Scan 6
Musical Courier 1891-05-20: Vol 22 Iss 587, 1891
70 lines. Read by computer on 19 September 2026. Printed page 523. See the scan on archive.org.
1Salutamus te, Petrum Tschaikowskiensem, and a short shrift for your detractors.
3We will not have much chance to hear Sybil Sanderson, with her vocal Eiffel Tower, for she has signed with Director Carvalho. Clementina de Vere is good enough for me, anyhow.
5A giddy and gushing correspondent (feminine gender) writes as follows in the Utica "Tribune" anent the recent unmusical festival:
6All the while that the baton was moving Mr. Damrosch led behind the leader's back by the motions of his head and body as he swayed upon the piano stool, and when Tchaikowsky beamed upon them at the end and praised them in broken English he had not the least idea that the applause was meant for anybody but himself.
7This was supposed to be at a rehearsal where Tchaikowsky conducted, and young Walter Damrosch sat by and superintended operations. The idea of that fatuous chorus applauding Walter and Tchaikowsky foolishly imagining it was intended for him is about as delightful a specimen of inverted humor as I have recently encountered. Elsewhere the young lady says that Walter looks a little like an old-fashioned daguerrotype.
8He certainly conducts like one very often.
10"She sings like a canary." "Yes; but her bill is a thousand times bigger. I had her at my last musicale."
11Said of Miss Mary Howe!
13At last we have the true story of the Pachmann affair, and from one of the interested parties. To read it one would suppose the little virtuoso's teeth and technic were on a par. The following appeared in Anthony Comstock's pet journal, "Town Topics."
14A well-known amusement manager in this city, whose pair of Yorkshire terriers is as familiar to frequenters of Union square as is the tall, red faced policeman on duty in the middle of Twenty-third street to strollers past the Fifth Avenue Hotel, astonished the employees of the License Bureau, to which he has been an annual visitor for the last eight years, by applying a week ago for three licenses and dog tags instead of claiming the two that hitherto satisfied his wants. When the clerk who made out the licenses, previous to delivering them up with three small squares of copper bearing respectively the numbers 1197, 1198 and 1199, inquired as to the race of the third dog, he was told to simply set the animal down as of Germano-Turkish breed. It afterward transpired that the third license and tag were intended for Mr. Vladimir de Pachmann, the brilliant Chopin player, whose eccentricities lately assumed such proportions that he will hereafter when appearing in public be kept on a chain not exceeding 4 feet in length (according to the ordinance) or securely muzzled, as circumstances may dictate.
15Mr. de Pachmann has an old time renown for odd tastes and ways, but the culmination of a war of words between him and his manager, whom he drew toward him under pretense of a reconciliation and then bit so severely under the left jaw that cauterization was all but necessary, has convinced even the pianist's friends that something must be done for their protection and the public's. The trouble between Mr. de Pachmann and his manager, I learn, grew out of an attempt to quarter one of his relatives upon his employers. Angered at his ill success, he demanded a passage ticket to Europe, to which he had no title whatever, and foiled in this he allowed his canine nature to get the better of his judgment. It is possible that this novel trait of the great Chopinist may make people flock to his performances even more eagerly than in the past. As some members of Mr. de Pachmann's family may still be unprovided for, however, the use of muzzle or leader should meet with general commendation.
17I met Pachmann the other night, and he was in a desperately unhappy mood until I mentioned Liszt's name. The little Chopinist brightened up immediately. "Liszt is the greatest god in music; his B minor sonata is the greatest piece of music ever penned. Beethoven is simply nobody compared with Liszt!"
18I fancy that this would even be too much for Joseffy or Friedheim, great Liszt worshippers that they are.
20By the way, Friedheim is coming back to us permanently next fall, for Max Spicker has captured him for his Brooklyn conservatory. That he will be a great teacher goes without saying, for he is an earnest thinker and a tremendous worker.
21New York is still levying contribution on musical Europe.
23Tschaikowsky has composed a new opera, "Der Held Unsere Tage," the text by Lermontoff, the latter, if I do not greatly mistake, being also the author of the "Demon," which Rubinstein used as a theme for his opera of that pleasant title.
25Sarasate has a great weakness for Camembert cheese, and the last time he was in London one of his many lady worshippers went to great trouble to get him some of his favorite dainty from Paris. When he was leaving London, however, she presented him with a more sentimental offering in the shape of a garland of flowers in the Spanish colors, which was handed up to him just before he left the platform. "J'aurais préféré le fromage," whispered Sarasate, with a mischievous glance as he passed by the kindly donor, who was sitting in the front row of stalls.
27Nahan Franko will have charge of the music for the Kiralfy's spectacle on the Palisades called "The Fall of Jerusalem." Mr. Franko, to give local color, has engaged Jules Levy and has bought all his instruments of a dealer on Union square.
28Masseltoff, Nahan!
30PERSONALS.
32MARIETTA SIEGFRIED AT LIBERTY.—Miss Marietta Siegfried, who for the past two seasons has been the prima donna of the New York Symphony Club, is now at liberty and will accept engagements for next season. During the summer Miss Siegfried will remain at her home at Seneca Falls, N. Y.
34SAILED.—Walter Damrosch sailed last Thursday for Europe for a well earned rest. The young conductor was completely worn out by his recent arduous labors. Mr. Andrew Carnegie sailed at the same time.
36TREBELLI ON AN EGG TOUR.—During a tour through Scandinavia (says Maria de Mensiaux in "Trebelli: a Biographical Sketch") Trebelli and her companies often experienced great difficulty in obtaining a proper meal. One thing, however, they could invariably fall back upon—eggs; these were always to be had. The company almost lived on them, and the artists used to say this might be called the "Egg Tour." This gave Trebelli the idea of making a design for a scarf pin—a tiny enameled egg in a gold egg cup—and of sending it to a jeweler in Paris. Before they had left Sweden she received the pins, and presented one to each of her company as a souvenir. From Sweden the company went to Russia, where the jeweled egg led to a ludicrous adventure. Trebelli is an admirable linguist, but at this time her knowledge of Russian was limited. At Toula, wanting to order eggs for breakfast, and not knowing the actual word, she first tried to explain in what Russian she knew, then in several other languages, but all to no purpose. Bisaccia, who was present, happened to be wearing one of the famous egg pins, so Trebelli pointed to the miniature egg, and having failed in French, Italian and German said in English, "Look, look!" to attract the waiter's attention. The man smiled, and answering the Russian equivalent of "All right," disappeared. Breakfast was served, and he placed triumphantly before them a hugh dish of fried onions. Trebelli did not know then, what she found out since, that "look" is the Russian word for onions. Bisaccia thought he would make another attempt. Going up to the waiter he repeatedly pointed to his scarf pin, and fearing to use words which might again be misinterpreted, merely ejaculated, "Ah, hum—hum!" The man made signs that he understood at last; but he was a long time gone. Finally he returned with a doctor, having come to the conclusion that Bisaccia was suffering from a bad sore throat.
38GOUNOD'S RECREATION.—Gounod passes much of his leisure time in playing dominoes—certainly a harmless amusement and not so wearing to the brain as chess.
40CZERNY'S INDUSTRIOUSNESS.—Apropos of the notice of Carl Czerny in our last week's number may be quoted the following saying of that industrious worker: "As far back as I can remember I have always taught ten hours a day; I regularly devoted four hours to composition, one to reading, one to meals and six to sleep." Small wonder that his compositions are nearly one thousand in number, when we hear what a passion for work possessed him.
42DVORÁK A DOCTOR.—On June 16 Dvorák will receive the degree of Mus. Doc. from Cambridge University, Eng. On the preceding day there will be a public performance of some of his works.
44THE MADRID MUNICIPALITY'S MUNIFICENCE.—The municipality of Madrid sometimes relieves its more serious duties by paying graceful compliments to eminent artists. At the close of a concert recently given by Mrs. Berthe Marx and Mr. Sarasate, the city fathers presented the lady with a crown of flowers, and the gentleman with a crown of silver, as well as a gold bow bearing a suitable inscription. The concert seems to have been a very brilliant success.
46NO MONEY FOR A MONUMENT.—It is scarcely credible, but, according to the Milanese journals, the subscriptions toward the proposed memorial of Bottesini only amount to a few hundred francs, while the instrument on which the celebrated virtuoso played is offered for sale. Here are further proofs of the decadence of musical feeling in the country which for a long period was rightly regarded as the centre of activity as regards the art.
48A SCHUBERT ANECDOTE.—Among the many interesting anecdotes of Franz Schubert that are well authenticated is the following, which shows in what necessitous circumstances the great composer was usually placed: Schubert, poor man, was always short of money, though not always through his own fault. He once called on Randhartinger and asked him for the loan of 15 fls. to pay the rent of his lodgings in order to avoid being turned out. Randhartinger at once gave him the necessary sum and they both went to the proprietor and paid the 15 fls. As they passed the "Graben," the street where the music publisher Diabelli had his shop, Schubert said: "Dear Benedictus, I would repay you at once if these people here could pay me for my songs; they have a great many of my compositions, but every time I ask for money they always say they had too much outlay and too little income for my songs. I called twelve times at Diabelli's, but I have not received a penny; but I shall never give them a song again." He sold Diabelli the copyright of twelve volumes of his songs for 800 fls., while on one single song, "The Wanderer," Diabelli is said to have made a profit of no less than 86,000 fls.
50COSTA A COMPOSER.—The young Roman composer, Alessandro Costa, whose cantata, "The Vision," is about to be produced in Berlin, recently gave a concert in the Sala Dante, Rome, on which occasion he brought forward a suite in four movements, and some numbers from his new opera, "Sumitri," the text of which he has written after Goethe's "Der Gott und die Bajadere." The music of this young composer is said to be extremely interesting, and to lean toward the German style.
52WAGNER'S ORIGINAL IDEAS OF PARIS.—The hope with which Richard Wagner regarded Paris before the rejection of his "Tannhäuser" in 1861, finds striking expression in a letter to Champfleury, the autograph of which was recently sold at auction: "As you know, it has always been my intention to build in Paris an international theatre, where the grand creations of the different peoples might be produced in the original languages. France alone, in my opinion, and Paris in particular, is able to unite the apparently heterogeneous products, the exact knowledge of which is necessary to the intellectual and moral development of a people. Among the French pieces which would be presented on this stage, independent as it would be of contemporary events, would be first and foremost those by Méhul. I count him as one of my teachers."
54RUMMEL IN PITTSBURGH.—Says the Pittsburgh "Dispatch" of the 13th inst.: "Mr. Franz Rummel's heroic school of piano playing peculiarly fits him for such an occasion as this. Liszt's brilliant concerto in E flat, with its bristling difficulties, has never received a more dazzling performance in this city, nor could it claim a more musically interpretation. Mr. Rummel's stupendous power was the special feature of course; in a hall of that size the finer qualities of the piano would be lost."
56ANTON SEIDL.—A portrait bust of the great conductor Anton Seidl has just been finished by Miss Clio Hinton. As a likeness it is a remarkable success, the sculptor having caught Mr. Seidl's characteristic expression of reposeful power and sensitiveness.
58HE HAS SAILED.—Mr. Willy von Sachs, the music critic of the "Commercial Advertiser," sailed for Europe last Thursday.
60MR. PERRY RETURNS.—Edward Baxter Perry returned to Boston May 1 from his last concert trip of the season, having given 120 lecture recitals since last October, scattered over twenty-three different States in the East, West and South.
62A METRA MOVEMENT.—The committee for the erection of a monument to Olivier Métro, in the Paris cemetery Bois le-Roi, met a few days ago in the building belonging to the Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers. The president announced that the Minister of Fine Arts had given a subscription toward the object.
64"NO BETTER ONE!"—Suppé, the famous composer of numerous comic operas, is known for the way in which he introduces melodies of earlier masters. The "Neue Musikzeitung" relates the following: Suppé once directed the rehearsal of his new opera, "Die Frau Meisterin." Director Jauner listened to the maestro's fresh piece. Whenever one particular theme was repeated he shook his head. The maestro having remarked this, at the end of the rehearsal asked the director why he continually shook his head. "Oh, dear maestro," said Jauner, "don't be offended, but your principal air sounds very familiar and not at all original!"
65"So?" replied Suppé. "From whom may it be, then?"
66"Well, maestro, note for note, Beethoven's!"
67"Do you know anybody better, director?" said Suppé, and walked away.
69ALBANI'S ADVICE.—The London "Daily News" observes: Albani's advice to aspirants after vocal success has the ring of good sense as well as the seal of authority. To secure good health by plain living, to live in an atmosphere of art and of intellect; to study the notes, the words, the intention and meaning of everything, thinking them thoroughly out, gathering them in one consecutive whole, and then adding any genius they may have of their own—these are some of her rules, the last enforced by this little bit of personal experience: "In studying a new work I many times failed to reach the effect for which I was striving; but I have worked on, and perhaps at rehearsal, or perhaps at the first performance, it has come to me quite unexpectedly and as a great surprise, like an inspiration." Albani, however, warns those whom she advises that she does not mean them to shut themselves up in the selfish contemplation of their own personal career alone, for they must remember that to act well they must understand human nature well; and to sing so as to touch others' hearts they must be in sympathy with those hearts themselves.
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