Scan 8
Musical Courier 1891-05-20: Vol 22 Iss 587, 1891
127 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 525. See the scan on archive.org.
1The Indianapolis May Festival.
2THE following are the programs of the forthcoming music festival in Indianapolis, Ind. Mr. Theodore Thomas will conduct:
4Tuesday Evening, May 26.
5"Stabat Mater"…………………………………………..Rossini
6Soloists—Miss Emma Juch, Miss Clara Poole, Mr. Lavin and Mr. Fischer.
7Overture, "Tannhäuser"………………………………….Wagner
8Bell song, "Lakmé"………………………………………Delibes one of two readings
9Bell song, "Lakmé"…………………………………………Delibes one of two readings
10Miss Mary Howe.
11Suite, op. 46, "Peer Gynt"……………………………….Grieg one of two readings
12Suite, op. 46, "Peer Gynt"………………………………..Grieg one of two readings
13"Perle de Bresil," "Thou Brilliant Bird"………………Felicien David
14Miss Mary Howe.
15Hungarian rhapsody, No. 6……………………………….Liszt
16"The Lord is Great"…………………………………….Righini one of two readings
17"The Lord is Great"………………………………………Righini one of two readings
18Chorus and orchestra.
20Wednesday Afternoon, May 27.
21Symphony No. 5, C minor, op. 67………………………..Beethoven
22Concerto for violin (first movement.)…………………….Mr. Max Bendix.
23Overture, "Anthony and Cleopatra" (new)…………….Rubinstein
24"Marche Funèbre"………………………………………Chopin one of two readings
25"Marche Funèbre"……………………………………….Chopin one of two readings
26(Arranged for grand orchestra by Theodore Thomas.)
27Recitative and aria, "Sappho"…………………………..Gounod
28Miss Clara Poole.
29Invitation to the Dance…………………………………Weber-Berlioz one of two readings
30Invitation to the Dance………………………………….Weber-Berlioz one of two readings
31Waldweben," "Siegfried," "Ride of the Valkyries"……..Wagner
33Wednesday, May 27.
34"Manzoni" Requiem…………………………………….Verdi one of two readings
35"Manzoni" Requiem………………………………………Verdi one of two readings
36Soloists—Miss Juch, Miss Poole, Mr. Lavin and Mr. Fischer.
37Chorus and orchestra.
38Symphony, No. 8, B minor (unfinished)…………………Schubert
39"Lohengrin," "Elsa's Dream"…………………………..Wagner
40Miss Emma Juch.
41"Götterdämmerung"…………………………………….Wagner one of two readings
42"Götterdämmerung"………………………………………Wagner one of two readings
43"Song of the Rhine Daughters," "Siegfried's Death" and "Funeral March," "Now May Again," Walpurgis Night…Mendelssohn
44Chorus and orchestra.
46Thursday, May 28.
47Symphony, G minor (Kochel 550)………………………..Mozart
48Variations on a theme by Haydn ("Chorale St. Antoni")…Brahms
49Walter's Prize Song, "Meistersinger"…………………….Wagner
50Wm. J. Lavin.
51Vorspiel, "Meistersinger"……………………………….Wagner one of two readings
52Vorspiel, "Meistersinger"………………………………..Wagner one of two readings
53Symphonic poem, "Phaeton"…………………………..Saint-Saëns one of two readings
54Symphonic poem, "Phaeton"…………………………….Saint-Saëns one of two readings
55From violin concerto, D minor………………………….Wieniawski one of two readings
56From violin concerto, D minor……………………………Wieniawski one of two readings
57Franz Wilczek.
58"Norwegian Dances" (new)…………………………..Grieg one of two readings
59"Norwegian Dances" (new)……………………………..Grieg one of two readings
60Suite l'Arlésienne………………………………………Bizet one of two readings
61Suite l'Arlésienne……………………………………….Bizet one of two readings
63Thursday Afternoon, May 28.
64"Hymn of Praise"……………………………………….Mendelssohn
65Soloists, Miss Juch, Miss Poole, Mr. Lavin. Chorus and orchestra.
66INTERMISSION.
67Symphony No. 1, B flat, op. 38………………………….Schumann
68Aria, "The Jewess"…………………………………….Halevy one of two readings
69Aria, "The Jewess"………………………………………Halevy one of two readings
70Mr. Emil Fischer.
71Bacchanale, "Dich Theure Halle," "Tannhäuser"………..Wagner
72Miss Emma Juch.
73"Unfold, Ye Portals," "Redemption"…………………..Gounod one of two readings
74"Unfold, Ye Portals," "Redemption"…………………….Gounod one of two readings
75Chorus and orchestra.
77"The Marseillaise."
78ANOTHER tradition or popular belief has been shattered. Everyone knows who wrote the music of "The Marseillaise," and how Rouget de Lisle, lying in prison in Paris, heard the troops marching from the South sing the famous war song which he had composed to cheer the conscripts at Strasbourg. The troops were coming from Marseilles; Rouget de Lisle's hymn was henceforth called "The Marseillaise;" and in 1830 its composer was pensioned by Louis Philippe. Well, Rouget did not write the music at all! There lived at St. Omer, in the Department of Calais, a modest old chapel master, who had control of the music at the cathedral, and believed himself to be a composer. He wrote hymns and anthems and pieces during the years of his office, which began in 1775 and ended in 1787. He even wrote an oratorio, taking the choruses from Racine's "Esther" for his libretto, and calling his magnum opus by that name.
80When he retired from his peaceful office—two years before the taking of the Bastille—he drew up an inventory of all his works, and deposited it and his manuscript in the archives of the town. There they have remained, cared for, certainly, as the old organist would have wished, but also wholly undisturbed. In the introduction to the oratorio was that very hymn to which, two years after the choirmaster's retirement, Rouget de Lisle set his famous words. The manuscript has lately been brought forth from obscurity, and the air discovered in the composer's autograph. There is even something stranger. The battle hymn, as Rouget wrote it, had certain florid passages which he judged in accord with martial music. Subsequent arrangements by more skilled composers have reduced or omitted these, and in doing so have left the composition exactly as it appears in the old chapel master's autograph score.
82The Victoria Theatre to be Torn Down.—
83After an existence of thirty-two years, during which time its stage has been alternately devoted to drama, melodrama, opera and operetta, the Berlin Victoria Theatre is very shortly to be pulled down to make room for some municipal improvements. It was here where, some ten years since, Angelo Neumann first introduced the "Nibelungen Ring" to the audience of the German capital.
85A Glance at the Past Season.
86M. R. E. I. STEVENSON cleverly sums up the past musical season as follows in last Saturday's "Evening Sun":
88A retrospect over the active portion of the local musical season, now merging into the comparatively quiescent period, gives one the impression that since last October it is less actual musical occurrences themselves than three or four matters connected with music that distinguish the season of 1890-1. There had been the accustomed plethora of orchestral concerts, serial and other; a great deal of choral music from a dozen different societies, some opera in English, much opera in German (at the Metropolitan), light opera enough, chamber music in plenty from four or five clubs, a large batch of piano recitals and, indeed, recitals of many sorts, some notable foreign musicians visiting the United States, a goodly list of independent and detached concerts and musical entertainments. But nothing done in all their immediate connection exceeds the significance of Theodore Thomas' withdrawal from the conductorship of the New York Philharmonic Society and Anton Seidl's election in his stead last month, or the sudden decision of the directors of the Metropolitan Opera House to discontinue performances in German during next season, substituting either Italian or French music and singers, as shall be the case; or the moving of the Symphony Society and the Oratorio Society into the new music hall on Fifty-seventh street and Seventh avenue; or the opening of that imposing and conveniently situated auditorium for what general public usefulness shall be its privilege.
90It has not been a particularly brilliant orchestral season, either as to very interesting novelties brought out or as to any resorting to favorite and standard scores. The Boston Symphony Orchestra once more has shown all the symphonic bands of the city how it surpasses them in precise, refined and solid performance; the Philharmonics became a shade more lethargic even than during the last four or five years; the Symphony Society has continued to do its too perfunctory duty under Mr. Damrosch; Mr. Thomas has given a long list of more or less enjoyable Sunday night concerts with admirable programs but until lately by no means satisfactory playing. Of new scores the record is short: "Prometheus Vinctus," a fine overture by Goldmark; a new violin concerto by the same hand; "Ivan the Terrible," a character picture by Anton Rubinstein; the same composer's "Antony and Cleopatra" overture; Tchaikovsky's "Hamlet" overture fantasy; a violin concerto by Joachim; a concerto by Mr. Burmeister, an American musician, and some additional scores covering the list. Not one new symphony has been performed in New York city this winter!—an uncommon fact. Chorally it has been a feeble and dull year; for one reason, the Oratorio Society's special rehearsals for the Music Hall festival concerts made that able organization's season a slim and tame matter. In opera the Metropolitan adhered to a repertory varied significantly from other seasons by only two works. Chamber music and small concerts have been no more interesting, in the majority, than would serve the performance's turn.
92In the following notes are mentioned those features of each month's musical scope that are somewhat outside of the regular and appointed entertainments of our seasons. To include all that is applicable to such a list is equally impracticable. What is mentioned is less as a chronicle than a mental filip.
94In October a season of grand opera and opera comique sung in English was entered upon in Harlem by Oscar Hammerstein, manager of the opera house called after him. It continued several weeks with considerable artistic success, but proving unprofitable was speedily discontinued. "Poor Jonathan," a very poor comic opera, the music by Milloceker, was produced at the Casino handsomely, and thereafter ran the season through.
96The Jankó keyboard, a new and remarkably ingenious arrangement of the keys of organ or piano, was exhibited publicly and privately. The rumor that Anton Rubinstein expected to visit the United States on a concert tour was active, but therewith authoritatively quashed. Theodore Thomas began his long series of Sunday night concerts at the Lenox Lyceum. Mr. Seidl ended those he led for some weeks at the Madison Square Garden.
98In November Franz Rummel, the pianist, made his New York rentrée, after an absence of many years, in concerts with an orchestra, and also in recitals. Anton Seidl began his Brooklyn orchestral concerts that proved very successful throughout the series. Nahan Franko began a brief set of orchestral concerts. The Philharmonic Society of New York and the Symphony Society started in for their season's work, as did the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In Brooklyn began the Philharmonics of that city (to all intents and purposes the last of them, as it proved), and a series of concerts by C. Mortimer Wiske, conductor. At the Metropolitan, grand opera, sung in German, opened its seventh season with an uncommonly efficient company, headed by Mrs. Mielke, Mrs. Ritter-Goetze, Miss Jahn, Miss Huhn and the Messrs. Gudehus, Dippel, Reichmann, Fischer and Behrens. The opera of "Azrael," a remarkably interesting work by Franchetti, was produced in this country for the first time on the first night of the season. The Oratorio Society of New York, Walter Damrosch conductor, sang Haydn's "Creation" at its first concert for a winter in which its usual number of public entertainments was reduced owing to early preparations for the recent dedication festival in the new Music Hall.
100In December the New York Chorus Society was revived, rather ineffectively but courageously, by Mr. Wiske, and Arthur Sullivan's "Golden Legend" cantata sung at the outstarting. Under the same leader the Schubert Club, a choral organization for women's voices, began a set of public concerts, continued during succeeding months. The Manuscript Society did likewise. At the Metropolitan was brought out for the first time in America, with little popular success, a remarkable tragic opera, "The Vassal of Szigeth," by Smareglio. The Church Choral Society gave the first of two notable concerts of ecclesiastical music, under the direction of Richard Henry Warren in St. Thomas' Church. Mr. Max Spicker's interesting series of orchestral concerts was added to those already current in Brooklyn.
102In January Xaver Scharwenka came to New York, in his public capacity, and he was heard as composer and pianist in concert and in recitals. "Diana of Solange," a respectable, dull opera of antique German pattern, by Ernest II., Duke of Saxe-Coburg, was brought out at the Metropolitan Opera House, and, after strong signs of critical and popular disapproval, was shelved after two representations. Immediately after this incident came the announcement that a German company of singers would not be retained for the 1891-2 season of grand opera at the Metropolitan and that Mr. Henry E. Abbey was engaged to provide an Italian or French troupe, without any adherence to the repertory hitherto indicated for the house. There was much astonishment and comment at this announcement, the practical results of which are yet to be determined when next November comes.
104It is worth while, however, to say here that the management of the Metropolitan had made the public less disposed to grieve over the proposed change by their adherence to a policy of Wagnerizing the repertory quite disproportionately; by not establishing it in a broad and truly perceptive manner; by not producing either old or new operas, either Wagnerian or other, in a style at once faithful to model representations or to the intentions of the librettos; and, last, by making it a sine qua non that the city's German public and its naturally strong Wagnerian bias should render a given opera remunerative and an object to the Metropolitan's treasury, or else it must be at once dropped from the repertory as an error and superfluity.
106To the Opera House the public have said: "You sing well, and seem to care about singing well only Wagner; therefore only to Wagnerian operas will we go." The German public have said: "Only Wagner do we care for; therefore to Wagnerian opera particularly will we go." The Opera House has said to the public on its side: "Only to Wagnerian operas do you come in sufficient force, and as the German public of the city have to make our week's performances pay, therefore we will let all other operas, all other music, be counted pretty much as stubble for Wagner and to gratify a large German public." Those persons who are so unlucky as actually yet to be unawakened to Wagner's noble charm, or those who are averse to the complete Wagnerizing and, so to say, Teutonizing of the Opera House's repertory and of all things connected with the Opera House, therefore have managed to turn and overturn the arbitrary conditions of things most chaotically.
108In view of the efficient company of this last season and of the admirable way in which the services of many artists in it might be utilized in a broad repertory it is a pity that so open a revolution and so radical a one has occurred. A moderate amount of provision and tact might have prevented it, had those qualities been exercised carefully in the arrangements for the past three seasons. After the promulgation of its decision as to the change of policy at the opera house, the direction promptly abandoned all intentions and pledges as to the repertory's reinforcement, and devoted the rest of the season to Wagnerian opera and music drama; with, naturally, an immediate financial advantage to the house and many admirable performances of the predominating composer's works; the season mutating into another emphatically Wagnerian one.
110In February Mrs. Minnie Hauk revisited the United States, singing at the Metropolitan in "Carmen" and "L'Africaine." It was stated that two new orchestras, endowed, were to be organized, one by the National Conservatory of Music, the other by a subscription which Mr. Walter Damrosch undertook to further. (The last named appears like to be an accomplished fact.) A concert performance of considerable effectiveness of Wagner's "Parsifal" was given, Anton Seidl directing, at the Metropolitan Opera House, the like being done later in the spring in Brooklyn. The meeting was called to found a social musical club. The Brooklyn Philharmonic Society decided to discontinue the concerts from the orchestra known by its name, and for the season of 1891-2 to hire the Boston Symphony Orchestra for its winter's course of entertainments—a wise move.
112In March the farewell performances of grand opera in German at the Metropolitan continued, with large audiences and much enthusiasm—the usual Wagnerian partiality being taken up. Gounod's "Redemption" was revived under Mr. Wiske in Brooklyn. The complete occupancy of the new Music Hall by the Symphony Society and the Oratorio Society was prefaced by the completion of Recital Hall, the smaller auditorium in the edifice. The rehearsals for the dedication festival were continued with the Oratorio Society's chorus this month very actively. Mr. Bernhard Listemann and his chamber music club visited New York for the first time. With the last week of March came the usual Easter music of the city's churches, elaborate, good, bad and indifferent, but nearly always pretentious.
114In April came the concluding concerts in the serial ones of the winter. Arthur Friedheim, the pianist, made his first appearance in America. A great quantity of piano recitals came with the month. Among the pianists thus occupied before the public were Mr. De Pachmann, Mr. Friedheim, Mr. Ansergie, Mr. Rummel, Mr. Scharwenka, A. Victor Benham and others. A testimonial benefit of an operatic sort was tendered Mr. Edmund C. Stanton of the Metropolitan Opera House. The Lenox Lyceum's popular Sunday night concerts ended with much success. Maximilian Vogrich's oratorio, "The Captivity," was produced for the first time by the Metropolitan Musical Society. The American Composers' Choral Association's and the Manuscript Society's concerts also deserve mention.
116The first week in May was occupied with the opening to the city of the new Music Hall and by the dedicatory concerts given with the co-operation of the Symphony Society and the Oratorio Society, with the conductorial help of Mr. Walter Damrosch and the special participation of Mr. Peter Tchaikowsky, the distinguished Russian composer, who made for this purpose his first visit to the United States. Mr. Charles Santley, the famous English baritone, was heard in a single concert, he happening to pass through New York on returning to England. "Apollo," a new light opera, music by Helmesberger, began a presumptively long run at the Casino, and sundry other operettas are now brought forward for the spring and summer.
118Such is a very brief outline of what has been noteworthy in the season, chiefly outside of the regular current of events. In activity and in interests, if of a somewhat different nature, the coming season is expected to exceed considerably its predecessor, and it can easily achieve that honor.
120"Things One Would Rather Have Left Unsaid."
122HERE is a delicious story of the "things one would rather have left unsaid" from a recent number of the "Neue Musikzeitung" (Stuttgart). Scene, a second-class compartment on the new line from Dresden to Leipzig. An animated conversation arose between the passengers, all of whom, except two, were strangers. The topics chosen related chiefly to art, and in particular to the performances at the Court Theatre at Dresden. At last a lady, who had been present at the representation of "Euryanthe" the night before, remarked: "Schroeder is far too old for the part; her singing is quite intolerable. I can't understand the fuss they make about her. Don't you think," she continued, turning to her neighbor, "that she might very well give up making such an exhibition of herself?"
124Her interlocutor replied, coldly: "Why not say so to Mrs. Schroeder herself? She is sitting opposite you." An awful silence ensued. At last the unlucky lady stammered out: "I beg your pardon a thousand times, but the fact is I wasn't at all well last night and I had to leave the theatre quite early. I only heard very little of the opera—the part in which you had least to sing. These wretched criticisms in the evening papers led me astray. I am sure this Schneider who writes the theatrical notices and always runs you down must be a most disagreeable man." "Don't you think you had better tell him so?" replied Mrs. Schroeder, coldly; "he is sitting by your side."
126"TARTUFFE" AN OPERA.—Molière's "Tartuffe" is to be converted into an opera, upon the composition of which a Tuscan maestro, Scarano, is just now engaged; the libretto is from the pen of Priecca.
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