Scan 10
Musical Courier 1892-12-14: Vol 25 Iss 667, 1892
96 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 11. See the scan on archive.org.
1the musical critic and professor of ethical culture at the conservatory. Miss Hirschfeld, a brilliant and talented pianist, acquitted herself with great success and was warmly applauded. The third concert in this series takes place on December 1.
3The well-known Winkler Quartet began their season on Friday, the 25th, when they played to a large and appreciative audience. The program was as follows:
5Quartet, G major, op. 78……………………………Haydn one of two readings
6Quartet, G major, op. 78 ……………………………………… Haydn one of two readings
7Trio, E flat, major, for piano, clarinet and viola………….Mozart one of two readings
8Trio, E flat, major, for piano, clarinet and viola …………. Mozart one of two readings
9Quartet, F major, op. 18……………………………Beethoven one of two readings
10Quartet, F major, op. 18 ……………………………………… Beethoven one of two readings
12Mr. Hugo Reinhold was the pianist and gave his valuable assistance in the Mozart trio.
14Mrs. Russell and her daughter, whose approaching arrival I read about in THE MUSICAL COURIER, have reached Vienna and are already comfortably settled. Since beginning this letter I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Fichich, the composer of the new overture which created such a very favorable impression at the last Philharmonic concert. He is a native of Bohemia and a thorough musician and master of his art. Mr. Fichich studied under Moscheles, Reinecke and Vincenz Lachner, and has composed two operas which have been successfully performed in several large continental cities. It would certainly be well worth while for some of the large American symphony orchestras to take hold of this new overture, as it would prove a valuable and interesting acquisition.
16Mrs. Selma Nicklass Kempner, a well-known teacher of singing and professor of vocal culture at the conservatory, gives her first recital December 3, to which I shall return in my next letter. Pauline Lucca has quite recovered from her recent severe indisposition and is busy teaching again.
18A promising young violinist, Carl Wehle, gave a concert on Wednesday, the 23d inst., with the following program:
20Violin concerto, D major, op. 87 (first performance), Eduard Lassen one of two readings
21Violin concerto, D major, op. 87 (first performance), ……Eduard Lassen one of two readings
22Romance, F major………………………………….Beethoven one of two readings
23Romance, F major …………………………………………….. Beethoven one of two readings
24and some pieces by Sauret and Wienawski. Mr. Wehle has recently returned from Berlin, where he has been studying with Joachim.
26A pupil of Professor Grün, Miss Rosa Hochmann, gave her first concert here last week, and showed signs of unusual talent for one so young. She played the Max Bruch concerto for violin No. 1, G minor, the Chopin-Sarasate nocturne and Popper-Halir "Elfenreigen," finishing with Wieniawski's "Faust phantasie." Miss Hochmann was assisted by Mr. Josef Fanta, who sang songs by Jensen and Brahms.
28The Rosé Quartet will give two extra evenings, which will be managed by Alexander Rosé, in December and January. The soloists engaged are: Ludovico Breitner, the pianist of Paris, and Richard Mühlfeld, the clarinetist from Meiningen, who created the Clarinet Quintet of Brahms in Vienna, Berlin and London with the Joachim Quartet. Mr. Breitner plays a new piano-cello sonata of Godard's for the first time with Hummer, the 'cellist. Johann Strauss has to-day decided upon the name of his new waltz. It is to be called: "Märchen aus dem Orient," and will be conducted by the composer next Sunday for the first time.
30RUDOLF KING.
32Music in Boston.
34BOSTON, December 11, 1892.
36THERE was a lull last week. Our own Symphony Orchestra was a-journeying in foreign lands. Pianists busied themselves in the intellectual and physical training that is now demanded by a Boston audience. Several are still undergoing massage treatment of finger, wrist and forearm; believers in the Deppe theory extend this treatment. A violinist in the town makes it his trade thus to train pianists for the fray. He said to me the other day: "Did you go to so-and-so's recital? Well, I prepared him for it." The sponge may yet be added to the bottle in the combatant's dressing room. But who will train the audience, see that it has fair play, provide for breathing spells, and not allow it to be trod under after it has been knocked out by Herr Slugger's masterly performance of the second "Rhapsodie Javanaise" with its ingenious imitations of rebab, gambang, saron-barong, bonang-ageng and other exotic and pleasing instruments of music? Pianos have been repaired and strengthened for the coming recitals.
38There was no singing in our musical vineyard, neither was there any shouting. The little music that was heard was imported. There were the Seidl and the Damrosch musicians the same afternoon in rival theatres; there was a concert by the Brodsky Quartet, and there was the singular female wailing that accompanied Miss Fanny Davenport's "massive and concrete" impersonation of the Serpent of the Nile, as invented and patented by Sardou.
40I forget, there was a concert last evening in Tremont Temple, by the choirs of Appleton Chapel, Grace Church (Newton), and St. Paul's Church, in aid of the Free Hospital for Women. The program illustrated the development of English church music from the beginning of the sixteenth century. The concert was under the direction of Mr. Warren A. Locke, the accomplished choirmaster and organist of St. Paul's.
42I trust that the singers last week were reading the "Reminiscences" of Charles Santley, and that they will profit by the sage advice therein contained. You quoted a few days ago Santley's opinions concerning tobacco. He defied by his statement the noble army of professors. Take, for example, the great book "Le Chant," by Lemaire and Lavoix, the book that holds the final judgments of the court of last resort. "Tobacco should be rigorously proscribed, if the singer wishes to preserve all the qualities of his voice. Snuff irritates the mucous membrane; tobacco smoke attacks the coats of the back of the mouth and affects the pharynx to the injury of the voice." So, too, Victor Rokitansky, in "Ueber Sänger und Singen," a singular book, not only cries out against tobacco; he insists on the singer keeping away from a smoke filled room. "If the singer has not enough will power to control his passionate craving for tobacco, let him only give way to desire in the open air." But there should be no smoking where there is a sensitive membrane. Rokitansky, as a singer, did not meet the approval of Santley, and, indeed, the former is so loud in his denunciation of the plant "which goes far beyond all the panaceas, potable gold and philosopher's stones" that you are inclined to suspect him of a secret pipe before breakfast. On the other hand there is Sir Morell Mackerzie with a safe and judicial opinion:
44Let the singer who wishes to keep in the "perfect way" refrain from inhaling the smoke, and let him take it as an axiom that the man in whom tobacco increases the flow of saliva to any marked degree is not intended by nature to smoke. Let him be strictly moderate in indulgence—the precise limits each man must settle for himself—and he will get all the good effect of the soothing plant without the bane which lurks in it when used to excess.
46Now George Augustus Sala in a late number of his entertaining weekly pries into the habits of singers and quotes with approbation the advice of a Mr. Bishenden, who is described vaguely as "a singer of nineteen years experience." It is this: "Don't take nips of spirits for they destroy the voice and coating of the throat." Mr. Bishenden recommends port, claret or a light Italian wine, taken now and then at meals. The wisdom of the ancients is with him. In the rare, the extraordinarily rare, book by Cerone, the book that appeared as if by stealth at the dawning of the seventeenth century, may be found chapters concerning sins of singers, such as ingratitude and intemperance. Cerone thought that sopranos and altos, male or female, should water wine "because pure wine drugs the voice and robs it of acuity." Tenors and basses, if they were young, and especially in the spring of the year, were advised to soften their wine a little, "for unmixed wine heats the stomach and makes the mouth dry and devoid of sonority." The old may drink as much as they please.
48Annibal Gantez said (1643): "Women, apples and nuts injure the voice."
50The ancients believed that singers should eat lightly. "Almonds, filberts, walnuts, dry the throat." In olden days they fasted before the performance, at other times they ate chiefly of vegetables, and so, according to Isidorus of Seville, the pagans called the singers of the early church fabarii, or bean eaters. Many of the old teachers are dumb, however, concerning diets. Tosi generalized: "Let the singer shun low and disreputable company, but above all such as abandon themselves to scandalous liberties."
52Solomon was the great manager of his time. "I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts." Not only did he realize that "all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the sun;" he went further, and he warned the layman, as follows: "Use not much the company of a woman that is a singer lest thou be taken with her attempts." Truly is this advice that should be written in letters of gold over the desk of the musical editor of daily or weekly newspaper.
54The moderns give freely of their counsel. Lemaire and Lavoix think everything may be eaten that is digested easily. "Never drink strong liquor; wine taken in small quantities, grog, and some mild liquors may serve as an excellent tonic." Dr. Segond approves of the wines of the South of France; he objects to liquor heavily charged with alcohol; he insists on the value of flesh, which is more nutritious than vegetables, and he recommends dark meat in preference to white. Stephen de La Madelaine quotes the remark of Brouc, that the voice is the hygrometer of sobriety, and he argues for temperance that is cater-cousin to abstinence. He is convinced that alcohol is the sworn foe of the singer, who should guard strenuously against indulgence in a habit that induces neglect of work and ruin of health. Rokitansky is sure that beer or wine in small quantity is safer for a singer to take before going on the stage than "nerve shattering coffee or tea;" but this drink should never be a habit, only taken "in the hour of necessity." Nor should a cold draught be swallowed immediately after singing.
56Theory is one thing and practise is another. The saws and the proverbs of antiquity show too well the perennial thirst of the singer. Musician, toss pot, malt worm, man fish, these words are unfortunately regarded as synonymous. The "glue of good fellowship" sticks more firmly than sage advice. But any exhibition of shocking examples who have won the applause of audiences in spite of the frowns of teachers and moralists must be deferred until another week. In this town the police looks after our musical interests in this one respect. The singer or player is driven by law from the restaurant at 11 o'clock at night. Alcoholic catarrh and consequent "depression of the ear" are thereby held in check. Then, too, the influence of our leading musicians is on the side of virtue. One abstains that he may have a clearer brain for poker. Another drinks freely of milk, and it is only in a rash native moment or on an occasional of national rejoicing that he betrays his passion for soda lemonade.
58The Symphony Orchestra of New York, under the direction of Mr. Walter Damrosch, gave Friday afternoon, the 9th inst., the first of a series of four concerts at the Tremont Theatre. The program was as follows:
60Symphony "Eroica"………………………………….Beethoven one of two readings
61Symphony "Eroica" ……………………………………… Beethoven one of two readings
62Aria, "Faust"……………………………………………..Spohr one of two readings
63Aria, "Faust" …………………………………………….. Spohr one of two readings
64Suite for strings, "Aus Holberg's Zeit"…………………Grieg one of two readings
65Suite for strings, "Aus Holberg's Zeit" ……………………. Grieg one of two readings
66"The Young Nun"………………………………………Schubert one of two readings
67"The Young Nun" ……………………………………… Schubert one of two readings
68Bacchanale "Tannhäuser"……………………………..Wagner one of two readings
69Bacchanale "Tannhäuser" ………………………………… Wagner one of two readings
71The program was not one of unusual interest, but the playing of the orchestra was excellent. The choirs were well balanced, the tone was pure, and in the stormier passages free from any suspicion of coarseness; the attack was sharp, and there was an unexaggerated observance of dynamic indications. The reading of Mr. Damrosch was distinguished by its sanity and by its reverence for the intentions of the composer. It is true that in the first movement of the symphony there was a touch of sentimentalism in consequence of slackening of pace and interpolated retards, but in his treatment of the so-called sentimental theme in B flat, Mr. Damrosch is not alone; he is one of a band of hyper-moderns. Miss Juch sang with intelligence but her voice showed too plainly the effect of hard and long-continued work and the wear and the tear of the ambulatory opera house. There was a large audience.
73The same afternoon a concert in illustration of the development of the Wagnerian music drama was given at the Boston Theatre by the Metropolitan Orchestra, under Mr. Anton Seidl, assisted by Miss Fabris, Miss Stein, Mr. Fischer, "seven additional principal sopranis and contraltis from New York," and women voices of the Cecilia. The program included well-known excerpts from the Paris version of the "Tannhäuser" overture and bacchanale to the flower girl scene from "Parsifal."
75The New York Symphony String Quartet, assisted by Mr. Damrosch, pianist, gave their first chamber concert in this city last evening in Chickering Hall. The program was as follows:
77Quartet, D minor (Posth.)…………………………….Schubert one of two readings
78Quartet, D minor (Posth.) ………………………………. Schubert one of two readings
79Sonata, violin and piano, op. 100……………………..Brahms one of two readings
80Sonata, violin and piano, op. 100 ……………………….. Brahms one of two readings
81Quartet, F major, op. 50, No. 1………………………..Beethoven one of two readings
82Quartet, F major, op. 50, No. 1 …………………………. Beethoven one of two readings
84This concert was enjoyed mightily by a large audience. The playing of the club was marked by precision, rhythmic swing and rare dramatic feeling. The strong personality of Mr. Brodsky took possession of his associates. Perhaps, at times, the critical hearer might have asked for less explosive emotion and longed for a more sustained pianissimo, when that nuance was demanded by the composer. There was so much, however, to praise, there was such musical virility in the expression of noble conception, that it would seem ungracious to complain of a few seeming blemishes that will no doubt disappear as soon as the members of the club gain more intimate relations from the experience that time alone can give. For your ideal string quartet does not spring up suddenly like the gourd of Jonah; it is a plant of slow growth. Mr. Damrosch appeared as an excellent ensemble player, and the Brahms' sonata as delivered by him and Mr. Brodsky was a genuine pleasure.
86PHILIP HALE.
88WILLIAM ROHLFING & SONS,
89Music Publishers and Importers,
90MILWAUKEE, – WISCONSIN.
91Depot for Germany: FRITZ SCHUBERT, Jr., Leipzig.
92Depot for England: STANLEY, LUCAS, WEBER & Co., London.
93Publishers of "EDITION ROHLFING."
95The most complete stock of all the standard cheap editions found out West. Catalogues free on application. Most liberal and inducing terms granted to the trade and the musical profession in general. American and foreign musical novelties added to their fine assorted stock as soon as issued. Apply and be assured of prompt and quick attention.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.