon Jovanovich and Eric Owens as, respectively, the Prince and the Water Goblin.