Scan 44
Musical Courier 1892-12-21: Vol 25 Iss 668, 1892
78 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 37. See the scan on archive.org.
1But I could not agree with him in applying the word "archaic" to selections from the orchestral works of Wagner, Saint-Saëns, Bizet, Massenet, Svendsen, Goldmark and X. Sharwenka. Nor could I feel with him a wild yearning to hear in the place of such selections "the new symphonies by Rudorff and Klughardt."
3I thought that his remark, "The marked weakness in solo talent was a matter undoubtedly of economy," was an indecent sneer at such singers as Miss Juch, Mrs. Lawson and Messrs. Campanini, Reiger, Heinrich, Dufft and Galassi. I simply said that I did not agree with him in certain of his statements. Is such conduct "a badly masked assault?" Perhaps I was rude in speaking of him as "Mr. E. I. Stevenson," and not as "Mr. E. Irenaeus Stevenson," but my rudeness was without intention.
5I thought no more of the matter until one fine day in November I received a letter from Mr. E. Irenaeus Stevenson. I have always supposed it was from him, although it was written in the awful dignity of the third person. As far as I could make out, he taunted me "with the license of ink." The illegibility of the manuscript was such, however, that I am not positive. It is possible that I might use his letter now as a certificate of merit. I did not answer the letter, for, even had I understood clearly his meaning, I saw no use in continuing a discussion that was then founded solely on a difference of opinion. I confess that I was always pleased with the conduct of the man who, when he received a long letter of uncalled for abuse, replied as follows: "Dear Sir—Your favor of the 4th is at hand. I observe that you spell which with a 't.'"
7For a man who calls loudly in the "North American Review" for "honest, blunt, sincere, well considered, terse, critical writing," Mr. E. Irenaeus Stevenson is a singularly sensitive plant. The good old Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, was fairer in his methods when he contradicted the Gnostics of his day. It is true that little is known of his early history, and here a parallel suggests itself; he also "expressed himself in metaphor, and his doctrines were in a pictorial state." But when the bishop met an antagonist he did not at once shriek out "Foul play!" in a febrile voice if he himself was hit in a sensitive place. Irenaeus, the Little, has also been guilty of what Charles Reade called the sham-sample swindle. He first states what he imagines an imaginary opponent said, and he then attacks the creature of his fancy.
9Thank you for reprinting the paragraph from a late number of the "Independent." I might not have seen it, for Mr. E. Irenaeus Stevenson neglected to send me a proof of it. I should not have replied if you had not called for an explanation. I really did not until a few days ago realize the importance of Mr. Stevenson in the musical world, and I thought until then that my charity in quoting him had been misapplied. I now realize my error. I am told, indeed, on excellent authority that this is the same Mr. E. Irenaeus Stevenson who once offered a play to one of the managers in New York with the assurance that he (the manager) would be glad to receive a piece that would need no alteration, no retrenching. Against a man thus armed in triple brass of what avail are ordinary weapons? Against such would even the Immortals strive in vain. But perhaps this Mr. Stevenson is not the Mr. E. Irenaeus Stevenson who displays his fine line of fall and winter goods in the "Independent." It would, then, have been better if I had agreed with him quietly in November. For who can follow the movements of such a one as George Chapman described in the preface to his translation of the "Iliad": "A certain woodsucker that hovers up and down, laboriously engrossing all the air with his luxurious ambition and buzzing into every ear my detraction."
11Yours truly, PHILIP HALE.
13Sunday Music.
14Ovide Musin Plays.
16OVIDE MUSIN and Annie Louise Tanner, the soprano, and his wife, made their reappearance in this city after an absence of some years, last Sunday night at the Music Hall.
18Mr. Musin plays with all his old dash, fascinating deftness and musicianly feeling. He first gave Tartini's "Variations Sérieuses" on a Cavelli gavot, the accompaniment of which was very cleverly orchestrated by Hermann Wetzler. Mr. Musin played the Leonard cadenza at the close. Later he gave his second caprice most brilliantly, and was recalled three times, and finally had to play Paganini's "Nel Cor Piu," which he did with immense virtuosity. For encore he played the Bach air very broadly and musically. Mr. Musin is still the magnetic artist of yore and his reappearance in the music world of this country is welcome.
20Mrs. Musin sang with great fluency and purity of tone an aria from the "Seraglio," Mozart. She was also well received. Numbers from the Wagnerian Tetralogy were given by the orchestra under Walter Damrosch, and in which Felicia Kaschoska, Bertha Lincoln, Minnie Behnne and Victor Clodio participated.
22At the Arion Conductor Frank Van der Stucken directed the following program:
23Ouverture, "Eine nordische Heerfahrt"………………Emil Hartmann Orchester.
24"Nachtgesang im Walde"……………………………Franz Schubert Männerchor und Hornquartet.
25Andante Spianato und Polonaise……………………..Frederic Chopin Suza Doane und Orchester.
26Scene aus Pierre Corneille's "Horatius" (neu).Camille Saint-Saëns Ida Klein, Perry Averill und Orchester.
27"Das Grab im Busento" (neu)………………………..J. Zerlett Männerchor à capella.
28Suite, "La Farandole" (neu)………………………….Theodore Dubois Orchester.
29Lieder…………………………………………………Olive Fremstadt.
30"Der träumende See"……………………………….Robert Schumann "Kein Sorg' um den Weg" (neu)…………………G. Baldamus Männerchor à capella.
31"Mephisto" (neu)…………………………………….Josef Reiter J. Reiter (Hornso1o) und Orchester.
32Quartet aus "Rigoletto"…………………………….Giuseppe Verdi Ida Klein, Olive Fremstadt, Wm. Reiger, Perry Averill und Orchester.
33"Schlachtgesang" (neu)…………………………….Max Bruch Männerchor und Orchester.
34"Stabat Mater" and Joseph Hollman next Sunday night.
36At the Lenox Lyceum Anton Seidl gave this program:
37"Marche Heroique"………………………………….Massenet
38"Tannhäuser's Pilgrimage"……………………………Wagner
39Pizzicato ostinato….from Symphony 4 (F minor)…Tschaikowsky
40Allegro con fuoco………………………………….Raff
41"Die schoene Muellerin" (for string orchestra)………..Raff
42"siegfried awakens Brunhilde"………………………..Wagner
43"Gioconda"…………………………………………..Ponchielli
44"La Gioconda"………………………………………Miss Emma Juch
45"La Cleca"…………………………………………..Clara Poole-King
46"Laura"……………………………………………..L. Viviani
47"Alvaro Badoreo"…………………………………..Italo Campanini
48"Enzo Grimaldi"……………………………………Antonio Galassi
49"Barbana"…………………………………………..Antonio Galassi
51Sunday night next will be a grand Wagner concert—selections from "Tannhäuser," "Lohengrin," "Tristan," "Meistersinger," "Nibelungen" and "Parsifal." Well-known talent will participate.
53"The Little Neapolitan."
55PETITE, winsome and lovable is Eugenia Castillano, the little Neopolitan pianist, the latest addition to the list of piano artists in this country. Scarcely over 5 feet tall, 17 inches bounding the tiny waist, a web of raven ringlets falling over the shoulders and framing a face an exact counterpart of the picture of a "Neapolitan Boy"—retroussé type, large, soft, dark eyes, creamy tinted complexion, low brow, strong white teeth and red lips—in her short red petticoat her fifteen years shrink to twelve, and the marvel of her wonderful genius becomes all the greater.
57Her gift is inherited from her mother, who, a pianist of renown in her own country, has been her principal instructor. Her father, a major in the Italian army, was at one time upon the king's staff, and is now stationed at Naples. At three years the child's gift first disclosed itself in the repetition of an aria of Gounod, then quite new, that had been played in her hearing. Her temperament is intense, warm, affectionate, but without eccentricity, noble and well balanced. "Ah! it is not for myself that I want success, but for my family, who have done so much for me!" she cried in reply to compliments last evening. She is without pride, vanity or selfishness. Her imagination is marvelous, her memory retentive, and she was born with all the mechanical facility for piano playing. She speaks scarcely a word of English.
59The brand of genius on this girl's work is its universality. It would be easy to imagine a passion for the music of her nation in the mind of an Italian. That she interprets with equal insight and fidelity the works of Wagner, Beethoven, Chopin, Scarlatti and writers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is proof of more than ordinary musical comprehension. She is not a child prodigy, she is an artist. Martucci, director of the Musical Lyceum at Bologna, who is to Italy what Nikisch is to America, on hearing her play the masters said: "She would play them so had she never had a lesson." Fillipi, the critic, morose and indifferent, after hearing her play fifteen compositions, including every known form of technical difficulty, finishing with Liszt's "Tarantelle," seized both hands, crying "Divine, divine! nothing like it except Rubinstein! but look at the ease of the signorita; the great Rubinstein must have puffed and panted after one-half this exertion!" Von Westerhaut, the Holland composer, whose compositions she plays, refuses to play them in her presence after hearing her interpretation of them. She made her début in a tour through Italy at twelve years of age, receiving ovations such as had been accorded but to Rubinstein.
61A peculiarity of the girl is that away from the piano her flower—like little body is limp and clinging, her small hands inefficient, and incapable of the management of pins, buttons, needles, &c. Once seated before the instrument it is as if she became possessed of some spirit of iron, hard, firm and concentrated, her hands strong as those of a man. Filled with a spirit of nervous energy she is impervious to fatigue, and rises from six hours of playing to return as if to her first piece.
63In May she goes to Chicago. Nikisch it was who insisted upon her début in Boston. She plays here in January. She opens with the Tschaikowsky second concerto in G, for piano and orchestra. Her "Cavalcata di la Walküre" is remarkable. The Queen of Italy gave her an audience of one hour and a half at their first meeting and gave her many beautiful gifts.
65She comes to this country under the patronage of Mrs. Scott-Anderson, née Scott (cousin of the late Mrs. Harrison), wife of General Anderson, secretary of the Florida Gulf Canal Company, herself a singer of note who made her operatic début in Milan, whose sister is wife of Michael Uda, editor of "Il Pungolo," of Naples, the successor of Fillipi in musical criticism since the latter's death two years ago.
67NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC.
69THE accompanying cut represents the Conservatory as seen from Franklin Square. It is the largest and best equipped conservatory building in this country, and one of the finest in the world. The Newton street frontage extends 230 feet, that on James 210 feet; the elevation presents seven stories and a dome. In this great building, to which also belong two large annexes, are gathered together all the requirements of the conservatory, embracing a music hall, gymnasium, library and reading rooms, museum, parlors, class and lecture rooms, art studios, offices and a home for lady students. The equipments include all modern conveniences; steam heat, electric light and electric bell communication throughout; elevators, baths, a telephone office, post office, &c.
71The regulations of the home are such as have been found wise and necessary after an experience of many years, and there are several thousand past students and parents all over the country who are ready to testify to the excellence of the accommodations, surroundings and influences.
73The institution is open to the public, who are invited to inspect the system under which the work is carried forward.
75The Advisory Board is an active committee co-operating with the Preceptress, the Director and the General Manager in the supervision of the home, and consists of many ladies whose names in connection with the home are a sufficient guarantee for the purity of the institution and its wise management.
77The excellence of these accommodations, combined with the general musical atmosphere and many collateral advantages, makes the New England Conservatory the most perfect institution of its kind in the world.
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