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Musical Courier 1892-12-14: Vol 25 Iss 667, 1892
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1building and who was the "man for the work." He much desires a school with discipline and facility for voice study, where boys might work earnestly and in broad day-light. He realizes that boys who are engaged all day are not in fit condition to use their vocal organs in the evening, and regrets much the necessity for bringing boys out on the streets at night, and giving them work to do when day-done and work-weary.
3Mr. Baker considers it a great mistake for a choirmaster to sink his life in choir work. No matter how high the standard may be, beyond a certain point, under existing conditions, the best master cannot go. Material and voice are constantly changing, and the work is but a succession of beginnings, an everlasting rebuilding. The progress is comparatively slight for the choir, however hard the work, and still less for the master. At the same time that a man must put his very best energy into organ loft work he must keep his eye upon the word "excelsior," or he makes his life tour in a circle.
5He dwells upon the importance of resonance in a church as a necessity for enthusiasm of musical spirit. Where the voices merge properly, an esprit de corps is generated and the singing is consequently more brilliant.
7I must not forget to mention that an ambitious and valuable little paper, the "St. James' Choir Journal," is published monthly for eight months, beginning October 1, by the junior choristers of St. James' choir. Among its contributors are the rector, the choirmaster, Mr. F. H. Potter, and prominent musicians. Its spirit, giving praise wherever due, on every possible occasion, cannot be too highly commended. The officers are John B. Cotchett, editor; Hollis Taylor and William Elliott, sub-editors; William S. Hessler, managing editor; Arthur Metz and Edward T. Murphy, associate managers; treasurer, the choirmaster.
9Gifted in composition, Mr. Baker's friends and publishers speak of him as one of the coming musical spirits of the day.
11A nephew of Mr. G. Edward Stubbs, of St. Agnes', Mr. Baker has a similar heredity of the churchman musician. Three uncles clergymen, a mother's family wholly musical, and early education directed to sacred work, little wonder that so young he has acquitted himself so well. He has been carefully educated both here and in Europe and is well versed in orchestration.
13St. James' Church is neither very "high" nor very "low," but is a wealthy and important one. The members are appreciative and liberal, and have certainly taken the right lead in organ loft progress by securing "the right man for the right place at all costs."
15Speaking of Mr. Stubbs, I cannot refrain from calling attention to his recent most enterprising and most praiseworthy movement, the arrangement of a course of six clinical lectures on the vocal training of chorister boys. This is the first attempt ever made in this country to reduce the training of a boy's voice to a scientific basis, and as such will be hailed as the dawn of better things for the boy's voice, the public, the church, the choirmaster and music. The fact that methods are as diverse as choirmasters at the present time is sufficient testimony to the necessity for some scientific treatment of this important matter. The country at large is looking toward the metropolis for example, and with all due deference to the conscientious, painstaking, and in many cases correct illustrations to be had here, the honest musician cannot but say, "Heaven help the country at large!"
17The extremely clever yet simple arrangement of topics included in each lecture, as found in Mr. Stubbs' small pamphlet, is to the thinking mind sufficient evidence of the vital helpfulness of the course at this present juncture to all interested in this tremendously popular and important movement. Should the lectures succeed in causing a reduction of "methods," Apollo will make his best bow to Mr. Stubbs.
19Now let us have an association to discuss the matter of these lectures, let us assimilate what of it is decided to be "just right," and rejecting what of our own is thus proven to be faulty, unite upon a "large, wide, great big" metropolitan platform upon which we may invite seekers after truth of outside sections to stand with us.
21FANNIE EDGAR THOMAS.
23Arpeggios.
25HER friends will be grieved to learn that Miss Charlotte Wells, the gifted organist of the Church of the Incarnation, has been seriously ill, the result of over work. Slowly gaining, it is possible she may resume her duties next Sunday.
27Mr. Homer Bartlett does wear a diamond collar button. It is very small and dainty, but it shone full in my eyes, like a piercing ray from a comet above the horizon of fine cloth dress coat collar at a concert the other evening, and I know what I am talking about. He has also got a fine new "Steinway grand" of which he is as artlessly delighted as his pretty daughter might be over her first bouquet. It is a beauty; and then his organ has been rebuilt and I think he has got a new choir. No wonder he looks young!
29Of the organ loft stars who have secured positions through the Wolfsohn Musical Bureau are Clementine de Vere-Sapio, Miss Olive Fremstadt, Miss Lincoln, of Washington, Mr. William Rieger, Mr. McKinley (who, by the way, goes to London shortly to sing with Henschel), Mr. Eric Bushnell, Mr. Rice and Clara Poole-King.
31Miss Katherine Crawford has been engaged by the Baptist Tabernacle to fill the interim between the retirement of Mr. Henry Carter and the entrance of Mr. Thos. Shaw. She takes charge of several musical departments of the church work in addition to her choir duties.
33Mr. Louis Lombard is compiling a volume of twenty-four essays upon things musical which will be a force in the musical education of the country.
35Friends of that genial young blonde, Mr. Oscar Franklin Comstock, will be interested in hearing of his "Op. 4," if you please, a very excellent communion service in E flat. He is living in Brooklyn at 100 Ross street.
37TIENS.TIENS.
39The Second Boston Symphony Concert.
41THE program scheme of the second concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which occurred last Thursday evening at Chickering Hall, was simple and well contrasted. Johannes Brahms' third symphony in F, op. 90, Dr. Antonin Dvorák's D major suite for orchestra, Wagner's "Kaiser Marsch" and Chopin's "Andante," "Sparnato" and "Polonaise," the latter played by Miss Suza Doane with orchestral accompaniment, comprised the evening's entertainment.
43The performance of the Brahms' symphony must surely have appealed to his enemies, for it contains so many beauties—beauties of mood, beauties of color, of workmanship; in a word, a genuinely inspired work of art.
45Mr. W. F. Aphthorpe's remarks in the analytical program would lead one to expect a composition as a whole sombre in its savagery, full of gloom and mistiness and soul strife. As if to prove that he can be Allegro as well as Penseroso, Ariel as well as Caliban, Brahms seems to have composed this symphony in the happiest frame of mind. There is much that is tragic, much that is dramatic, but not the gruesome, morbidly theatrical exploitation of soul states that one often encounters in modern symphonic music. Health, magnificent, manly, mental health predominates; and color there is, mood coloring, subtle, swiftly transitory, darkling at times, but the basic keynote throughout is pitched high, blithe, sweetly eloquent and even fiery. The color scheme, as far as the instrumentation, is brighter, less turbid and generally clearer than much of Brahms' orchestral work. It must be confessed that his orchestral speech at times is stammering and crass, but it very often suits his moods. Why frame an epic with the airy trellises, the ornamental curvings of a piquant comedy? Brahms is Brahms, and we have to accept him and his shortcomings. The envelope is rough, even repelling, but the kernel is always sound and sweet. He reminds one in this particular of Robert Browning.
47The orchestral garb of the beautiful third movement, the allegretto in C minor, seems to fit the orchestra better than does the instrumentation of the other three movements; upon its quaint, pathetic grace one cannot dwell sufficiently. It is a musical gem of the first water and is accorded a better setting than most of Brahms' precious musical stones. The symphony was played by Mr. Nikisch with a clear sympathetic fire, that burned brightly to the close. It was not the most favorable night for music, but the orchestra has seldom played better here. Dr. Dvorák's suite was extremely interesting in character and invention. It is built on characteristic dance motives, and its composer's ingenuity and deftness, even where the musical idea is slight, is extraordinary. Dvorák is the landscape painter among modern composers. He has genuine feeling for out of door scenes, he is breezy, sane, and his Bohemian blood sparkles and surges through this suite. The bagpipe drone of the praeludium, the melancholy grace of the polka, the delightful measures of the menuet, the poetry of the romanza, admirable in its scoring for the woodwind, and the furiante finale, with its tangle of cross rhythms—bold, impetuous, galloping across country—and its closing chords, religious in color (Dr. Dvorák is a good Roman Catholic), all these made the suite delightfully good music.
49It also was superbly played, though the tempi were open to criticism.
51One wishes that Miss Suza Doane, who was a Reinecke pupil, could, in her piano playing have come up to the standard of the evening. But she is young, quite talented, and was very nervous, hence her playing sounded angular, awkward and constrained. She possesses a fluent technic, an incisive touch (often forced and hard), and has evidently been well schooled.
53She was received well, and for encore played Liszt's setting of Mendelssohn's "Auf flueglen des gesanges" in anything but a poetic manner.
55The evening closed with a brilliant performance of Wagner's pompous march, in which the orchestra was splendidly sonorous and satisfying. The third concert takes place January 12.
57Boston Symphony Orchestra.
58Brooklyn Concert.
60ARTHUR NIKISCH, with his band of players from Boston, gave the second concert of this season under the auspices of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Society at the Academy of Music in that city on Saturday night, preceded as usual by the public rehearsal on Friday.
62A reverse program was given, the "Euryanthe" overture being played last and Beethoven's C minor symphony first, followed by Xaver Scharwenka, who played his B flat minor piano concerto. Two movements from Berlioz' "Damnation of Faust" preceded the overture.
64The marvelous virtuosity of the orchestra was never illustrated more forcibly than in the Berlioz numbers, and the C minor symphony was played with uncommon vigor and intensity, making it a memorable performance. Mr. Nikisch and his orchestra seemed to have been in excellent form, as they usually are when they play in the Brooklyn Academy of Music, an auditorium that is endowed with the best acoustic properties.
66If anything, Scharwenka played his concerto better than ever before, in this country, at least, and he was materially aided by an accompaniment which could not be duplicated, as well as a superb Knabe grand piano. The instrument is a choice, artistic product, endowed with a beautiful, even quality of tone, a powerful bass and a brilliant, silvery treble. Its middle register contains a couple of octaves of singing tones which are simply delightful, doing their duty under the most severe treatment equally as well as with the use of piano passages. The piano is a great tribute to the artistic tendencies of the Knabe house and is deserving of the highest praise.
68The next public rehearsal and concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Brooklyn takes place January 13 and 14.
70Vienna Letter.
71VIENNA OFFICE THE MUSICAL COURIER,
72IX Schwarzenpanierstrasse 15,
73November 20, 1892.
75THE second philharmonic concert on Sunday last brought us two novelties, the overture to the comedy "Eine Nacht auf Carlstein," by Fibich, a modern composer of considerable talent, and a piano concerto by E. Lalo, dedicated to and played by Louis Diémer, of Paris. The overture was well received, and the composer called at the conclusion, and Louis Diémer gave a brilliant rendering of a most uninteresting composition, whose only virtue consists in its shortness. Diémer is a very good pianist, brilliant and possessing a beautiful touch and all requirements necessary to the true artist, but it seems a pity that he should have chosen such a work, in which he appeared to great disadvantage. However, he will be heard in a recital on Wednesday November 30, at which he will be assisted by Prof. Robert Fischhof, who with Diémer will play an original set of variations and a fugue, written for two pianos.
77Johann Strauss has completed his new comic opera, "Princess Ninetta," which will be heard for the first time at the Theatre an der Wien. He has also written a new waltz, which his brother Eduard will bring out at next Sunday's concert in the Musikvereinssaal. The name of the waltz has not yet been decided upon; in fact this part of the business seems to give Strauss more trouble than the composition itself. At the Opera the present unfavorable weather is playing havoc with some of the singers. Van Dyck has been on the sick list several times, and other operas had to be substituted. Van Dyck was also to have sung in Prague next Tuesday in "Lohengrin" for the benefit of the German Dramatic Association, but has cancelled this engagement also. Director Jahn when in Florence last week, bought the performing rights of Leoncavallo's new opera, "I Pagliacci," which will be heard here next season, Van Dyck creating the leading tenor rôle. "Signor Formica" is on the bill for several performances this week, but as it has not been very favorably received it will not remain much longer.
79Miss Adele aus der Ohe gives a concert with orchestra on December 1, when she will play Beethoven's E flat major concerto, Tschaikowsky's B flat minor concerto and some piano soli by Chopin and Liszt. The orchestra will be conducted by Wilhelm Gericke. Mrs. Dory Burmeister-Petersen plays here next Saturday, also with orchestra, and her husband's piano concerto will be heard for the first time. Reisenauer gives his second and last recital on Saturday next, when he will play the thirty-two variations by Beethoven, and pieces by Liszt, Chopin, Schubert and Paderewski.
81The second of the Hellmesberger Quartet evenings came off Thursday, the 24th inst., when the following program was successfully carried out:
83Quartet, A minor, op. 132 ……………………………………… Beethoven
84Trio, F major ……………………………………………………….. Saint-Saëns
85Quartet, E minor …………………………………………………… Volkmann
87The piano part in the Saint-Saëns trio was played by Miss Marianne Hirschfeld, a sister of Dr. Robert Hirschfeld,
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