The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 14

THE AGE, Monday 18 July 1988 Edited by ALAN MORISON 14 Arts Entertainment RSI-style threat to topees a growtog mnisiciains9 careers Poor programming mars fine playing I BE affected, simply because they are required to play more than any other section of the orchestra. However, wind players can suffer from chest lung and throat complaints and painful conditions affecting the facial muscles which may eventually require corrective plastic surgery. Following a survey of five Australian orchestras, Dr Fry found that in players over the age of 30, one in every two musicians suffers from overuse syndrome. He says the complaint is also common in young music students cramming for exams, with one in 10 students aged between 10 and 20 suffering from overuse. For reasons that are as yet medically unclear, girls suffer from the complaint more than boys.

"It may be related to hormonal changes," he said. Dr Fry explained that contrary to the stereotyped notion that unrelenting practice is necessary to develop ability and technique, quality not quantity is the rule for both professional and aspiring musicians. "I tell professional musicians it's possible to achieve the desired standard with only five hours practice a day. For children, I'd recommend maybe half-an-hour at a time. They should practise little but often." The complaint is not universally recognised.

A recent article in a prestigious British medical publication dubbed the condition "kangaroo implying it was specifically Australian and caused by poor playing technique. However, according to Dr Fry, the great Russian-born violinist Jascha Hei- Report ROSSLYN BEEBY Educators, Mr Jacks is delivering a paper on overuse syndrome to the society's first international seminar on "Music He suggested that any sceptic who may think overuse syndrome was "a bludgers or wimp's condition" should try the following experiment "Sit with your arms outstretched in the same position for an extended period of time. See how long you can do that before the muscles object" Also participating in Music Medicine is a Melbourne surgeon, Dr Hunter Fry, who has surveyed the members of nine symphony orchestras (including the famous Chicago Symphony Orchestra) for overuse syndrome. He reported that more than 50 per cent of the musicians had symptoms relating to overuse. "You are looking at people who can spend up to eight hours a day performing," he said.

"They are top musicians, players with state of the art technique. They can't afford to let anyone know they are suffering any pain because the profession is too competitive." In the United States, he said, there were hundreds of applicants for rank and file orchestral positions. "There is always the fear that if you are ill, you'll be seen as unreliable and you'll lose your position." String players are among the worst IN terms of the playing, this was a far better concert than the one Litton gave a week earlier with the same orchestra. It opened with a very crisp and attractive performance of the First Symphony of Beethoven, with clean accurate string work, and the woodwinds impeccably tuned and sounding as sweet as a walnut The chording was fine and impressive throughout with strong robust tone from the strings where this was needed, and at other times in the last movement especially precision combined with marked delicacy. And it ended with a pleasant and colorful performance of the complete score of the ballet The Three-Cornered Hat' of Falla, with the orchestra pretty exuberant occasionally a little rough, but generally in good fettle and making a handsome sound.

Suzanne Johnston sang the tiny vocal part with grace and aplomb. Also on the program was the first and, one hopes, the last Australian performance of a Concerto for Orchestra and Amplified Guitar by Steve Gray. This drew some splendid playing, both lyrical and bravura, from the soloist John Williams, and again a great deal of attractive work from the orchestra, including finely pitched and phrased solos from the leader and from the first viola. The music itself is ingeniously scored, and this generates a certain mild Interest perhaps enough to distract you momentarily from a bowl of Waldorf salad. But it is as empty of content as one of last week's milk cartons, tedious, repetitive, derivative stuff which had nothing to add to music when it was composed in 1987, has nothing in 1988, and will continue to have nothing for ever and ever.

This is the kind of mush which only TWO YEARS ago, during a rehearsal of Schoenberg's 'Pel-leas and Melisande', Lawrie Jacks, the principal viola with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, suddenly found he could not lift his instrument to his shoulder. "The pain was incredible," he recalled. "The act of playing was simply beyond me." He consulted a doctor immediately, expecting the diagnosis to be stress and the cure to be at least a week's rest. Instead, the doctor prescribed a 10-week break, and hinted that Mr Jacks might have to consider another career. He was not suffering from stress but overuse syndrome a musculoskeletal condition similar to repetitive strain injury which has threatened and, in many cases, ended the careers of hundreds of classical musicians.

Fortunately Mr Jacks recovered, but the process was neither smooth nor happy. For four weeks, he was unable to perform even the simplest physical tasks. "It created tremendous emotional strain. It's very demoralising to be constantly asking your wife or your children to do things for you," he said. "You are used to being the provider and the doer, and suddenly you're helpless.

I'd spent 16 years building up a career as a professional musician and now I was looking down the barrel of a loaded and cocked gun, realising that all I'd achieved could be lost overnight I'd never for a moment considered any other career but music" This week in Canberra, at a meeting of the International Society of Music Good effects, Adrian Pasdar and Jenny Wright in 'Near Dark': lovebites? I I 7 1 4 fetz, was known to suffer from the condition, as did a number of famous pianists and conductors. The conductor laureate of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Hiroyuki Iwakl, recently underwent surgery in Japan for a painful neck complaint which he claimed was caused by "conducting too much modern During a recent visit to the US, Dr Fry checked medical records dating back to last century and found that overuse was not a recent phenomenon. The first clear description of the condition occurred in 1861 when it was called "exhaustion Mr Jacks said music teachers in particular must realise that they have a Music KENNETH HINCE IMbouM Symphony Orchestra, under 7 Andrew LMok soloists John WWams rv (guitar), Suzanne Johnston (soprano). Red Series Concert (Concert Hall, Thursday Saturday). underlines the dilemma of the concert guitarist If you forget about arrangements, his repertory Is quite thin, and much of it is of low quality.

Williamson fact played an arrangement from Albe-niz elsewhere in the program, and although he did it brilliantly it was still not quite convincing. Nearly all of Albeniz's music -for piano is essentially planistic, of and for the instrument If he had wantedto write this music for guitar, he would have done It himself, and there is no percentage gain in having someone else do it for him. Williams also displayed his excellent playing in another Albeniz movement I think the third from the second bookof the 'Iberia' pieces. In a rather crabbed and distorted arrangement for guitar and orchestra by Steve Gray. On the whole this was very indifferent programming from the ABC, and It was ironic that the playing was so mttfch better than it had been in the earlier concert where the music had been taken from Mozart and Tchaikovsky: It was a program which recalled the mysteriously erratic opening of this 1988 Red Series.

I cannot remember what is to come, but I imagine that it can only get better. 3 The performance reviewed was Xbe first given last Thursday. flight" Vintage viewing from the British responsibility not to overwork young musicians in the quest for "good grades and star He said teaching techniques must be revised to eliminate "repetitive bulk and meaningless, time wasting Professional musicians also needed to be made aware of preventative strategies, he said. "You need to monitor the amount of playing that you do and to make sure that the effort is worthwhile. "Music is a very physically demanding profession and a player needs to know how to tailor their energy to the occasion.

There are times when it's better to play accurately rather than passionately." Director Kathryn Bigelow cowrote the film with Eric Red (The but 'Near Dark' has neither the menacing style of nor a strong central performer like that film's Rutger Hauer. Effective stunts and special effects (including "body don't make up for an anaemic script average acting and the dull music score by Tangerine Dream. Although Bill Paxton entertains as an outrageously delinquent vampire called Severen van Sickle, helped by a few funny one-liners, BigeloWs movie is an awkward blend of horror spoof and genuine shocker. but awkward mixture of satire and genuine horror Film MIKE DALY TftT" TH THE dancer, Angle Potsch, will perform her new work 'Flight of the Dog at Extensions, 11 Orr Street Carlton, at 9 pm on 29 and 30 July and at 8 pm on 3ll July. "The performance is about balance and fluidity In one's life," she says.

was born in the year of the dog and my name means The dog is an 3 underworld image and the angel Is above the earth. There are sequences whicl Led by Jesse (Lance Henricksen) a scarred Civil War veteran, the clan's idea of eating out involves the patrons of late-night bars. No prizes for guessing who provides the drinks. Caleb, still not a killer, gets his blood from Mae secondhand, she has him drinking out of hers and establishes his credentials by saving the clan during a shoot-out Blood ties of a more conventional kind impel Caleb to rescue his father and young sister from the clan. Able to embrace the sunrise again, thanks to a transfusion from his veterinarian father, Caleb must face the vampire clan and somehow save his true love.

Television US are earth bound and others which suggest THEATRE posters from the Federal Republic of Germany are being exhibited at the Mornlngton Peninsula Arts Centre nntil 28 August -i in I Promising brew of food, funerals and voodoo By BARBARA HOOKS Frank's Place (9, 8pm) Four Corners (2, 9pm) TV Mart Mowk it worth consktoring A A exotNtnt www not to bt missed Review 5 BARBARA HOOKS Then there is the diet the same bloody menu every night The only choice is between groups AB, Rh negative or positive which brings me to a profound medical question. Should vampires seek victims with compatible blood types? In 'Near Dark', a contemporary vampire romance, a young Oklahoma cowboy Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) falls for Mae (Jenny Wright) one night But the blonde drifter's idea of necking is of the anged variety. Her lovebite turns Caleb into a reluctant vampire, forced to join a scruffy quintet roaming the highways at night in a blacked-out campervan. 6 JO Learning Network. 7.00 Children's Programs.

(S) 10.00 Schools Programs. Afternoon 12.00 EastEnders. (R) (S) 1.00 Parental Guidance Recommended. 1.10 Staying In Touch. 1.40 Hunter.

1.50 Schnuddel BuddeL 2.00 A New World (For Sure). 2J0 How We Used To Live 1874-1887. 50 Australian Eye. 3.00 Sesame Street 3.55 The Family Ness. 4.00 Play School.

(S) 4 JO Kaboodle. (R) (S) 4.55 Telebug. 5.00 Secret Valley. (G) (R) 5J0 Spartakus And The Sun Beneath The Sea. Evening 8.00 Inspector Gadget Cartoon series.

(G)(R) 6.30 EastEnders. British drama series set in London. (S) 7.00 News, Sport, Weather. 7 JO The 7 JO Report Current affairs. With John Jost 8.00 Brush Strokes.

BBC comedy series. Jack's love of women gets him into a lot of trouble. With Karl Howman. (S) 8J8 News Update. 8 JO Bread.

BBC comedy series about an enterprising family in Liverpool. With Jean Boht and Peter Howitt (PGR) (S) 9.00 Four Comers. ABC current affairs series. The Duke's New Deal. Washington reporter Marian Wilkinson interviews Michael Dukakis about the US budget deficit the war in central America and the ANZUS Alliance.

9.45 Rubbery Figures. Best of the political satire series featuring Peter Nicholson's puppet commentary. (R) 9.50 The Trecey Utknan Show. US series comedy series. 10.15 The World Tonight With Richard Parfreyman.

10.45 Ricky Nelson and Fats Domino. Ricky Nelson and Fats Domino perform a selection of their greatest hits. 12X0 Close. 6.00 Connection. And Cross.

12.00 horror (MTV) with on the Quincy and 4.30 Fortune. Burgess. Game 6.00 drama modelling events that forever. and 6 JO 7.00 affairs 7 JO A rural flame hospital. Shirley with 8.30 series.

on a York both With Keith 10 JO Clive 11 JO the brothers, With Regina. 12.00 Today. 3.00 4X0 Street Onedm Near Dark (Hoyts). O'D be a vampire? At the faintest hint of sunlight the bloodsucking clan in 'Near Dark' turn into overdone steaks, or inhuman fireballs if they don't cover up in time. It's a high price to pay for superhuman strength and immortality.

TeleScope BARBARA HOOKS nerals and black magic at its heart, how could it go wrong? SPEAKING of nosh the Ten Network's glossy, bound Olympic newsletter reveals that the 13,000 athletes and officials will be stoked by more than 750,000 meals (designed to meet the dietary and religious requirements of participants), at buffet-style sittings offering a choice of between 70 and 80 different items from a menu to be changed daily and rotated on a five-day cycle. Maybe eating should be declared an event all of its own and televised. SO much for Dorian Wilde's Today' show "exclusive" about Tony Barber's audition for 'Les Miserables' 24 hours after you read it here first ARE you possessed of a bright bubbly personality, a good general knowledge of Australia, a clipboard, a pen and a smile? If so, Taffner Ramsay Productions, the producers of The Oz Game', the ABC's new quiz show, suggest you come armed with same to the ABC studio auditions, Gordon Street Elstern-wick, at 6.30 tonight in teams of two, consisting of one adult 21 or older, and one student 13 to 16 years. Team members must be related in some way and proof of ID will be required of students. WOULD that it was so easy a natty Viacom promotion for its 'Superboy series advises: "Become a symbol of strength.

Just peel it off, put it on and watch your ratings soar." Some people in television will do anything for a ratings point but I can't see too many of our more conservative network executives plastering their Hemden shirt fronts with the attached red and yellow sticker except perhaps for one, who also lias a nice line in water pistol shootouts with staff. TV AM. 7 JO The Cartoon (C) (R) 9 JO Fat Cat Friends. 10.00 Bridges To (PGR) 11.00 Eleven AM. Afternoon FILM.

The Omen. 1970 stars Gregory Peck. (AO) (R) Includes interview Demi Moore and a feature film Seventh Sign. 2J0 M.E. (PGR) (R) 3J0 Tom Jerry.

(R) 4.00 Wombat (C) Lassie. (G) 5.00 Wheel Of Game show. With John 5 JO Press Your Luck. show. With Ian Turpie.

Evening Home And Away. Australian serial. Carry makes her debut unaware that back in Summer Bay could effect her life With Sharyn Hodgson Vanessa Downing. (G) (S) News, Sport, Weather. Hinch at Seven.

Current program. Country Practice. Australian drama serial about a community. Terence's old starts work at the Jo teds Frank and of her plan to go away Rob. (G) The Equalizer.

US drama McCall is forced to work dangerous mission in New with a former terrorist he despises and mistrusts. Edward Woodward and Szarabajka. (AO) Newiworid. Presented by Robertson. Brothers.

US sitcom about misadventures of three one of whom is discovered to be homosexual. Robert Walden and Paul (AO) News Overnight including ZOO Newswortd. (R) Special Branch. (PGR) (R) The Duchess Of Duke (PGR) (R) 5X0 The Une. (PGR) (R) 6.00 Real Gnostbusters.

6.30 Daybreak. 7.00 Good Morning eUJresBeaV- 00 2OI RVOffniH Mefcourne. 10.00 MuWgrubs. 10 JO News. 11X0 Another World.

US drama serial. (PGR) Afternoon 12.00 Santa Barbara. US drama series. (PGR) 1X0 The Bold and The BeeutmM. (PGR) US drama series.

1 JO Too Close For Comfort US comedy series. (G) 2.00 Emergency. US drama series. (PGR) (R) 3X0 Six Million Dollar Man. US adventure series.

(G) (R) 4.00 Fudgey Didge. Hosted by Jared Robinson. (C) 4J0 FBpper. (R) 5X0 The Munster. US comedy (R) 5J0 Perfect Match, Game show.

Hosted by Cameron Daddo. Evening 6X0 News, Sport, Weather. 7.00 Neighbours. Australian drama serial. Scott reveals some astounding history about Ramsay Street With Jason Donovan, KyUe Minogue.

(S) 7 JO Tour Of Duty. US drama series set during the Vietnam War. Bravo Company is ordered to escort a group of villagers to a new location. With Terence Knox and Stephen Caffrey. (PGR) (R) 8.30 RUN.

Hank Panky. 1982 comedy-thriller. A young spy, pursued by assassins, meets an architect in a taxi and pursuades him to help her. it stars Gene Wilder and Gilda Radnor. (AO) 1040 Starman.

US comedy-drama series about an alien who returns to earth to help the son he left behind. With Robert Hays, C. B. Barnes and Michael Cavanaugh. (PGR) 11.40 Years Of Danger, Years Of Hope.

Documentary. (G) 140 Mkjhtshrft Rock clips, artist profiles. With David White. (AO) 5X0 Thundereats. (R) 5J0 Marine Boy.

(R) 6.00 Early News. 6J0 Business Today. 7X0 Today. 9.00 Here's Humphrey. 10X0 Qrffrent Strokes.

(R) 10J0 General Hospital (PGR) 11 JO News. Afternoon 12.00 The Midday Show with Ray Martin. (PGR) 1 JO Days of Our Lives. (PGR) 2J0 The Young and The Restless. (PGR) 3.30 Maude.

(PGR) (R) 4X0 C'mon Kids. 5.00 Live At 5. Magazine program. 5.58 Keno. Evening 6.00 News, Sport, Weather.

6 JO A Current Affair. 7.00 Sale Of The Century. (S) 7 JO The Cosby Show. US comedy series. Theo is in the spotlight after reeling in the body of a mobster.

8.00 Frank's Place. New US comedy series. A Boston professor inherits a Creole restaurant in New Orleans from the father he never knew. With Tim Reki. (PGR) b29 Crhnestoppers.

8 JO FILM. Creator. 1985 comedy. An eccentric university-based scientist tries to revive his long-dead wife. It stars Peter OToole and artel Hemingway.

(AO) 10.40 Graham Kennedy's News Show. (PGR) 11.40 Soap. US send up of daytime drama. With Katherine Hehnond and Billy Crystal. (AO) (R) 12.10 FILM.

Drive-ln. 1976 comedy about a night in the life of some high-spirited teenagers. It stars Lisa Lemole, Glen Marshower. (AO) (R) 2.05 FILM. John Paul Jones.

1959 Biographical drama about the US naval patriot Stars Robert Stack. (G)(R) 4J6 Shadow Chasers. US adventure series. Two young psychic investigators combat malevolent spirits. With Dennis Dugan and Nina Foch.

(PGR) 5 JO 8gt Preston Of The Yukon. TlKE 'Cheers', add a generous serve of Creole cooking, a dash of voodoo, a highly-strung staff who take umbrage at the drop of a prawn gumbo, a black Bostonian college professor as maitre d', and you have 'Frank's Place', a most promising new sitcom starting on Nine at 8 pm tonight Frank is Frank Parrish, a cultured and accomplished man in his mid-30s who finds he has inherited a New Orleans noshery from the father who abandoned him when he was two years old. When Frank arrives to take possession of his unexpected legacy, he finds the staff hostile, the restaurant rundown, and, to top it all, a voodoo doll in the top drawer of his father's desk. But appearances deceive. Chez Louisiane is the television equivalent of K-Paul's, (Paul Prudhomme's famous New Orleans eatery where the regulars queue for hours to savor the portly chefs spi-cey blackened fish, among other taste-bud stripping delights) and he has second thoughts about selling.

Tonight's episode is very much a scene setter. We meet the staff, who include the cook chef) Big Arthur, waitress Anna May, and dowager fixture, Miss Marie, Tiger and Shorty, and some of the clientele the Right Reverend Tyrone Deal, one of God's earthly movers and shakers, the improbably, but exotically named Bertha Griffln-La-mour, the local funeral director, and her striking daughter, Hannah, the local embalmer and a wicked practical joker, town lawyer Bubba Weisberger and stand-over competitor Pokie Le Carre. 'Frank's Place' stars its executive producer, Tim Reid, a science graduate-turned-writer and performer, and his wife Daphne as the statuesque Hannah. Together with creator and writer Hugh Wilson they have had fun with this black comedic piece, its quirky lines and irreverent sight gags. One to watch, if it lives up to expectations.

With food, fu- WIAT a weekend it has beeojor vintage British It began on Friday night with James Cellan Jones's 'Fortunes of War'. On Saturday night (2, 8.30), it was toe turn of Kenith Trodd, the veteran British producer who paid homage to Alfred Hitchcock In Michael Thomas's 1885, BBC adaptation of John Bowen's noveL The McGuffln'. From a television screen within the television screen, (via British 'Mastermind', in fact) we learned that the title Is also the nameof the device Hitchcock used to get the plot moving. In this instance, the McGuffln was-a compromising photograph of the Home Secretary, and it fell into the hands4 Of Charles Dance playing Paul Hatcher, the film critic, playing Jimmy Stewart From his 'Rear Window1, archltectural-ly and dnematographically speakfife, he became drawn Into a dastardly plot involving a frail, terrorised widow, tier vicious transvestite grandson, a MWe-movie star, an Italian porno film festival, and a rather appealing bull terrfeY, almost all of whom lay rather messtiy dead by the end of the telemovie. 'The McGuffln' had a few slumps.

Among them, were Michael Altken out-ockering the ockers as an Australian baddie, Rob Blue, and a cop-out ending. The Detective', made in the same year, resolved exactly the same plot gtver take a venal sin or two (Tom BelTs Home Secretary liked little girls, Charles Dance's preferred boys), mnen more satisfactorily. But Kenith Trodd and the director, Colin Bucksey, enjoyed themselves immensely planting little HltchcocUan signposts for ourjfe-lectation. And the cast, which also Included the estimable Anna Maasey and Ann Todd, went along with the idea enthusiastically thai, on balance. It wall as Hitch himself might have said, fL Afternoon 2.55 Bicentennial Diary.

3.00 TV Ed. 4.00 Vox PopuU. (R) 4 JO KatoMwoprS.OO Oshin. (R) Evening 6.00 The Noise. Contemporary music.

With Annette Shun Wah. 6 JO World News. 7.00 Sport Report. With Janette Fulford, Les Murray. 7 JO The Struggles For Poland.

British documentary series: Bright Days of Tomorrow, focuses on the post-war years 1945-1956 which saw a spectacular push towards communism; a cycle of Stalinist terror and finally, a rising wave of popular rebellion against the new regime. 8 JO Treasure Hunt Kalian detective series about a policeman who specialises in recovering stolen works of art A penniless Countess of Alarico commissions the theft of a valuable chalice. 9 JO Tonight with Paul Murphy. Current affairs program. 10.00 Great Conductors.

Italian documentary series on six of the world's great conductors. Tonight Peter Maaq, Swiss conductor and interpreter of opera, theatre and Mozart 11X0 Hope. Greek drama about a woman who copes with her Job, husband, children and lover. (R) 1100 Bicentennial Diary. 1246 Close.

Lili3 vL Every Thursday, 'The TV and Radio magazine, GUIDE writers preview and tell you about the Age' publishes the liftout GREEN GUIDE. GREEN the week's entertainment shows that are worth watching or listening to. movie, video and fi Full program guide, reviews, plus all the entertainment news. Guide is FREE every 'The Age1 TV and Radio Thursday. i f.iv'.