Next Monday marks the 70th anniversary of the first public performance by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. That was on March 6, 1947, when the National Orchestra, as it was then called, performed at the Wellington Town Hall.
JC Beaglehole gave a very controversial review of the NZSO's first performance The Listener, 21 March 1947
Many recordings of the early orchestra are held in the sound archives of Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision and Sarah Johnston plays us a couple of them.
