Concord of Sweet Sounds

The Concord of Sweet Sounds is a 1963 Australian television play starring Stuart Wagstaff, directed by Henri Safran and written by Patricia Hooker. Henry Gilbert played a musical genius.[3][4] Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[5]

The Concord of Sweet Sounds
Directed byHenri Safran
Written byPatricia Hooker
Distributed byABC
Release date
18 December 1963 (Sydney)[1]
8 January 1964 (Melbourne)[2]
Running time
60 mins
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Pianist Robert Gehrman arrives in Sydney. Maggy is his secretary. He is told he may never play again.

Cast
  • Henry Gilbert as pianist Robert Gehrman
  • Gaynor Mitchell as Maggie his secretary
  • Stuart Wagstaff as Robert's American antagonist, Alexander Croyston
  • Leonard Bullen as Hennessy
  • Mark McManus as Bill
  • Carla Cristan

Production

Patricia Hooker was best known for writing radio. Henri Safran had been producing Four Corners.[6]

Reception

The critic for the Sydney Morning Herald wrote that:

In the imagination of most authors who dramatise the lives of concert pianists, not much can happen before flying fingers take off on the Revolutionary Study, or soulful eyes gaze out over the Liebestraum. "Concord of Sweet Sounds... while it is centred on a concert pianist, for the most part happily avoids such effusions... It contains several portraits of typed concert-world people, but its observations, even if they are conventional, are apt and convincing. The actors were admirably chosen in a splendidly fluent production by Henri Safran. "Henry Gilbert, as a veteran concert star facing retirement, was mild but dominating, with craggy, proud head and much silver hair. Stuart Wagstaff, as his musical antagonist, the smooth and dynamic young American conductor, was perhaps made to be harsher than would be likely, but he clearly, illustrated the new order against the old. Carla Cristan found the calm determination within the starry-eyed – aspiring student, and Gaynor Mitchell conveyed the devotion and final exasperation of the faithful secretary. While this brief play did little more than give a glimpse of a group of people bound to music in various ways, it did so with refreshing competence and understanding.[7]

The Critic for the Sun Herald said it was one of the better ABC plays - "the script was rational and believable and the production was smooth."[8]

Hooker and director Safran later collaborated on A Season in Hell (1964).

Radio Production

The play was adapted for radio by the ABC in 1964.[9] This production was broadcast on the BBC on 3 February 1965, produced by Eric John.[10]

Cast
  • Nigel Lovell as Gerhmann
  • Lyndall Barbour as Maggy Carson
  • Lola Brooks as Rachel Linden
  • Alistair Duncan as Alexander Croyston
  • Stewart Ginn as George Hennessey

References
  1. "TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS". The Canberra Times. 38 (10, 722). Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 18 December 1963. p. 45. Retrieved 18 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. "TV Guide". The Age. 2 January 1964. p. 27.
  3. "Sydney Writer's". The Canberra Times. 18 December 1963. p. 45. Retrieved 5 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS". The Canberra Times. 18 December 1963. p. 45. Retrieved 5 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  6. "Play by Woman". Sydney Morning Herald. 9 December 1963. p. 16.
  7. "Music and Drama". Sydney Morning Herald. 19 December 1963. p. 9.
  8. "Shows for Christmas". Sydney Morning Herald. 22 December 1963. p. 59.
  9. "Radio programmes". The Canberra Times. 38 (10, 903). Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 18 July 1964. p. 13. Retrieved 18 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. "Afternoon Theatre". The Radio Times (2151): 40. 28 January 1965.

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