Scan 35
Musical Courier 1894-12-12: Vol 29 Iss 770, 1894
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1and Mrs. Heinrich Klingenfeld, Mr. H. W. Webster and Mr. J. Churchill Arlidge. Mr. H. M. Field will be examiner in the piano department, and Miss Lauretta A. Bowes and Mrs. S. Hunter will have charge of the elocutionary and art departments. Other appointments to the staff are being considered from a list of over seventy-five applicants. I know whereof I speak because the secretary of the Metropolitan College of Music, of Toronto, is
3EDMOND L. ROBERTS.
5NEW HAVEN.
7NEW HAVEN, Conn., November 28, 1894.
9A CHORAL society, under the direction of Mrs. A. Heaton Robertson, Mrs. Alfred Wheeler, Mrs. Frederick R. Honey and Mrs. Morris F. Tyler, has recently been organized and will meet for its first rehearsal Tuesday, December 4, at 4 o'clock. The society has been named the St. Cecilia Club, and consists of forty-five voices, to which about thirty more will be added before the first rehearsal. The membership fee is $3. There will be twelve rehearsals under the direction of Mr. Frederick H. Cheeswright, a musician of ability, whose work as choirmaster at Trinity has given him a prominent position among the musical lights of our city. Stanley Knight will be the accompanist, and the club probably will be induced to give a public recital before the end of the season. It is certain that the musical advantages of the society will be great, and that the chorus will be made up of the best local talent. Every singer in New Haven should welcome and support such a society.
11One of the many musical events of the season was the soiree musicale given at Harmonic Hall two weeks ago by the Steinert family, assisted by Mr. Frederick H. Cheeswright. It was ladies' night at the club, and Mr. Morris Steinert arranged a special program for the members and their friends. The program was heavy and classical, but was rendered with that skill and precision which is synonymous with everything that Mr. Steinert offers in a musical way. A string quartet, consisting of Mr. S. B. Shoninger, violin; Mr. Albert Steinert, violin; Mr. Rudolph Steinert, viola, and Mr. Morris Steinert, violoncello, played in a finished manner, and the solo violin playing of Mr. Albert Steinert was one of the features of the evening; with Mr. Cheeswright at the piano he played the difficult Grieg sonata, as election in which the musicianly qualities of both artists are called for. Mrs. Shoninger, a dramatic soprano of ability, sang three songs with taste and feeling, and received an ovation after her fine rendition of "The Heart's Springtime." Mr. Rudolph Steinert gave two viola solos, which helped to round out a program of unusual excellence.
13The Gounod Society is more ambitious than usual this year, and has secured Mme. Nordica as soloist for its oratorio of "The Messiah," December 18, at the Hyperion. Mme. Nordica will be assisted at the matinee by Mme. Zipporah Monteith, and Miss Devignes has been selected for the contralto soloist of the day and evening. The society is holding weekly rehearsals under the direction of Signor Agramonte, and its work this year is said to be of exceptional merit.
15A new symphony orchestra has recently been organized. The club has secured the services of Dr. Horatio Parker, the new musical director at Yale, as leader and is diligently at work rehearsing. It is a great step in a musical way for New Haven, and should be encouraged by everyone, for it is, I believe, the only organization of the kind in New England, outside of Boston.
17December 8 the Boston Symphony Orchestra will give a concert at the Hyperion under the direction of the musical department of Yale University. The chef d'oeuvre of the program will be Brahms' symphony in G, and Wednesday, December 5, Professor Parker will devote his usual lecture to the composer, his life and works, spending most of the time upon a critical study of the symphony to be played Saturday evening.
19Mrs. A. Heaton Robertson gave the second of her afternoon musicales at her home, on Temple street, last Thursday afternoon, Mr. Ericsson Bushnell, of New York city, being the soloist.
21Mr. and Mrs. Max Heinrich last week gave their first song recital of the season at North Sheffield Hall before a large and fashionable assemblage. Their long program of songs and duets was thoroughly enjoyed. They are both artists of ability and are favorites here.
23JANE MARLIN.
25SAN FRANCISCO.
27SAN FRANCISCO, November 29, 1894.
29I AM very glad I accepted an invitation to attend a song recital by Mr. Willis E. Bacheller, at the residence of Mrs. W. J. Younger, 1414 California street, the afternoon of November 15. It was one of the most recherché entertainments imaginable. The house is commodious and has a large music room, which, being an extension of the parlors, furnished ample accommodation for the 250 guests.
31Mrs. Carmichael Carr played the accompaniments to Mr. Bacheller's dainty vocal menu. The program, an edition de luxe, contained the full text of the words. Mr. Sigmund Beel played a violin concerto, and as an encore gave the sextet from "Lucia," unaccompanied, a difficult undertaking for one violin.
33As though this were not enough for our delectation, Mrs. Younger's guests were served with ices and confections before their departure. The Younger mansion is one of the most noted musical centres in San Francisco. I believe the Saturday Morning Orchestra, composed entirely of ladies, had much tender nursing there in its infancy. Mrs. Younger is one of our foremost amateur pianists, having recently returned from Vienna, where she went to take lessons with Leschetitzky. With all due respect to her preceptor, I think we derive far more benefit from Mrs. Younger's presence in San Francisco than she could possibly derive from his presence in Vienna.
35I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Arpod Bauer, press manager of the School Orchestra Auditorium, for a gilt edged "Passe Partout" inscribed with my name—"and ladies"—which reached me by mail to-day. Although I have not had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Bauer, I have often visited the Auditorium, when everything from the splendid orchestra down to the smallest detail was first-class.
37Mr. Philip Hastings tells me that the series of concerts recently given here under his management, by Blind Tom, were well attended and very profitable. I did not hear Tom this time, though I did on his first visit, twenty years ago. I also heard him in Virginia before the war, when he was a boy. This remarkable negro is now touring the interior of the State and making money.
39Mr. Hastings has arranged several concerts for Miss Caroline Schindler, who recently returned from Paris, and also concerts for Miss Gertrude Auld, who is also fresh from Paris. I remember the latter as a very sweet singer before she went abroad.
41A benefit for the Mercantile Library, which worthy institution seems to be in extremis, is to be given December 5, when the program will be made up of every musical composition which Du Maurier has mentioned in his remarkable novel "Trilby." Queer idea for a program, but it will no doubt draw quite as strongly by its queerness as by any other quality.
43I visited the wonderful Sutro Baths last Sunday. It was an ideal day and thousands of people rode out to the ocean side and paid 10 cents to enter the marvelous structure, erected only a few rods from "Seal Rocks" and the "Cliff House." There seems to be seating accommodations for thousands, tier below tier, and bathing rooms for as many more. Cassasa's splendid band gave a fine program.
45I think no other city in America appreciates music better or is more discriminating in its taste than is ours, while our facilities for hearing it are almost as free as air. With Scheel's Orchestra playing nightly, a symphony program weekly, the Philharmonic Society's, Cassasa's and the Park band concerts of outdoor music, the Tivoli for opera all the year round, we are surely well equipped. It is rumored that Scheel is going to add opera to his attractions at the Auditorium. In that case I presume he will give the highest class of works, and the Tivoli will be allowed the monopoly of extravaganza, which seems to be the preference of its patrons.
47After a month of it in "Jupiter" it produces "Manola" this week, and subsequently will give "The Mascot" and "Mikado" while preparing a grand Christmas extravaganza.
49I understand that Theodore Vogt's new opera, "The Belle of Chee Foo," will be given at the Tivoli next spring. This is entirely a local creation. The libretto is by Mr. Thomas Newton and has been set to music by a gentleman prominent in musical circles here.
51Now that Mr. Scheel is so busy with his Auditorium concerts he has been obliged to relinquish the conductorship of the Philharmonic Society, to which he was recently elected. I understand that Mr. Vogt is a prominent candidate for the position when a new leader is elected. Vogt is enthusiastic and energetic.
53H. M. BOSWORTH.
55DETROIT.
57DETROIT, Mich., November 26, 1894.
59I AM in a mood to write something sarcastic about your effete East just now, but I'll try and choke it down and maintain a discreet silence. I am all riled up, though, over the patronizing remarks of certain of your blase musicians and critics when referring to the wooliness and crudity of our tastes out here in the West. As all this indignation is brought about by events of which the public is ignorant, I will refrain from discussing it at this time further than to remark that if some of these self-satisfied, genius-kissed, hirsute-haloed virtuosi come in our midst with the idea that we don't know the difference between a musical performance and a contortionist act, they may depart with a somewhat revised opinion. Music may not be accurately located on a geographical basis, and it is not incompatible with the climate of Michigan. Selah.
61The Corey-Mills piano and violin recital was given at the Hotel Cadillac November 12. Mr. N. J. Corey, one of our most scholarly musicians, and Mr. Frederick Mills, a young violinist whose tastes direct him to a study of the most classic and dignified writings of the masters, were the performers.
63They played Saint-Saëns' sonata, op. 75 (first time in Detroit); suite for piano, op. 30, by Arthur Foote, and the andante and finale from Mendelssohn's violin concerto. The sonata was exceedingly well played by Messrs. Corey and Mills. Mr. Corey played Foote's new suite in a clear, musicianly manner, peculiar to all his performances, and Mr. Mills' interpretation of the familiar Mendelssohn concerto was broad and imposing. This was the first of a series of three recitals which Messrs. Corey and Mills have announced for the season.
65The first artist concert of the season by the Tuesday Musicales was given November 13 at Y. M. C. A. Hall. Miss Marie Louise Bailey, court pianist to the King of Saxony, and Mrs. Mary Buckley Sawyer, the Boston contralto, were the performers. Miss Bailey's dazzling technic and great vigor did not compensate for her unpardonable pounding and utter lack of delicacy. Mrs. Sawyer was formerly a prominent member of Detroit's social and musical circles, and her reception on this occasion was most cordial.
67It is perhaps not surprising that many of Mrs. Sawyer's friends took exceptions, as I understand they did, to my criticism of her as published in the "Tribune." However, I cannot honestly say differently than that she has no right to expect serious consideration as an artist until she attains breath control. Her voice is unusually rich in timbre, a mezzo-contralto of good range, and her singing shows an artistic temperament. Nature has been very kind to her.
69Thursday, November 15, the second chamber concert of the season by the Detroit Philharmonic Club was given in the Lyceum Theatre. It was the tenth anniversary of the club, and handsome souvenirs were distributed. The audience was large and enthusiastic.
71Mr. Alexander Lambert, of New York, paid his first professional visit to Detroit on this occasion, and we shall all wish for him to come often. He played the piano part in the Rubinstein trio in B flat major with Messrs. Bleuer and Hoffman, and the Chopin concerto in F minor, with string accompaniment. I was greatly pleased with Mr. Lambert's playing. I revealed in the soothing harmonies of Chopin's music as coax'd from the instrument by Mr. Lambert's caressing touch. He did not satiate his audience with sweetness. He interpreted only a little of the Polish master's tone poetry, and caught the sentiment so truly that it found the heart strings of his hearers and set them tingling in sympathetic response. He did not attempt to flash any picturesque personality upon the sensitive plates of memory; he was content to reveal the subtle beauties of a great composer's music without undue intrusion of the interpreter.
73The audience demanded a solo by Herr Ludwig Bleuer at the anniversary concert, although he was not on the program. He played Sarasate's "Hungarian Melodies," wonderfully well. Repeated hearing only makes me more certain that he is truly a great artist. But why did Sarasate kick the dish all over when he wrote his "Hungarian Melodies" by tacking on that pyrotechnic drivel after the beautiful second movement? The Philharmonic Club played the Schumann quartet in F major, op. 41, as the last number on the program.
75The new Yunck String Quartet, of which the ex-director of the Detroit Philharmonic Club is the first violinist and leader, made its first public appearance on the same night of the Philharmonic anniversary. I did not hear the quartet, but those who did speak very highly of it. I know that its members are thoroughly capable.
77I can recall now the announcements of César Thomson, Mr. and Mrs. Max Heinrich, Miss Ellen Beach Yaw, Fanny Bloomfield-Zeisler, Mr. Ben Davies, Mrs. Geneva Johnstone-Bishop, Lillian Blauvelt and the Kneisel Quartet for concert appearances in Detroit during the season. Ysaye is not yet booked for a local appearance, and no manager had the courage to engage the Melba Company. We regret that Seidl canceled his Western trip. We shall now have nothing better than our own Symphony Orchestra, I suppose. This organization, by the way, is likely to command the respect and admiration of us all before the season is through. The new director, William Yunck, is rehearsing the male members more thoroughly than they have been drilled before.
79J. C. WILCOX.
81NEWARK.
83NEWARK, N. J., December 5, 1894.
85A RÉSUMÉ of musical events in Newark during the past few weeks includes the first private concert this season of the Orpheus Club, in the Universalist Church, Thursday evening, November 22. It was the most successful and elaborate concert given by this club since my connection with THE MUSICAL COURIER.
87Whether it was a spirit of rivalry, incited by the formation of the new Apollo Club under the direction of Gerrit Smith, or that the Orpheus men are reaching a permanently high standard of musical excellence, I cannot say, but the concerted and individual work of the club at this concert was a revelation and inspiration. The quality of tone was rich and warm, a fine regard was given to detail, and a noticeable consideration observed for the requirements of ensemble work, unusual in a body of singers where everyone is more or less selfishly interested in his own vocalism.
89The first part of the program included the "Castanet Song," by Harry Rowe Shelley; "Alpine Fay," by Kremser; "Lark, Finch and Nightingale," by Weinzierl, and "To the Genius of Music," by Mohr. The remaining numbers were "A Summer Landscape," by Otto; "Image of the Rose," by Reichardt, and "March to the Battle," by Lund.
91The assisting soloists were Miss Marguerite Lemon, soprano (who proved herself a veritable "Lehman" in point of volume and quality of tone); Miss Marguerite Wuerzt, violinist; Mr. Frank E. Drake, pianist, and Mr. C. Wenham Smith, organist. Mr. S. A. Ward conducted with his usual vigor and efficiency.
93Miss Wuerzt played excellently and ingratiated herself with the audience by her unaffected sincerity of manner. Her solos were "Legende," by Bohm, and adagio con moto and allegretto by Alard.
95Miss Lemon sang the aria from "Herodiade," by Massenet; "Indian Love Song," by De Koven, and "One Spring Morning," by Nevin.
97The last of the series of three charming violin recitals by Mr. Otto K. Schill was given Monday evening, December 3, in the Essex Lyceum. The program throughout was performed by "home talent," including Mr. Schill, Mr. James Sauvage, Miss Floriane M. McCall, pianist, and Mr. Tonzo Sauvage, pianist. All the artists were in excellent form and enthusiasm ran high in the eminently musical audience.
99Mr. Schill opened the program with Hugo Reinhold's op. 24, two movements from sonata in G major for piano and violin, and the "Andante and Allegro." In these numbers Miss McCall assisted Mr. Schill. Later the violinist played the cavatina by Raff, and "Perpetual Movement," by Paganini; also "Invocation," by Dupont and berceuse in G major, by Tschetschulin.
101Mr. Sauvage sang "Songs My Mother Taught Me," by Dvorák, op. 55, No. 4; "There is on earth but one true precious pearl," by Korbay, and Tonzo Sauvage's song, "Sleep, Baby, Sleep;" also selections by Lully, Schumann, Stevens and Gounod.
103Mr. Schill closed the program by playing the "Fantasia Appassionata," by Vieuxtemps, op. 35.
105The first of the three serial musical lectures, by H. C. Gruhnert, was delivered in the Park Conservatory of Music, Saturday evening, December 1. The lecture was on "The Symphony." The second lecture, January 5, will be on "Church Music."
107The Arion Singing Society will give its first concert this season in the new Auditorium, Thursday evening, December 13. The chorus will enlist the service of 130 men and women, who have been excellently trained, under the leadership of their director, Mr. Frank Van der Stucken. Added to the regular chorus, the society will be assisted by thirty-five New York musicians and special soloists.
109Sousa's Band performed before an immense audience in the
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