Debut of major local documentary series

By LINDA HERRICK arts editor

A major local documentary series debuts on Concert FM tonight at 8pm. Douglas: The Landscape of a New Zealand Composer is a comprehensive examination of the life and work of Douglas Lilburn (above), with 10 episodes collating a raft of material never heard before.

Ironically, producers Roger Smith and Gareth Watkins acknowledge that Lilburn, who died last year at the age of 85, would not have co-operated with the series. "That Douglas would have hated the whole notion of a project such as this can scarcely be ignored," says Smith. "Having spent so much of his life determinedly promoting and supporting the work of others while doggedly avoiding the limelight himself, it seems hardly likely Douglas would have approved of a series of radio programmes focusing exclusively on his life."

When Watkins and Smith searched Radio NZ's archives, they found just a couple of interviews with Lilburn and, realising his contemporaries "were getting thin on the ground", quickly set about interviewing people who knew him. These unedited interviews will eventually be deposited with the Alexander Turnbull Library.

The series contains many gems, including Douglas playing the fourth of his Five Bagatelles for Piano in 1946, and a recording of a talk by Percy Grainger when he was here in 1935 mooting the idea of a New Zealand composition contest - which Lilburn later won. It also explores Lilburn's deep sense of isolation, his approach to electronic music, his role as a teacher and mentor, and his lifestyle choices after he retired in 1979.

Tonight's episode, In Search of a Tradition, features interviews with Lilburn's two nieces and many others including Ralph Vaughan Williams and Sir William Southgate, and actor Peter Vere-Jones reading from Lilburn's unpublished autobiographical sketches. It is followed by a 1950 performance of Cornet Rilke by the Alec Lindsay Quartet. The series is dedicated to the late Jonathan Dennis, National Radio's film critic who died earlier this year.