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Musical Courier 1891-12-16: Vol 23 Iss 617, 1891
53 lines. Read by computer on 19 September 2026. Printed page 718. See the scan on archive.org.
1Rosa Linde,
2Prima Donna Contralto.
4ROSA LINDE, whose portrait is published for the first time in THE MUSICAL COURIER, was born in Chicago, but much of her girlhood was passed in Pittsburgh. Her father was an excellent pianist, and from earliest childhood she has been surrounded by a highly musical atmosphere. That she has been thoroughly taught becomes evident the moment one hears her glorious voice. The compass is phenomenal, ranging with ease from low C to high E—three full octaves. Rosa Linde's voice is of a rich, noble quality, of unusual strength, and of even power throughout. Prof. Carl Retter, of Pittsburgh, a musician of unusual abilities, discovered the remarkable character of the voice, and with careful training brought it to a high degree of perfection. Two years since Miss Linde's family came to New York to reside. Musical friends decided that Prof. K. L. Herman, then the talented composer and able conductor of the Liederkranz Society, should be the instructor of Miss Linde. When he heard her sing he accepted, and at once pronounced his willingness to act as her guide. Her subsequent success in public has shown how well Professor Herman has aided nature and what a splendid organ is given to the music loving world.
6Those musicians who have heard Miss Linde, among whom are Mr. William Steinway, Carl Zerrahn, the Boston conductor, and others, pronounce it the best contralto voice heard in America since Miss Cary retired from the stage. Miss Emma Juch and Campanini have also heard her sing, and both agree in pronouncing it the most even and beautiful in quality, large in volume of voice and altogether noble contralto to be heard among contraltos of the present time.
8Miss Linde is young, statuesque and possessed of dark hair and eyes and admirable carriage and appearance for both the concert and operatic stage.
10She has just completed a tournee with the Campanini-De Vere Concert Company and was also one of the foremost artists in the Emma Juch operatic concerts. She has been selected as one of the soloists of the Baltimore oratorio concerts of January 21 and 22, and when she is not concertizing in other cities Miss Linde can be heard on Sundays at the Mount Morris Baptist Church, 126th street and Fifth avenue.
12We append a few press notices, from which can be gathered the consensus of opinion expressed in reference to Miss Linde's singing:
14Rosa Linde showed a contralto voice of an intensely pleasing quality. Her singing was marked by a fullness and strength of tone, an unaffected abandon of style. She was encored at every song, and it was the expressed regret of her hearers that she could not be heard oftener in Providence concerts.—Providence "Journal."
16Rosa Linde's sweet and powerful contralto voice won her continued recalls, all of which she richly deserved.—Boston "Traveller."
18Miss Linde, the charming contralto, possesses a voice of range, beauty and wonderful compass, extending over three octaves. She will be a member of the De Vere-Campanini Company this winter. She has a powerful, highly cultivated voice, under perfect control, and her singing was rewarded with a tumultuous encore.—New York "Morning Journal," September, 1891.
20A pleasing feature was the artistic singing of Miss Linde, whose rich contralto voice was heard to advantage. Each of Miss Linde's numbers was encored.—New York "Evening Telegram."
22Miss Rosa Linde sang some German songs, and in response to repeated encores sang the "Nobil Signor," from the "Huguenots," and "In Old Madrid." Miss Linde's rendering of these two songs was faultless. Her voice is rich and full and few contraltos have such brilliant execution.—New York "Telegram."
24The "Azucena" of Miss Linde was a highly creditable effort, and to Miss Linde the principal honors of the performance may be very promptly assigned. She sang with spirit and—this is better still—she sang correctly.—New York "World."
26Miss Linde's voice has a compass of three octaves—from low C to high C—every note true and pure. This is considered unusual by musicians for a voice of contralto quality. In addition, there is none of that disagreeable harshness that is so apt to mar the higher tones of a voice which can give the lower register so masterfully.—New York "Journal."
28Miss Linde possesses a voice of altogether unusual quality; so strikingly sonorous is it in the lower register as to lead to the conviction that it is an unusually fine baritone rather than a contralto.—Brooklyn "Citizen."
30Albani Laid Up.—Chicago, Ill., December 13.—Albani was to have sung to-night at a concert in Central Music Hall before leaving for New York, but she failed to appear. At the Grand Pacific Hotel, where the diva is stopping, Mr. Gye said that his wife was too sick to sing or to travel. Her ailment is a form of influenza, and though it is not thought that the result will be serious, it may be several days before she is able to start for New York.
32The Philharmonic Society.
34THE chief and most important cultivator of classic music in this country and the preserver of classic traditions in the interpretation thereof, our Philharmonic Society needs no excuse for offering at their second concert last Saturday night a Mozart program. In the language of one of our transatlantic contemporaries: "It is the duty of all musicians, and of all people in any way connected with music, to commemorate as best they can the centenary of Mozart's death. We are scarcely called upon to enforce a proposition so self evident, and, even were there need to do so, it would suffice to mention that Mozart stands out from the entire body of composers as the greatest of abstract musicians—as the special embodiment of his art. Others may excel him in this respect or that—as Händel did in choral writing and Beethoven in the poetry of the orchestra—but as an all round musician he stands unquestionably at the head of his order, so that if it be asked who is pre-eminently the representative of music as a whole, the answer can only be 'Mozart.' In honoring him, therefore, we are paying homage to the art of which he is the accepted embodiment, and that is reason enough for all we can do."
36It is highly satisfactory to be able to state that our Philharmonic, under the leadership of Anton Seidl, honored Mozart's memory with a well selected program admirably performed, and one that gave sterling proofs of the master's enormous variety of moods and versatility of genius. For, as Arthur Mees, in his always admirable annotations to the program, so convincingly says: "Mozart's genius was so universal as never to be at a loss to find the most fitting means of expression for the whole gamut of human affection, as witness the healthful pleasure in the 'Jupiter' symphony, the mysticism in 'The Magic Flute,' the deep contentment in the adagio of the G minor quintet, the profound sorrow in the 'Masonic Funeral Music' and the droll extravagance in 'Belmonte and Constanze.' To such universality the works of no other composer can lay claim."
38The "Jupiter" symphony has never before been played by the Philharmonic Society with such genuine enthusiasm and spirit as last Saturday night under Anton Seidl's expressive and impressive guidance. In fact the "Minuet" in the stately and correct tempo of that old dance felt almost like an entirely new movement, and the colossal counterpoint of the last movement came out as clearly as if it had been cut out of marble. Seidl's reading, moreover, was throughout the evening as conservative and really full of lovely reverence as could only be desired by the most ardent of classicists. He came in for a goodly and well deserved share of applause.
40In the interpretation of the "Jupiter" symphony the overpowering strength of the strings of our Philharmonic was, if anything, perhaps a drawback, as Mozart, who probably never heard or dreamed of such a body of strings, offsets them only by the employment of one flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets and kettle drums, whereby the tonal balance without doubling of the woodwind seems in jeopardy. In the performance of the heavenly E flat slow movement from the G minor string quintet, however, this strength and volume of tone was of most telling effect, and in fact this number seemed to us the pearl of the evening.
42The "Masonic Funeral Music" in C minor, although evidently a piece d'occasion, it having been composed in 1785 "for the death of Brothers Mecklenburg and Esterhazy," is impressive and was certainly most à propos on a program commemorative of the composer's own death.
44The solo numbers were the recitative duet between "Tamino" and "Sarastro" preceding the latter's well-known aria "In diesen heiligen Hallen" from "The Magic Flute." Wm. H. Rieger sang "Tamino's" portion of the recitatives with a fresh and sonorous tenor voice and with correct musical feeling and phrasing. He is evidently a valuable concert singer. Emil Fischer was in better voice than a week ago and shared considerable applause with Mr. Rieger, although his delivery of the renowned bass aria was far from satisfactory to educated musical ears. He sang "hei-ei-il'gen" instead of "heil'gen." He made a caesura between the words "man" and "die" in the line "Kennt man die Rache nicht," which of course ought to be phrased coherently. But worst of all, the beautiful ascending scales, which ought to be sung in true cantilena style and which give such an excellent chance for the display of "bel canto" methods if a singer possesses them, Mr. Fischer gave in single non legato and sforzando notes. The coquettish aria from "Il Seraglio," which he gave later on, lacked in lightness and vocal technic, but it seemed to please the public. Mr. Fischer was strongly applauded, but he refused to appear for a recall.
46If it had seemed to us before listening to the concert as a somewhat hazardous, not to say out of place, plan to finish a Mozart program with a symphonic poem of an ultra modern writer, it was not so, and we state this with particular pleasure after hearing Philip Scharwenka's op. 87, "Frühlingswogen." It is a beautiful composition, worthy of a place on any program. Philip Scharwenka has, like some others of the younger school of German composers, notably Richard Strauss, Nicodé and a few others, acquired the modern orchestral technic; but, besides this mastery of the material in color and thematic workmanship, he is also the possessor of ideas. He works with musical thoughts, and beautiful ones at that, and his "Waves of Spring" are as fine in contents as they are in the outward expression of them. There is a fresh breeze fanning his orchestral canvas from the opening in A flat, through the well planned episode in E flat that follows throughout the passionate love theme in D flat and up to the very end, the return to the original key. Moreover, the work is as perfect in form as Liszt's best efforts in the form of his own invention. The orchestration is glowing, full of color and descriptiveness, especially in the skillful handling of the woodwind. The novelty was admirably performed under Seidl's inspiring guidance, and it elicited strong applause from a large and fashionable audience, both at the concert proper and at the public rehearsal of the previous afternoon.
48Hans von Bulow Very Ill.—Berlin, December 13.—Von Bulow, the famous German pianist, is critically ill with influenza. He will be sixty-one years old on January 8.
50Mrs. Ford's Indisposition.—A serious attack of la grippe, combined with tonsilitis, prevented Mrs. S. C. Ford from fulfilling her engagement to sing at the Damrosch concert last Sunday evening, but she is reported as being much better now, and was to sing with the Mendelssohn Club at Philadelphia last night.
52Root's School.—The announcement of "Root's Training School for Teachers of Singing" will be regarded with interest throughout the country. Dr. Geo. F. Root, the president, has been a composer for and teacher of American people for nearly half a century. His system of teaching is a large part of the equipment of most of the successful teachers of musical conventions, institutes, normals and singing schools throughout the land. His interest and activity in his work remain unabated. His son, Mr. Frederick W. Root, is an authority in all matters relating to voice culture and solo singing, and his is one of the most prominent names among the musical educators of the day. The school which is to be under the charge of these gentlemen will be well calculated to send out efficient teachers.
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