Auckland University Graduation Concert at Auckland Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART

Not much in life is free, but the University of Auckland's Graduation Concert at the Town Hall is just that - as well as being a generous showcase of talent from the university's music department.

The programming coup is Maori Rhapsody by Llewelyn Jones (1894-1978) in its original and often rather grand orchestration - the composer rescored it for military band, and it maintained a place in that repertoire, being a favourite of the Royal Marine Band during the 1953-54 royal tour.

Its life as an orchestral piece had been brief: a single premiere performance on November 23, 1939, by the Auckland Symphony Orchestra. Nestled in a programme that included Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and a Guilmant Organ Concerto, it was commended by the New Zealand Herald critic as having "brilliant moments" while its Auckland composer received an ovation from the audience.

The orchestral score languished in the Hocken Library until last year, when David Kayrouz, through a serendipitous contact with Jones' daughter, organised a performance at the Devonport Arts Festival in March.

Two months later it's crossing the harbour to the Town Hall.

What of Llewelyn Jones the man? He's remembered in the university music department for the annual prize funded in his memory, and in John Thomson's History of New Zealand Music there is a passing mention of his brass band compositions - but these were just one aspect of his career.

In those halcyon days, when city radio stations had their own orchestras, Jones arranged light music for the 1ZB players.

He was also in charge of the orchestra at the Peter Pan Cabaret, which was about as racy as Auckland nightlife was back then.

His son Frank, who laboriously copied scores for his father, including the full orchestral score of Maori Rhapsody, paints a picture of a man who "always kept himself busy".

A World War I veteran, who was shot while playing violin on the beach at Gallipoli, Jones returned home to lead the Regent Theatre Orchestra, providing music before the silent movies were screened.

A man of diverse skills, he travelled the city tuning pianos during the Depression, and he was a zealous woodworker, a craft that enabled him to build his own piano cases.

This man was the original "bloke in a shed" when it came to cars, and Frank Jones remembers being hauled out of bed in the early hours to help his father who was tinkering with a family car in the garage.

Much of Jones' output as a composer was on the light side - dance pieces, simple songs and so on - but his Maori Rhapsody was something of a mission.

This medley of Maori melodies includes the expected favourites, but there are also a Canoe Song and a Lullaby which Jones himself transcribed from the singing of a Te Arawa woman in Rotorua.

Maori Rhapsody takes us back to times when life was much simpler. While such arrangements may not be to everyone's tastes these days, if Alfred Hill's "tiny ball on end of string" brings an affectionate smile to your lips, then Jones' will sweep you away.

You can hear the lilt of Hill's Waiata Poi in places and those melodramatic surges, including a maestoso opening that could have slipped off a Liszt page, show how much Jones learned from his movietone days.

Most extraordinary of all is a rip-roaring setting of the haka, with wild orchestral slides and groans, bar-by-bar mood swings and an opportunity supplied for vocal refrain.

There have been numerous attempts to combine kapa haka and orchestra in our crossover-obsessed days. Maori Rhapsody provides both a precedent and a model.

* Tomorrow, May 9, 7.30pm