The beginnings and development of a New Zealand music: The life ...

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main Mr Lilburne's quartet is rousing
and unusual."24
Late in 1946, Lilburn began writing some pieces for string
orchestra, prompted by the impending arrival of the Boyd Neel String
Orchestra from England.
25
An old acquaintance and first violinist in
the Boyd Neel group, Vivien Dixon,26 had urged Lilburn to send Boyd Neel
some music for the orchestra to play during its Australasian tour.
Lilburn completed these pieces, entitled Diversions, early in
1947. He forwarded them to Neel, who was by that time in Sydney on the
Australian leg of the tour. When the orchestra arrived in New Zealand,
Boyd Neel featured Diversions in the group's Wellington and Christchurch
concerts.
Diversions were premiered in the Wellington Town Hall on 9 July
1947. 27 The Dominion in a review of the concert described Diversions
as:
" a work of high merit, orchestrated with
deftness and facility of imagination, with
a freedom'of form and expression that conveyed
originality in musical thought. The "Diversions ll
are five in number - a gently delicate "vivace",
suggesting the Spanish idiom, with its pizzicato
accompaniment to the opening theme, a "poco adagio"
in solemn dark-toned mood, which merges into a
sprightly "allegro", a spirited "presto" and a
lovely "andante" of quiet depth, terminating·in
a striking G string figure of intense feeling.
Its smooth performance by the orchestra, so
sensitively instructed by Mr Boyd Neel, was
greeted with immense enthusiasm. Douglas Lilburn,
who was present, was beckoned to the front of the
audience by the conductor three times, and was
applauded to the echo."28
Boyd Neel's comments to the English press on his return to
England are interesting. When asked whether he had found any locally
written music in Australia worthy of performance he replied:
24 Musica Viva players charm large audience. The Dominion 15 August
1950.
25 Toured under the auspices of the British Council, and managed by the
promoter D.D. O'Connor. (Programme for first Wellington concert of
the tour.)
26 Vivien Dixon had performed a number of Lilburn's works in
Christchurch in the early 1940s, including the premiere performance
of Sonata in E-flat for violin and piano, 1943.
27 Programme to concert.
28 The Dominion 10 July 1947.