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Musical Courier 1894-08-29: Vol 29 Iss 755, 1894
74 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 11. See the scan on archive.org.
1MARIENBAD MEANDERINGS.
3MARIENBAD, August 12, 1894.
5ALTHOUGH the doctor has forbidden me all writing the old habit is so strong with me that for once I will break his commandment and send you a few lines. I hope it will not hurt me any more than my Pilsner beer, which he also forbade me. For two days I tried to do without it, and when I could not stand it any longer I went to see the doctor again and argued the case with him so strenuously and successfully that finally he allowed me one glass per diem. This point won I trudged through all Marienbad until I found a glass that holds about a pint and three-quarters. This one glass of Pilsner I empty every evening and am feeling first rate. That's the way I fool the doctor.
7Now as to Marienbad in general, it is very beautiful here, the scenery with the woodlands and rolling country exceedingly fine, the air delightful, an excellent Kur-orchestra, lots of good, cheerful company, among them many artists and many Americans; but the water tastes horribly. Water nearly always does.
9When I came here from Bayreuth I intended to escape from all music, good, bad or indifferent; but here again the old habit is stronger than my best intentions and usually I find myself morning, noon and evening with the rest of the guests listening to the performances of the band which plays works of all composers from Adam to Wagner, under the direction of a good, competent conductor.
11Besides these regular tri-daily concerts there are a number of virtuoso concerts and some not very bad operatic performances. Among the latter I heard one of the time-honored "Trovatore," with Werner Alberti, of Prague, as "Manrico." He is only a little fellow, but oh, my! His high chest C is the most wonderful in its ringing, virile quality I ever heard, and has besides the sweetness of Wachtel's. On the evening in question he had to repeat the strettia so often that his chest C very nearly became a chestnut.
13On another evening I heard him in the double bill of "Mara" and "Pagliacci," when he greatly distinguished himself in the presence of the composer of the latter opera. Of course Leoncavallo also came in for a great share of the public's attention and applause, and although with his usual modesty he had crawled into a back seat of one of the baignoir boxes he was soon discovered and had to appear at the balustrade and allow himself to be bombarded with flowers, for which he thanked with his good natured, broad smile and a repeated wave of his hand toward the orchestra and the stage.
15In "Mara" Alberti was dramatically by no means as strong as our Berlin representative, Eloi Silva, but as "Canio" I liked him very well. He is a former pupil of Prof. Martin Roeder, now residing in Boston, and he does credit to his well-known and excellent teacher.
17As "Mara" Miss Leonore Better, also of Prague, though possessing some good high notes, could not stand the mental comparison I was bound to make with Bertha Pierson but Marie Ottmann, who sang "Nedda," was most acceptable, and the "Tonio" of Vincenz Langer, if he had less fire and vim than our own Bulsz, was nevertheless vocally as well as histrionically quite satisfactory.
19The hard worked Kur-orchestra, which in opera is conducted by Stefanides (who, by the way, deserves a better place), showed a lack of rehearsing in "Mara," but in "Pagliacci," under the eye and ear of the composer, they evidently put their best foot forward, and, barring a few slips and false notes, were nearly à la hauteur de la situation.
21If Leoncavallo may justly be said to have been the musical lion of the present Marienbad season, there were also some other lions and lionesses, and among the former I must mention Alfred Gruenfeld, the Vienna pianist. He and his brother Heinrich, the Berlin violoncellist, are regular Marienbad habitués, and for years their genial countenances and pleasant jokes have been part and parcel of the non-bulletined amusements of the guests. But they are also occasionally bulletined. Heinrich gave a concert in conjunction with the Berlin tenor Nicolaus Rothmuel, formerly of the Royal Opera House, whom you will hear and admire under Mr. Walter Damrosch's baton next spring in New York. The concert took place before I reached here, so I could not attend, but Alfred Gruenfeld, the pianist, I heard last Sunday on the occasion of the concert for the benefit of the pension fund of the Marienbad Kur-orchestra.
23The amiable Viennese pianist, who is a great favorite in society, and whom you may remember from the joint tournée with his brother, which he made in the United States some three or four seasons ago, played for but not with the orchestra. The latter body only contributed to the program as the opening number Wagner's "Tannhäuser" overture, and as the closing one an obstreperous but by no means uninteresting "Festive Polonaise," by Svendsen.
25Alfred Gruenfeld played very tastefully the Schubert-Liszt "Du bist die Ruh" transcription, an improvisation of his own on Schubert's "Wohin" and "Forelle," and finally the Brassin arrangement of the "Feuerzauber." Of course he was encored, and after his first group played the Schumann "Träumerei," which he sang beautifully on the piano, although the instrument was not, as he afterward told me, quite to his liking. A Boesendorfer from Vienna was advertised on the program, but it arrived here only the day after the concert, and Mr. Gruenfeld finally had to be thankful for the loan of a Bluthner which someone here owns and which enabled him to fulfill his engagement, though hardly to do himself justice, as an artist cannot be expected to play on a strange and by no means remarkably good instrument.
27The second group of piano soli included an elaborate romanza in D flat by Gruenfeld, op. 42; the Chopin A minor mazurka; Moszkowski's bagatelle, "Guitar," and a Gruenfeld melange of "Hungarian Dances." The latter were played with quite the national flavor, the usual clavicimballe imitation, and lots of glissandos, which tickled the large audience. They insisted most boisterously upon a second encore, and received it in the shape of a fantasia on Gounod's "Faust," which was probably also of Gruenfeld's manufacture.
29The Baroness Stillfried, an alto, whose name I never before had heard, sang Schubert's "Fragment from Eschylos," Schumann's Lied "Soldatenbraut," the same composer's "Heiss mich nicht reden" and Brahms'"Meine Liebe ist grün." Upon very slight provocation the lady added to the first two Lieder Grieg's "Ich liebe dich," and after the second brace Meyer-Hellmund's banal "Zauberlied." I don't know who or what procured for the lady the concert engagement in question, I only know that she sang in a most amateurish style and with a vocal organ that needs better training.
31Two impresarii with the well-known name of Neumann were here at the same time. The one of Chicago, whom you all know, one of the most lively, enterprising and amiable fellows, has departed after having concluded here arrangements with Miss Irene Pevny, the lovely Hungarian singer whom you heard in New York last season. Through Mr. Neumann's efforts you will in all probability have her with you again next season. Her sister Olga, however, who is at the present moment studying some new parts with Bouhy at Spa, will not accompany her, as she is to sing next winter in Paris.
33The other and still more renowned Neumann is Angelo, he of traveling Wagner opera fame, operatic director at Prague, and next to Pollini the cleverest man in the business in all Germany and Austria. Angelo Neumann was a very sick man several months ago, and is only now slowly regaining strength and his old-time vigor.
35Miss Clara Polscher, the pretty and lively Leipsic concert singer, is likewise here at the present moment, and so is Emil Goetze, the tenor, who looks in splendid physical condition.
37Hubermann, the little boy violinist, gave a concert last week, but as I am still more tired of wonder children than I am of music in general I did not attend. Those who did tell me that I did not miss so very much, which judgment coincides with some of the criticisms I saw in the London papers, but not with those which were reprinted on the advertising boards and handbills which were distributed here.
39A letter from Frank Van der Stucken tells me that he is hale and hearty. His raise of salary in the Arion and his generally high position in the American musical world are honestly won and strictly deserved. It is with some pride that I can point to the fact that THE MUSICAL COURIER immediately recognized Van der Stucken's worth as a musician, composer and conductor, and nearly ten years ago singled him out as the coming man.
41Among Americans present here who are well known in musical circles are Misses Beckel and Field, of New York; John Blechen, of New York; Mrs. Clark, of St. Paul, and lovely Miss Beatrice Davidson, of New York, who is studying the piano with Prof. Heinrich Barth, of Berlin, and who next season intends to take vocal lessons of Lilli Lehmann.
43Marc A. Blumenberg, Esq., senior editor of THE MUSICAL COURIER, will be in Bayreuth on the 15th inst., where I hope to join him and take him back with me to Marienbad.
45Frank D. Abbott, editor of the Chicago "Presto," and Carl Faelten, director of the New England Conservatory of Boston, called at the Berlin office of THE MUSICAL COURIER during my absence.
47O. F.
49Antonia Schlaeger Married.—The court opera singer Antonia Schlaeger was married recently in the Church of Breitenfurth to Lieut. Victor Theumer, of the Austrian army.
51Died.—The Melbourne (Australia) singer Lucie-Chambers, teacher of Melba, died recently. Other deaths chronicled are: Director of Music Karl Boch, of Heidelberg; Prof. Karl Müller, director of the Cäcilien Verein of Frankfort; Eduard Tauwitz, well-known composer, of Prague.
53A New Opera.—Vérange de la Nux, of Paris, has just finished a musical drama, taken from Sophocles, entitled "Labdacides." The principal rôle will be taken by the young American soprano Miss Courtenay.
55SUMMER STUDY AT ASBURY PARK.
57Mr. Louis Arthur Russell
58Announces a Summer School of Music and Oratory at Asbury Park (on the sea), Monmouth County, N. J., during July and August. Wherever competent assistants can be found special Normal Classes for teachers and earnest students, in fortnightly terms, one or two lessons per day. All branches of Voice Culture and Singing, Pianoforte Methods, Classes in Virgil Clarke, Mason's Touch and Technic, Harmony, &c.
59Applications now received and dates placed at the Newark College of Music, Music Hall, Newark, N.J.
60L. BAYLIS, General Secretary.
62New York German Conservatory of Music,
635 & 7 West 42d St., near Fifth Ave., New York.
64THE LEADING SCHOOL.
65Among the faculty are: S. B. Mills, Minor C. Baldwin, M.D., Jul. E. Meyer, V. A. Benham, L. G. Parma, F. Tamburello, L. Ricca, S. Herzog, J. Niedzielski, E. Scharwenka, &c SEND FOR CATALOGUE.
67SCHARWENKA CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC,
68No. 37 EAST 68th STREET, NEW YORK,
69Under the management of EMIL GRAMM.
70Fall Term begins Sept. 10.
71Examinations daily from September 3: 10 to 12 and 3 to 5.
72Students can enter at any time.
73Write for Catalogue and particulars.
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