Scan 15
Musical Courier 1891-05-13: Vol 22 Iss 586, 1891
98 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 482. See the scan on archive.org.
1very large and overheated audience. (The hall is not a cool one, despite its size).
3The concerto, which we have heard from Mr. Rummel and Mr. Joseffy, went very smoothly—too smoothly, in fact, for its dramatic force and almost barbaric fire and fury. Miss Adele Aus der Ohe is altogether too ladylike in her style to interpret Mr. Tschaikowsky's passion laden phrases.
5She played in a prim, neat fashion, that utterly killed the fragrance of the delicate scherzo with its valse-like rhythm.
7The work was eminently better interpreted by Helen Hopekirk with the Nikisch band in Boston.
9Mr. Tschaikowsky conducted in his usual vigorous fashion and with the pianist was recalled many times.
11The afternoon closed with the "Parsifal" numbers, about which could be written "Comme ci, comme ça," as our French friends say.
13The last night of the festival called forth the following novelty:
15Saturday Evening.
16"Israel in Egypt" oratorio ……………………………………… Händel
17For soli, double chorus and orchestra.
18Soloists—Miss Kelly, Mrs. Toedt, Mrs. Alves, Mr. Dippel, Mr. Fischer and Mr. Bushnell.
20The musical setting of the mythical plagues of Egypt has been duly dwelt upon in these columns during the eleven years of our journalistic existence, so there is very little to say except that it received a very excellent interpretation, and that Mr. Wm. B. Tuthill, the architect, received a floral decoration from the members of the Oratorio Society.
22And now the lesson to be learned from the festival is that musical festivals at the end of a long season are a bore, unless novelties of a striking character are offered. The novelty on this occasion, besides the superb hall, which we will, like the poor, always have with us, was Mr. Tschaikowsky.
24But then we did not get enough of him, we felt like continually crying out for more, like Oliver Twist. We can always have Händel and Mendelssohn, but to see the great Russian in the flesh is a rare thing, so we think we are justified in saying that we should have been given less Damrosch and more Tschaikowsky, without reflecting the least on the former, who comported himself throughout the festival in an earnest, dignified and modest manner. one of two readings
25But then we did not get enough of him, we felt like continually crying out for more, like Oliver Twist. We can always have Händel and Mendelssohn, but to see the great Russian in the flesh is a rare thing, so we think we are justified in saying that we should have been given less Damrosch and more Tschaikow- one of two readings
27sky, without reflecting the least on the former, who comported himself throughout the festival in an earnest, dignified and modest manner. one of two readings
29All said and done, let us ring down the curtain on the May music festival of 1891.
31SEIDL AND THE THIRD "LEONORE" OVERTURE.
33THE following letter of Anton Seidl will prove no less interesting to the readers of THE MUSICAL COURIER than Mr. Reichmann's recent analysis of his conception of the character of "Hans Sachs," in "Die Meistersinger." We give the same in as nearly accurate a translation as the somewhat involved sentences of the German original will allow:
35Editors Musical Courier:
36Will you kindly give me space for the answering of a question which several times, and by different parties, has been put to me?
38It has been asked what reasons I could give in justification of my performance of the third great "Leonore" overture of Beethoven (in the representations of "Fidelio" which I conducted at the Metropolitan Opera House) after the prison scene, instead of at the commencement of the opera or between the first and second acts.
40For this, it is true, I have none but my own idea. I consider "Fidelio" a Solomon song of love in classical art. The entire structure of the work is gigantic, but gradual (stufenweise). In the opening jocose duet between "Marcellina" and "Jacquinos," and again in the succeeding aria of "Marcellina," one does not at all imagine that one is witnessing a highly tragic opera, it all sounds so simple, jocular and guileless. It is only after that one begins to perceive the earnestness of the situation.
42The great "Leonore" overture, however, is the kernel of the entire dramatic work, combining as it does the dark prison, the loving wife, the delivery from death and the great joy of the reunited couple. It therefore seems to me that the "Leonore" overture is not fittingly placed at the beginning of the opera and Beethoven himself must have felt this, for he wrote the light and fluent E major overture to prepare the listener for the innocent beginning of the opera.
44I likewise do not think the joyful "Leonore" overture is in its right place after the first act, before the prison scene, for through it the sinister introductory music which so tragically and poignantly depicts the sufferings of the doomed "Florestan" would be deprived of its gloom and would thus lose its effectiveness.
46But what noble and elevating thoughts must be awakened in the listener, when, after the saving of "Florestan" through his so longed for wife, when after the triumphal notes of their unspeakable joy over their reunion have died away, when the curtain has dropped upon this noble picture, when then the listener once more allows the unselfish sacrifice of the infinitely loving wife to pass before his mental eye in the elevating strains of the master? I even imagine that while the wife who saved him is leading him up the stairs from the dark vault to the light of freedom "Florestan" should be accompanied by these wonderful tones which praise "the Eternal in Woman." This overture must in Beethoven's mind have been his Solomon song of love for "Leonore," just as Wagner's grandiose funeral march was composed in praise of his god-like hero "Siegfried."
48In the "Götterdämmerung" the "Funeral March" is likewise used as a recapitulation of the preceding tragic action; why should not the superb "Leonore" overture serve to once more unfold before the listener the magnificent picture of "Leonore's" wifely faithfulness?—and for this reason I choose as the most fitting place for the overture to perform it after the prison scene; moreover I have always found that then it really produces the most powerful effect upon the audience. Not before the beginning of the opera, as music for the assembling of the public; not after the first act as entr'acte music, or as a false preparation for the prison scene these titanic tones are to sound; but as the climax of the drama, after the deliverance of the death doomed hero, and as a continuation to his ascent to liberty and light, as is indicated in the heaven storming rushes of the violins. This is the genuine, true music of Beethoven to prepare us for the noble hymn of liberty which forms the last scene.
50Yours truly,
51ANTON SEIDL.
53THE public library of Hamburg, through a bequest of the late Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt, has become the possessor of a most precious relic, viz., the last will and testament of Beethoven. This deeply touching document, which dates from the year of 1802, has several times been published, among others by Schindler and Thayer, and may therefore be supposed to be known to our readers. But the way it came into the possession of Jenny Lind is quite interesting and the following are the circumstances: The original manuscript, which is written on a large sheet of foolscap, was found among a lot of loose sheets of paper and was bought by the Vienna music publisher Artaria, senior, at the public sale of Beethoven's effects in the year 1827. From the hands of Artaria the document, as is stated on the back of the paper, got into the possession, after Breuning's death, of Jacob Hotschevar, who was then the guardian of Beethoven's nephew. From Hotschevar, as is also testified to on the back of the testament, it went to Johann van Beethoven, one of Beethoven's brothers. Then it got into the autograph collection of Aloys Fuchs, from whom the collector Franz Gräffer bought it. The violin virtuoso Ernst, in 1855, bought it of Gräffer and presented it to Otto and Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt as a reward for their gratuitous services at one of Ernst's concerts.
55It is somewhat surprising that the name of Beethoven's one brother, Carl, is in Beethoven's own handwriting, while that of his other brother, Johann, is never mentioned, but that the place for his name is always left blank in the testament. The latter was written on October 6, at Heiligenstadt, in the year 1802, as we said before, and the gloomy mood in which it is conceived causes one to be astonished at the fact that in the same year the serene D major symphony was created, thus showing in what a remarkably short space of time that great man's mind could regain all its elasticity. The document is written with the utmost carefulness and shows but few erasures or changes of wording.
57THE RACONTEUR.
59All Jimmie's horses and Carnegie's men
60Can only Walter make
61Conductor pro tem.
63I WAS forcibly reminded of this Humpty Dumpty-like paraphrase all last week, for, with all Blaine's political and social influence and Andrew Carnegie's financial prestige, Walter Damrosch appeared to be very little more than a figurehead last week at the May Music Festival. But a modest, amiable figurehead I admit.
65Tschaiikowsky—what a delightful surprise he was to all of us!
67*
69The personality of composers is not always a pleasant one, but in Peter Tschaiikowsky one finds a cultured man of the world, excessively modest and retiring.
71We have entertained a musical god during the past week and I fear me greatly that many of us were not aware of the fact.
73I bethought me, as I looked on his earnest face, heavy brow, with its condensed look about the eyes, that there stood a man who might be called the greatest in the country.
75Do you notice I don't say the greatest musician but the greatest man?
77Let me see; of individualities living among us we still have dear old Walt Whitman, who represents a primal force, but in the best of whose work, despite its rugged sincerity, there is always an unfinished quantity.
79James Russell Lowell is still alive, so is gentle Oliver Wendell Holmes. Howells writes novels, Jim Blaine is a mighty force in politics and Bob Ingersoll is a remarkable personality. We have a few strong painters, fewer sculptors, our poets are mainly imitative or echoes; in a word, where in art, music, literature, politics, religion, is just such a forceful, fiery, magnetic man such as Peter Illitich Tschaiikowsky?
81You can't name him.
83This man epitomizes young Russia in his music, he preaches more treason in his music than Alexander Pushkin ever uttered. He is not as profound as Brahms, but he is more poetic.
85Above all he paints better than the Hamburg composer. His brush is dipped into more glowing colors, his palette contains more hues and the barbaric swing of his work is tempered by European culture and restraint.
87*
89Take the piano concertos in B flat minor and G major. They are about as unorthodox as we can well imagine.
91I like the second the better, but in neither of them do I find real writing for the instrument. Tschaiikowsky thinks orchestrally, and if the idea does not suit the keyboard—well, all the worse for the keyboard. There was a story afloat that Nicholas Rubinstein helped him to fix up the piano part of the two concertos.
93From Tschaiikowsky I indirectly got at the true story.
95*
97When Peter (Pete, to be a little familiar—I don't like his middle name at all—what you?) had finished the first work he showed it to his brother-in-law, whom he pronounced to have been a better musician than his brother Tony. They all lived in the same house in Moscow, Rafael Joseffy
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.