''The Concord of Sweet Sounds'' is a 1963 Australian television play starring

Stuart Wagstaff Stuart Wagstaff (13 February 192510 March 2015) was an English-born Australian entertainer who was active in all genres of the industry including theatre, television and film and music and stage management. Wagstaff was born in Great Durnfor ...

, directed by

Henri Safran Henri Safran (born 7 October 1932) is a Paris-born director who worked extensively in Australia. He worked in French television, then in Britain, before moving to Australia in 1960 to work with the ABC. He became an Australian citizen in 1963 but ...

and written by

Patricia Hooker ''Patricia Hooker'' (17 February 1933 – 2001) was an Australian writer who worked extensively in England. She wrote for TV, radio and the stage. She wrote ''The Golden Road'', the first play on British television that was both written by a woman ...

. Henry Gilbert played a musical genius. Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.

Plot

Pianist Robert Gehrman arrives in Sydney. Maggie is his secretary who is in love with him. He is told he may never play again. The story also involves a brilliant young musical student who wants to follow in Gerhman's footsteps but has no money, and an American conductor feels Gehrman is old fashioned.

Cast

* Henry Gilbert as pianist Robert Gehrman * Gaynor Mitchell as Maggie his secretary *

as Robert's American antagonist, Alexander Croyston * Leonard Bullen as Hennessy *

Mark McManus Mark McManus (21 February 1935 – 6 June 1994) was a Scottish actor. He has played roles in British television series '' Sam,'' '' Bulman, The Brothers, Strangers,'' and ''Dramarama'' and starred in the feature film '' 2000 Weeks''. He was ...

as Bill * Carla Cristan

Production

Patricia Hooker was best known for writing radio. Henri Safran had been producing ''Four Corners''. It was the first TV performance from Gaynor Mitchell. Henri Safran had returned from Europe several months previously but been working on ''Four Corners''.

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.

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

Radio Production

The play was adapted for radio by hooker and performed on the ABC in 1963 and 1964. This production was broadcast on the BBC on 3 February 1965, produced by Eric John.

Cast

* Nigel Lovell as Gerhmann *

Lyndall Barbour Lyndall Harvey Barbour (19 May 1916 – 10 October 1986) was an Australian actress, primarily of radio, although she also added stage and television work (both series and made-for-television movies) to her repertoire. Born in Egypt to Australian p ...

as Maggy Carson * Lola Brooks as Rachel Linden *Alistair Duncan as Alexander Croyston * Stewart Ginn as George Hennessey

References

External links

''Concord of Sweet Sounds''
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

''Concord of Sweet Sounds''
at

AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature), usually referred to simply as AustLit, is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration betwee ...

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2019 Australian television plays Films directed by Henri Safran 1963 television plays