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Musical Courier 1891-12-02: Vol 23 Iss 615, 1891
69 lines. Read by computer on 19 September 2026. Printed page 642. See the scan on archive.org.
1that a policy of retrenchment will have to be adopted at the new opera house. The salaries of the principal artists and the style of mounting have been on such a lavish scale that it was necessary to have the house well filled every night. A cloak which the king wore for about five minutes in one scene cost, it is said, 35 guineas, and because the two representatives of the part slightly differed in stature it was at first proposed to provide another cloak at a similar price. These mistakes will undoubtedly be corrected in future productions.
3Sullivan's "Ivanhoe" is enough to sink the best backed operatic enterprise in the world. No wonder the oil cloth impresario gave up the ghost, or that that much abused spectre refused to "walk" on pay days.
5W. J. HENDERSON in the "Critic," last Saturday, has the following pertinent words to say of the all prevailing topic:
7The immediate and decisive success of Ignace Jean Paderewski, pianist, suggests naturally an inquiry into its causes. While it is true that the majority of persons are unable to distinguish between piano playing which is merely brilliant and that which has emotional value, it is an undeniable fact that no pianist without some sort of emotional influence has ever achieved a lasting success in this city. That is undoubtedly because the majority of music lovers is composed of women, whose receptivity is greater than their critical discrimination. They intuitively rebel against cold brilliancy after they have passed the first surprise. The number of those, however, who can discern a lack of completeness in the intellectual equipment is very small. A player like Pachmann, whose readings are always sentimental, no matter what may be the real character of the music, gains the ready applause of the multitude, while the few who shake their heads are looked upon as carpers. Discrimination as to the intellectual value of piano playing depends upon the hearer's knowledge of the composer's purposes and of the particular piece undergoing performance.
9In the case of Paderewski it is beyond question that the public is, in the first place, dazzled by his remarkable technical skill. His scale playing (so easily appreciated even by those who are at the outer doors of the piano temple) is matchless in its smoothness, clearness and beautiful gradation of tone. His arpeggio playing is not so clear, but in the treatment of octave and chord passages he displays wonderful power and certainty. He plays with so much ease and abandon that he continually excites the mind to fresh surprise. But, as has been intimated, his success does not rest wholly upon this, for in technique he must yield the palm to Rosenthal. Paderewski's emotional force is great, and he possesses in his highest form the power to convey it to the hearer through the medium of the piano. The prevailing moods of this artist are a caressing, wooing tenderness and a brilliant, aggressive impetuosity—two moods of love, both restless. His playing is always poetic, but the poetry is that of a Shelley or a Keats rather than of a Milton.
11Consequently we find that Paderewski is a noble interpreter of Chopin, Schumann and Schubert. In Beethoven alone has he disappointed his most thoughtful hearers. The Miltonic utterance of the mighty Ludwig and the enormous intellectual power which guides and governs his musical speech do not appear to be wholly congenial to Paderewski. Tremendous as Beethoven's emotional force is, there is a certain austerity in his style which seems to be foreign to Paderewski's manner of playing. One cannot imagine Swinburne, with all his mastery of poetic technique, writing blank verse like that of Milton. The analogy is a trifle strained, but its purport should be comprehensible. Despite Paderewski's deficiency in Beethoven playing, he is a truly great artist. He never fails to interest, always warms and often melts the heart, and generally satisfies the mind. He deserves his success.
13AMERICAN CONCERTS GUARANTY FUND.
15LAST season Mr. Arens, the American conductor and composer, gave a number of orchestral concerts in Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden and Sondershausen, the programs of which were made up entirely of works by American composers. Encouraged by the success thus far attained with both critics and the public, he proposes to continue these concerts on a grander scale this season. He expects to concertize in Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Sondershausen, Weimar, Leipsic, Cologne, and, if possible, in Munich, Paris and London.
17But as these concerts cannot be self supporting, Mr. Arens asks for a guaranty fund of 6,000 marks. THE MUSICAL COURIER, anxious to further the cause of American music in every way and manner, requests all those who have the development of American music at heart to please to send their subscriptions or donations to this paper for publication and remittance to Germany.
19At the close of the season each patron will receive a detailed account of expenditures of concerts given, works performed, press notices, &c. Dues will be collected pro rata, as customary, unless the money is contributed directly. The Berlin concert will be given under the auspices of the Hon. William Walter Phelps, United States Minister to Germany, who will also be glad to have subscriptions sent care of the American Legation, 66 Mohren strasse, vis-a-vis Kaiserhof, Berlin.
21Below are the subscriptions to date:
23MUSICAL COURIER………………………..Marks. 100.00
24Mr. Walter Spry, Chicago, now of Berlin………….50.00
25M. G. Arnold, now of Berlin…………………….100.00
26Mr. F. X. Arens………………………………….100.00
27Mr. James A. Miller, Chicago ($50)…………….206.50
28Mrs. F. S. Boardman, Cleveland, now in Paris……100.00
29Mr. Carl Busch, Kansas City ($25)………………103.25
30Mr. Arthur Foote, Boston ($25)………………….103.25
31Mrs. S. A. Knisely, Chicago, now of Munich ($100)..413.00
33Total to date…………………………………….1,276.00
35ON BEETHOVEN PLAYING.
37THE readers of THE MUSICAL COURIER will read with more than usual interest the appended communication written by Dr. William Mason, the Nestor of American pianists and teachers, a man whose wide culture, varied experience and personal contact with great artists like Franz Liszt and others, enables him to speak with authority on the subject of piano playing in any of its numerous departments. Dr. Mason has, apropos of Paderewski's Beethoven playing, sent THE MUSICAL COURIER a few of his ideas on Beethoven playing in general, which in these days of false prophets crying aloud, "Lo! I am the only Beethoven player alive," is peculiarly welcome. Dr. Mason writes as follows:
39Editors Musical Courier:
41Whenever a pianist makes his first appearance in public as a Beethoven player he is at once subjected to strictures on all sides by numerous critics who seem to have been lying in wait for this particular occasion, and there immediately arise two parties, each holding positive opinions, of which the one in the negative is usually the more numerous. This is by no means a new fad, but quite an old fashion, dating back at least as far as the writer's experience goes, something over forty years, and probably much further. The reason for this is certainly a very interesting and useful question for the consideration of students and lovers of piano playing, and a few suggestions here given may prepare the way for a more detailed investigation.
43Is the difference between Beethoven playing and that of compositions by other composers anywise akin to the dissimilarity in various styles of architecture which enables a traveler passing through a strange city to immediately distinguish the churches from other public edifices? Or is it, in any degree, analogous to the nice distinction so carefully observed by all composers of true musical instinct, between the so-called ecclesiastical harmonies and those which are secular, of which the opening scene in the "Meistersinger" presents such an admirable illustration? This scene is thoroughly familiar to the New York public, which has enjoyed so many opportunities of observing the tact and skill with which Wagner has treated the subject. The by-play pantomime and musical dialogue between the lovers proceed simultaneously with the church service, and the musical setting and accompaniments of these are uniformly characteristic. Indeed the contrast between the two styles, sacred and secular, is so distinctly marked, and the distinguishing features of each so faithfully observed and consistently carried out by the composer, that the music itself—aside from the scenery—gives the musical hearer who has learned how to listen an intelligent idea of the situation.
45These are very nice and subtle distinctions—and they are real and not imaginary—substantial and not fanciful. But is the ideal Beethoven player a myth or does he really exist? If so, who is he and where is he to be found? In short, are we not looking for something that is much in the imagination? Or perhaps, be it said with due reverence, are not the compositions themselves responsible in part for this mystified state of things? Forty years ago my teachers, Moscheles, afterward Dreysschock and finally Liszt, used to say that Beethoven's piano compositions were not "klaviermässig." This word has no precise English equivalent, but might be translated "pianoforteable." In other words they are not written in conformity with the nature of the instrument. Musicians have generally all along agreed on this point. Beethoven's musical thoughts were symphonic, so to speak, and require the orchestra for adequate expression. Many of his piano passages lie most awkwardly under the fingers, and certainly would never have been written by a skilled virtuoso who was simply a pianist per se.
47Moscheles has always been an acknowledged authority as to Beethoven, and he told me once during a lesson that he considered Liszt an ideal, or perhaps his words were a "great" Beethoven player. As is generally known, Liszt had a prevailing tendency in his piano playing to seek after orchestral effects and thus found himself all the more naturally at home in these compositions. But when has the world ever found another player of Liszt's magnificent calibre, who could so intelligently and ably adapt himself as an interpreter of all kinds of music, who was always and ever master of his resources and who never fell into the error of anticipating his climax? Or, if perchance he found himself in the least danger of such an event he would readily arrange and develop a new climax, so that at the conclusion of his performance he was always sure to have worked his audience up to a state of almost crazy excitement and unbounded enthusiasm. He was at this time—1853—forty-two years old and at his best estate. But even Liszt, who possessed in such an unexampled degree all of the faculties which in the aggregate make up the equipment of a perfect and even phenomenal player, had his limitations in certain directions and details. His touch was not so musically emotional as it might have been, and other pianists, notably Henselt, Chopin, Tausig, Rubinstein and now Paderewski and some others excel him in the art of producing beautiful and varied tone colors, together with sympathetic and singing quality of tone.
49Karl Klindworth told me that during one of the lessons at which I was not present Liszt said, having reference to the subject of touch: "Boys, you may imitate my playing if you will, but do not copy my touch." He went on to explain that instead of patiently working for a normal and orderly development of his touch he had, in his eagerness to reach immediate results, adopted methods of his own without proper reflection, and had taken "short cuts," so to speak, in order the more quickly to reach the goal, and in this way had acquired objectionable habits of touch, which fact he now much regretted. Speaking of a piano touch which is not from the foundation thoroughly supple, flexible and elastic, it is significant that Anton Rubinstein, when in this country in 1873, advised Theodore Thomas, who up to that time had not met Liszt, to make haste to do so and hear him play for, he added, "he is already beginning to break up and his technic is no longer what it was." It seems to me that in this matter of touch Paderewski is as near perfection, or perhaps more so than any pianist I ever heard, while in other respects he stands more nearly on a plane with Liszt than any other virtuoso since Tausig. His conception of Beethoven combines the emotional with the intellectual in admirable poise and proportion; thus he plays with a big, warm heart as well as with a clear, calm and discriminative head, hence a thoroughly satisfactory result. Those who prefer a cold, arbitrary and rigidly rhythmical and ex cathedra style will not be pleased.
51Without going closely into detail, there are certain matters concerning Paderewski's mechanical work which deserve the attention of students and others interested in piano technic. In many passages, without altering a note from the original, he ingeniously manages to bring out the full rhythmic and metrical effect, also the emphasis necessary to discriminative phrasing, by means of a change of fingering, effected by either interlocking the hands or by dividing different portions of the runs and arpeggios between them. In this way the accents and emphasis come out distinctly and precisely where they belong, and all of the composite tones are clean cut, while at the same time a perfect legato is preserved. His pedal effects are invariably managed with consummate skill and in a thoroughly musical way, which results in exquisite tonal effects in all grades and varieties of light and shade. In musical conception he is so objective a player as to be faithful, true and loving to his author, but withal he has a spice of the subjective which imparts to his performance just the right amount of his own individuality. This lifts his work out of an arbitrary rut, so to speak, and distinguishes his playing from that of other artists.
53The glissando octave passages near the end of the C major sonate, op. 53, he performs as originally designed by Beethoven and with the desired effect, notwithstanding Dr. Hans von Bulow's assertion that this method of execution is impossible on our modern pianos, on account of their heavy and stiff action. Paderewski, however, has the secret of a thoroughly supple and flexible touch, resulting from a perfectly elastic condition of shoulder, elbow, arm and wrist, together with the power of keeping certain muscles, either singly or collectively as may be desired, in a state of partial contraction, while all of the others are "devitalized" to a degree which would delight the heart of a disciple of Delsarte.
55As to Paderewski's playing of the compositions of Chopin, as well as those of other authors, his transcendant ability in this direction is generally conceded. It may be added, however, in conclusion, that his playing of the E minor concerto by Chopin is significant, fully demonstrating as it does the beautiful effects of this composition as originally written by the composer, notwithstanding the non-polyphonic treatment of the long orchestral tutti between the piano solos. Without disrespect to Tausig or disparagement of his work, and fully recognizing the merit of his orchestration and conceding the brilliant and startling effect of his concluding octave passage, Paderewski's performance shows that Chopin has a climax in another way fully as effective and more in accordance with his own personality.
57WILLIAM MASON.
58November 30, 1891.
60A Thanksgiving Matinee.—There was a popular concert at the new Music Hall last Thursday afternoon, at which Mrs. Carl Alves, the contralto, sang and Mr. Anton Hekking, the 'cellist, played, and Mr. Walter Damrosch conducted the symphony orchestra.
62(Inc. May 1, 1891.)
63NEW YORK VOCAL INSTITUTE.
64FRANK HERBERT TUBBS, Musical Director.
6597 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
66COMPLETE EDUCATION IN VOCAL MUSIC.
67Singers naturally prefer study where Voice Culture and Singing receive chief attention. All the teachers use the same method. Homes erected for pupils. Circulars sent on request.
68NEW YORK VOCAL INSTITUTE, 97 Fifth Avenue.
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