Scan 6
Musical Courier 1893-05-17: Vol 26 Iss 689, 1893
69 lines. Read by computer on 24 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 7. See the scan on archive.org.
1The Musical Courier.
2PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY
3—BY THE—
4MUSICAL COURIER COMPANY,
5(INCORPORATED)
619 Union Square W., New York.
7ESTABLISHED JANUARY, 1880.
8No. 689.
9EDITORS:
10MARC A. BLUMENBERG. OTTO FLOERSHEIM.
11JAMES G. HUNEKER. HARRY O. BROWN
12HUGH CRAIG.
13BUSINESS DEPARTMENT:
14SPENCER T. DRIGGS. R. S. MAXWELL.
15A. T. KING. FRANK M. STEVENS.
16EUROPEAN BRANCH OFFICE:
17OTTO FLOERSHEIM, 17 Link Str.,
18Berlin, W. Germany.
19WESTERN OFFICE: Chicago, 226 Wabash Ave., JOHN E. HALL
20Manager.
21BOSTON OFFICE: 32 West St.
22LEIPZIG, GERMANY: GEORG HUG, Königstrasse 16.
23VIENNA, AUSTRIA, IX Schwarzenpflanzer str. 15.
24LONDON AND PARIS: BRENTANO'S.
25Subscription (including postage) invariably in advance.
26Yearly, $4.00; Foreign, $5.00; Single Copies, Ten Cents.
27RATES FOR ADVERTISING.
28PER INCH.
29Three Months………….$20.00 Nine Months………….$60.00
30Six Months……………..40.00 Twelve Months…………80.00 one of two readings
31Six Months……………..40.00 Twelve Months………….80.00 one of two readings
32Special rates for preferred positions.
33Advertisements for the current week must be handed in by 5 P. M. on Monday.
34All remittances for subscriptions or advertising must be made by check draft, or money orders, payable to the MUSICAL COURIER COMPANY.
35American News Company, New York, General Distributing Agents.
36Western News Company, Chicago, Western Distributing Agents.
37NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1893.
38Telephone — 1253-18th.
39NOTICE.
40THE MUSICAL COURIER is on sale on all the news stands in the buildings of the World's Fair at Chicago, and on every news stand on the grounds.
41The paper can also be found at Brentano's on Wabash avenue, at the office of THE MUSICAL COURIER in Chicago, 226 Wabash avenue, and at the principal news stands in that and other cities.
42LITTLE wonder that the "Paris" was beaten by the "Campania." The $180,000 of Paderewski weighing so much doubtlessly caused the defeat of the "Paris."
43LITTLE Frida Simonson, a piano prodigy but eight years of age, is quite a business woman already, for on entering a concert hall she always asks, "Are the critics here?" What's in a name?
44THERE has been a recent sale in Berlin of the interesting collection of autographs belonging to the late Count Paar. Many musicians' manuscripts and letters brought very high prices. Three letters of Beethoven were sold for 310, 289 and 200 marks; a letter of Haydn's for 185 marks; a part of the orchestration of a duo from Meyerbeer's "Crociato" for 210 marks; a letter of Leopold Mozart's, in which he announces the birth of his son Wolfgang, found a buyer at 260 marks; two letters from Mozart himself brought 420 and 380 marks; a letter of Schubert's, 350 marks; another of Weber's, addressed to Kind, apropos of the success of the first representation of "Der Freischütz, 505 marks; a few lines of Wagner's, 106 marks, &c.
45MUSICAL phrases are straying into literature. "Broken chords crossed by the echo of a False Note" is the latest thing in absurd titles.
46REQUIESCAT in Pace. This pious speech for the repose of the defunct "Music Notes." So they come and so they go. Who will be next?
47THAT pleasant and amiable gentleman, Dr. Hans Guido von Bülow, divides all operatic composers into two classes: 1. Those who add to the repertory of the barrel organ; and 2. Those who borrow from the repertory of the barrel organ."
48THE Rev. H. R. Haweis, says an unkind critic, preaches on the fiddle and fiddles in the pulpit. "It is not the body," said Mr. Haweis once to one of the lady members of his congregation, "it is not the body that needs most looking after." "No," replied she, "I know it isn't; it's the skirt."
49A CABLEGRAM from Vienna dated May 9 declares that it is rumored that the Government has forbidden the production of "Falstaff" at Trieste, with Verdi in the conductor's chair. An Irredentist demonstration is feared. Thus do politics and music clash. It's a very good advertisement for "Falstaff" at all events.
50WE announced some time ago that Emilio Pizzi had been commissioned to write a one act opera for Adelina Patti. He has a libretto from the pen of Charles Alfred Byrne, the well known dramatist, and the work, after being submitted to Patti, was accepted. It is called "Gabrielle," is laid in the times of Louis XIII., and is romantic in character. Patti will wear a nun's dress in the first scene. The composer, Mr. Pizzi, is the talented young composer who won the Bologna prize for grand opera. His work, "William Ratcliffe," based on Heinrich Heine's poem, was adjudged victorious by such men as Arrigo Boito and Martucci.
51THIS from the Boston "Courier" about Mr. Nikisch, and confirms the account published first in THE MUSICAL COURIER as to the nature of the contract the retiring conductor had with Mr. Higginson. Says the "Courier":
52Mr. Nikisch has exhibited to a reporter a typewritten acknowledgment of the receipt from him by Col. Henry L. Higginson of $5,000, and also of the honorable termination of the engagement according to the contract of December, 1888. It was signed by Henry L. Higginson, and bore the date of April 30. "That settles it, does it not?" remarked the conductor to the reporter. "I paid that sum last Saturday, as you see, and did it to save my health and life. There was no such thing as a sum forfeit in the contract. That is all." Mr. Nikisch also remarked: "I have broken no contract. The provisions of the contract gave me the right to terminate my engagement at any time, but on condition that I should pay a certain sum. I never have nor never will break a contract." Whatever it may be called, this sacrifice of $5,000 is to be added to the loss of $1,000 in salary that would have accrued in the remaining three weeks of the orchestra's season, and the $2,000 bonus that Colonel Higginson has always given his conductors at the close of each year's work.
53THE following cablegram from the "Herald" speaks for itself:
54PARIS, May 12, 1893.
55The great artistic event this evening was the first performance at the Grand Opera of Wagner's "Walkyrie." Paris is the last large city in the world to recognize this masterpiece, which has been familiar to New York for the past ten years. Hence it is useless to analyze the music and the subject, which are already known.
56The impression on the French public was profound. It had a colossal success during the whole of the first act, especially the duet of "Siegmond and Sieglinde," and in the last act especially the cavalcade of the "Walkyries" which was enthusiastically applauded.
57But the second act left the audience unmoved, because the subject was mythological and too Germanic. The conversation between "Wotan" and "Fricka" tires a Latin audience, which only wishes to learn what the Walkyrie knows.
58With the exception of this misunderstanding, it will be a great artistic success during the next three months, but it has less chances of lasting as long as "Lohengrin." Nevertheless, Wagner now happening to be the fashion, a prolongation of its success is possible.
59The scenery was admirable. Nowhere, not even at Bayreuth or Vienna, was the cavalcade of the "Walkyries" so beautiful.
60The interpretation was good. Van Dyck as "Siegmond" appeared tired. Miss Caron as "Sieglinde" was excellent. Miss Bréval, the débutante, as "Brunhilda," was very good. But the greatest triumph was reserved for Demas, the basso, in the rôle of "Wotan," who was as good, according to Wagnerians, as Scaria himself was formerly.
61JACQUES ST. CERE.
62Paris is certainly trying to wipe away the odium of the "Tannhäuser" scandal. There is every reason why "Walkyrie" should prove a success in Paris. It appeals tremendously to the imagination, and some of its music is as noble as any Wagner ever penned. We doubt, however, Mr. St. Cere's judgment as to Demas, the basso, being equal to Scaria.
63A NEW CONTRIBUTION TO WAGNER LITERATURE.
64ANY addition to the already formidable literature pertaining to Richard Wagner and his works is welcome, doubly welcome, when from the pen of such an authority as Henry T. Finck. We must chronicle therefore with pleasure the appearance of two volumes by Mr. Finck, entitled "Wagner and his Works," and put forth by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. These two volumes which on account of their compact size and elegance of binding, do not give one the impression of being bulky nevertheless contain 975 pages of closely printed matter. There is also a complete index. Two portraits of Wagner adorn volume one and two respectively, while the letterpress is all that could be desired as to clarity and finish.
65The work is not written throughout with the taste and precision one has learned to expect from Mr. Finck. There are some lapses into vulgarisms of speech, and his "Chopin," considered from the literary view point, was on a higher plane. There are evidences of hasty writing, too, but we must condone these faults when we take into consideration the enormous amount of work compressed into these two volumes, the tremendous territory explored and the almost innumerable authorities quoted. Reading makes a full man, Bacon said; Mr. Finck has read everything that touched in the remotest degree upon the subject he so lovingly exploited. He has raked up, scraped together and fished out every imaginable thing about Wagner that malice, hatred, admiration and criticism could say as to his personality or his music.
66The result of it all is a work entirely novel in scope and content. It is the most remarkable contribution ever made to Wagner literature with the single exception of Ferdinand Praeger's "Wagner as I Knew Him." It discounts entirely Glassenapp's dry mountains of fact about the great music dramatist, and is more reliable and accurate than Jullien's work. It is remarkable, not so much as an exposition, but as a specimen of the most violent and radical polemic that has ever appeared on the subject. Wilhelm Tappert's writings pale before Mr. Finck's claims for this composer, and it is all the more sincere and convincing because it is just what the author tried not to do. He started out with the best intentions in the world. He evidently resolved at the outset to be temperate, prudent in weighing evidence, judicious in decision and cautious in statement. He soon becomes just the reverse, and in these days of lukewarm partisanship and sickly adherence to faiths such a book as this is not only refreshing, it is provocative of discussion, which means fighting; and as everyone knows nothing clears the air so much as a good, square honest fight, and let it be said without further premise Mr. Finck is ready to meet all comers on the Wagnerian question.
67It is this belligerent quality, this warlike note, this throwing down the gauntlet to all, that makes the work one not difficult to classify. Mr. Finck almost forgets that the war is over, that Wagner has conquered and has come to stay. He fights as hard as if it were 1873 instead of 1893, and deals doughty blows at those who fail to comprehend that Richard Wagner was the greatest composer, the greatest dramatic poet, and altogether the greatest man who has lived since Shakespeare. Mr. Finck prides himself on being an advocate, and he certainly does not overrate his capacity. Such special pleading we have never had the good fortune to witness before. Fanaticism would be the proper expression, were it not that the object of his idolatry, with all his grave temperamental defects, was such a wonderful man and artist. One thing more before we proceed to a consideration of the two volumes. Mr. Finck has made copious references to the good work done by three or four American critics in the Wagnerian cause. Messrs. Krehbiel, Henderson, Elson, Jackson, Kobbé and others are mentioned; therefore we feel tempted to ask, What of Mr. Otto Floersheim, who, together with THE MUSICAL COURIER, did more for the cause of Wagner than the combined critical force above mentioned?
68THE MUSICAL COURIER at a time when Wagner's adherents could be counted on your fingers in New York, fought a single handed fight for Wagner's music. It fought through the Metropolitan Opera House seasons of German opera. It resolutely turned its face from popularity and gain by battling with outworn Italian opera and the vicious Star system. It is the only musical journal in the World that has been consistently and persistently Wagnerian for over thirteen years, and for Mr. Finck to ignore this
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