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Musical Courier 1894-12-12: Vol 29 Iss 770, 1894
66 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. Printed page 7. See the scan on archive.org.
1GERMAN HEADQUARTERS OF THE MUSICAL COURIER, BERLIN, W. LINKESTRASSE 17, November 20, 1894.
3THAT pig, noble heart of Anton Rubinstein suddenly stopped beating yesterday. The sad news from Peterhof reached Berlin about 11 o'clock this forenoon and traveled like wildfire. You will have it in New York by cable long ere these lines will have crossed the ocean, and any humble expressions of devotion which I might want to add to the general in memoriam chorus would but come ten or twelve days after you have ceased talking about Anton Rubinstein's death. Ten or twelve days is a long period in a busy world like that of the United States, and it must be a greater man even than Rubinstein who is not forgotten there in less time than that. It is a sorrowful reflection I am making upon the Solomonic vaingloriousness of all things, but I am afraid it is a true one nevertheless.
5There is something tragic also in the fate of a man who so severely and earnestly struggled for posthumous fame as did Rubinstein, and who came so near yet without quite reaching his goal. Even the fulfillment of his hopes for a theatre built for the direct purpose of having his Schmerzenskinder—his sacred operas—performed there was not granted him, although like his very "Moses" he could see the promised land lying before him not very far off. Bremen next year would have been his Bayreuth, but he was not vouchsafed to see his favorite plan brought to realization. Whether or no such realization would have achieved the results which the composer was dreaming of it is hard to say. His music, despite its glorious outbursts of inspiration—true melodic inspiration, such as few of his contemporaries have been able to command—lacks for the most part that peculiar dramatic life with which works for the stage, even if a non-secular stage be meant, must be permeated. With true artistic instinct he felt that the time of the cut and dried oratorio of the old type had vanished; and yet the wedding of the concert platform with the operatic stage, which he thought to beget as a new type, was not attainable to him, for the same reason that his numerous operas will in all probability fail to obtain a lasting position in our operatic repertoires—he was lacking in truly dramatic musical instinct.
7Nevertheless Rubinstein was a great composer, for the reason that he gave us some of the most beautiful musical thoughts that ever flowed from human brain. Of his symphonies, the mellifluous "Ocean" symphony will ever remain a favorite with refined audiences, and the far more important and much deeper "dramatic" symphony will bear eternal testimony to his high musical aims. Of his piano compositions the D minor concerto is without doubt the most important, but also among the great number of his smaller works there are very many which will carry his name down to future generations. You ought to have heard them played by Anton Rubinstein himself, as it was my good fortune to have heard them at his last three recitals at Bechstein Hall last season. These memorable recitals will remain unforgotten by me to my dying day, for I not only admired, I verily loved Anton Rubinstein, both as a productive and as a reproductive artist. His noble conception, his broad touch, his immense and beautiful tone, of which there seemed to be no end, endeared him to me, even if his technic, formerly so stupendous, gave out toward the last; and even though he had the habit of coloring everything with his own individuality, of making everything his own and of playing everything as if it had been composed by Anton Rubinstein and not by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Weber or Chopin. In this latter quality, which by many has been termed his greatest fault, lay also Rubinstein's greatest distinguishing feature from his old-time rival Hans von Bülow, whose strongest point was his objectivity and the classical repose which pervaded his reproductions.
9Rubinstein lived but nine months and one week longer than Hans von Bülow, and he died five days before attaining his sixty-fifth year of age. Several weeks ago I had occasion to mention a letter which Anton Rubinstein wrote to Hermann Wolff and in which he begged his friend and impresario to contradict the rumors that he, Rubinstein, had accepted Abbey's offer for a half a million reichmarks for a tournée through the United States. The letter, which is the last one Mr. Wolff received from Rubinstein, closes prophetically with the words:
11"Except possibly in order to conduct one of my works at Paris, or to come to Bremen for the inauguration of my theatre, I shall never again leave Peterhof but for my burial."
13Did he know, did he feel, what was coming? I doubt it, but the words seem strange nevertheless. He was suffering from asthma, and playing in public of late was only possible by heroic effort in consequence; but otherwise he seemed vigorous and in good health. His death, therefore, came quite unexpected, probably to him also. It is a happy and enviable sort of death, that by sudden apoplectic stroke or paralysis of the heart!
15Rubinstein, who had amassed fortunes, leaves comparatively little. He was never a rich man, for he, like many other real artists, did not know how to maintain what he gained. Besides, he was most openhanded and generous. In the last years of his life he never played for money, but only for charity or for the artistic development of the younger school of musicians and pianists.
17His last published work for piano is a collection of six pieces entitled "Souvenir de Death," which has just appeared here with Böte & Bock. It bears the opus number 118, and each one of these quite characteristic pieces is dedicated to and was written for one of the pupils who had the privilege to study with him at Dresden. The Josef Hofmann and Jakinowska pieces are the most beautiful among the six.
19A new orchestral suite, the first suite for orchestra which Rubinstein has written, is just about to be published by Barthold Senff in Leipsic, and is probably the last work he wrote. If he had lived he would have conducted the first performance of it at St. Petersburg December 10, for which date the novelty is announced on the Imperial Russian Music Society's program. God called the composer-conductor before that date!
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23Although I am hardly in a mood to do my weekly routine writing, I suppose it will have to be done, and so "here goes."
25Last Tuesday night, duties being easy at Berlin, where we had a musical off-day, together with some colleagues I wended my way to Potsdam for a performance of Reinhold L. Herman's dramatic legend of "The Fiddler of Gumend" for soli, chorus and orchestra. The performance was given by the Potsdam "Singing Society for Classic Music," under Royal Music Director Martin Gebhardt's direction, and with the assistance of the band of the First Regiment of the Royal Foot Guards. It was by no means an ideal performance, though it took place at the Barberini palace, a locality which woke up memories of the audacious artist and her royal admirer. What a woman she must have been to have gotten the better of Frederick the Great!
27Well, to return to our muttons, I must first acknowledge that Herman's composition was a severe disappointment to me. Last year I heard some operatic excerpts from him which seemed to me important. Lately Lilli Lehmann sang songs of his which, were beautiful, but this legend is neither beautiful nor important. I take it that it is an earlier work of his, which with the exception of a couple of good male choruses and a decent violin solo, has little merit, and which for the composer's sake should have smoldered into oblivion. A Potsdam performance—this is an excuse—is perhaps not disturbing, but then the critics of the capital should not have stirred up the oblivion; moreover, as the performance was so bad that even far better music than "Der Geiger von Gmunden" would have been killed and buried by it. Royal Musikdirektor Gebhardt is a poor conductor, and I doubt very much if he is a good musician. His chorus no doubt means well, but it is a provincial, not to say country, chorus and they are not better in Germany than elsewhere. Worst of all, however, was the orchestra. Imagine a military band which for a change plays concert orchestra! The result at times passed description. Of the soloists Miss Susanne Triepel, the soprano, has a fair voice, but she sings off pitch. Paul Kalisch, the tenor—you all know handsome Paul—did his level best, and he screamed at moments as if he wanted to blow his own head off; but he seemed entirely oblivious of the fact that screaming is, after all, not singing. The worst of the trio was Georg Rolle, the bass, whose vocal utterances were doleful and depressing beyond description. Some friends of Mr. Herman, among them quite a number of Americans, called him on the platform after the performance and he was handed a laurel wreath. Mr. Herman is now on his way to the United States, where he has many friends and not a few admirers.
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31Ferruccio B. Busoni's first piano recital took place at the Singakademie the same evening. Of course I could not attend, but I give you below his very interesting program, which was as follows: Bach-Busoni organ fugue in G major; Schubert's "Wanderer" fantasia, in the Liszt version; Beethoven's rondo, op. 129, and the posthumous "Ecossaises"; Schumann's op. 1, "Abeeg" variations, and the same composer's toccata, op. 7; Weber's rondo, "Perpetuum mobile," from the op. 24 sonata, and Liszt's "Norma" fantasia.
33The next recital will be given December 1, when the Bach-Tausig D minor toccata and fugue, the Beethoven Hammerclavier sonata and Chopin and List selections will be performed.
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37The popular concert at the Philharmonie Wednesday evening offered a somewhat unusual spectacle—the spacious concert hall was absolutely sold out, and not only this, but hundreds of intending visitors had to be turned away from the box office without an admission ticket. The reason for this sudden rush was the fact that the program contained as second section the "Vorspiel" and the "Flower Girls' Scene" from "Parsifal," the latter sung by the Eichberg Female Chorus. To be able to hear at least an excerpt from Wagner's "Swan Song," at an admission fee of about 17 cents, was a chance which the Berlin public that frequents these excellent concerts could and would not let pass by without taking advantage of.
39The performance of the scene under Mr. Oscar Eichberg's direction, and with Mr. Stampa as "Parsifal," was excellent, and despite the absence of the scenic accessories so effective that the whole excerpt was most enthusiastically redemanded and had to be repeated.
41Three young ladies, pupils of Mr. Eichberg, by the respective names of Bern, Heinrich and Selchow, also were heard in a capella trios by Lotti and Eichberg, of which the latter's cleverly written "Vlemish Dance Song" likewise was redemanded. They sing with nice taste, but the first soprano is not always sure of the pitch; the voices are also a bit too wee for so big a hall as the Philharmonie, but altogether the effect was very pleasing.
43Miss Elizabeth Zaschel, another pupil, sang "Glöckchen im Thale," from Weber's "Euryanthe" and showed good vocal material as well as unexceptional musical training.
45The Philharmonic Orchestra, under Professor Mannstaedt's direction, contributed to the program in especially careful performance the Gluck "Iphigenia in Aulis" overture and the "Parsifal" Vorspiel.
47The remainder of the program, in which figured also a female chorus from Xavier Scharwenka's opera, "Mata-swintha," and one by Reinhold L. Herman entitled "Zur Nacht," I could not stay to hear, as I wanted to attend part of Miss Clara Janiszewska's first piano recital at Bechstein Hall.
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51This Polish young lady I had heard last season, when she interested me very much, and I was also not disappointed this time. Miss Janiszewska is a pupil of Leschetitzky and not of Rubinstein, as has been said here. She is a pianist of more than ordinary intelligence and of excellent touch and tone. Her technic is very fair, but not yet quite up to the demands of Liszt's VIII. Hungarian rhapsody, which closed the program. I can also, for this reason, not imagine that she can play the Schytte A major sonata, which in some portions asks for a Rosenthal technic; but as this work opened the program I did not hear it. The somewhat stale Mendelssohn "Variations Sérieuses" she played with commendable simplicity of style and nice shading and feeling. Many harmonic effects are marred by an over use and a bad use of the loud pedal. Will some kind reader of THE MUSICAL COURIER please enlighten me or solve for me the psychological reason why it is that just female pianists, even such who are in other respects apparently musical, indulge in this most unmusical of all mistakes. I have thought over it many a time; I cannot find the causa movens.
53The most applauded piece on the program was Paderewski's charming B minor sarabande from the "Humoresques à l'Antique," and a very pretty gigue in E by Pfeiffer. Outside of these and Mozart's A minor rondo the program contained also Schumann's "Des Abends," the F minor "Nachtstück" and "Vogel als Prophet," all of which were played with exquisite taste and were deservedly applauded.
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57I was absent from the city the remainder of the week, but what little of musical importance happened in Berlin during these three days you will find reported in Mr. Arthur M. Abell's column.
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61Last night, Monday, November 19, we had at the Philharmonie the first concert for the present season of the Stern Singing Society. It was very well attended, but the hall was by no means crowded, and this is all the more remarkable and significant, as the performance called for the soloistic assistance of Mme. Marcella Sembrich, who hitherto had shown an almost unlimited drawing power in Berlin.
63The program was entirely too lengthy, and was by no means very well chosen. The most interesting to me was the opening number, Händel's first concerto for organ and orchestra in G. The orchestration had been most carefully and in musicianly style touched up by Dr. Henry Reimann, who also presided at the fine organ of the Philharmonie. Still here and there were a trifle too modern and much too sonorous effects. Dr. Reimann, however, plays with both skill and taste, the former especially in the pedaling and the latter of course in the registration.
65Händel was also represented on the program with his stilted and over-pompous "St. Cecilia Ode," composed in 1739, the orchestration of which has also been overhauled
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