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Musical Courier 1894-12-12: Vol 29 Iss 770, 1894
58 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. Printed page 8. See the scan on archive.org.
1by Mozart, who performed the same brotherly service to "The Messiah." The original, however, contains some good solo effects for the different instruments denominated in Dryden's poem, viz., the trumpet, the flute, the violin and, above all, the organ. The last chorus, with soprano solo in D, is the most powerful piece of writing in the ode, but it was not well sung by Mme. Sembrich, whose vocal organ no longer gives forth the volume of sound which is wanted for the stentorian solo utterances to which the chorus replies in antiphonal manner. She also made some not very slight slips, and was to me altogether very disappointing. In the B minor aria, with the flute, her trills were by no means as dainty and flawless as I have heard them from other prime donne of far less renown than Sembrich's.
3The two tenor recitatives were sung in good style by Mr. Dierich, and the Stern chorus did very well under Professor Gernsheim's direction, but the conductor dragged everything most unmercifully.
5You would have thought that after two such heavy Händel selections the program would have brought as a concluding number some short dramatic, energetic or descriptive modern composition. Instead of that Professor Gernsheim had selected the two last portions, "Autumn" and "Winter," from the "Seasons." Of course most everybody was too tired to enjoy the simplicity, coyness and naïveté of Haydn's style, and the hall was half empty before the long delayed close of the concert came.
7Mme. Sembrich, however, sang much better as "Hannchen" than in the previous work, Dierich was nice in the part of "Lucas," and Mr. Salomon Smith, who is a valuable oratorio singer of the English type, gave the baritone part of "Simon" in most commendable manner. The chorus work also was deserving of praise.
9I recently saw Edgar Tinel, who coming from a Leipsic performance of his "St. Francis" was here a day the guest of Siegfried Ochs, with whom the Belgian composer conferred about the first production of his latest creation, "Godolova," which he has just finished, and which will shortly be published by Breitkopf & Härtel, of Leipsic.
11Marcella Sembrich has just concluded a contract with Sonzogno by which she is to appear eight times in the latter's Paris Italian opera scheme during the month of from May 15 to June 15, 1895. Sembrich is to sing "Nedda" in "Pagliacci," "Susel" in "Amico Fritz," for which part Mascagni will write a new grand aria, and also as "Rosina" in "Il Barbiere." From June 20 to July 25 Sembrich is engaged by Sir Augustus Harris for his Covent Garden stagedom. In London she will also sing eight times, her principal appearance being as "Juliet" in Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet."
13Two of the artists whom you will hear in New York during Mr. Damrosch's season of Wagner opera have just been decorated by the Duke of Meiningen. Our own Rosa Sucher received the Cross of Merit for Art and Science, and the baritone Franz Schwarz, of Weimar, the medal of the same distinguished decoration. The tenor George Anthes of Dresden, was likewise decorated. All three artists had participated in a Wagner concert which the hereditary Princess Charlotte had arranged at Meiningen for a charitable object.
15Mrs. Fanny Bloomfield-Zeisler, who is winning new laurels in Germany wherever she appears, and who has more engagements than she can fill, will be the soloist at the Berlin Philharmonic popular concert the 28th inst., when she will play the Chopin F minor concerto and soli by Scarlatti, Moszkowski and Liszt. Our famous countrywoman uses the Bechstein piano in all her concerts in Germany.
17The Vorspiel to Eugen d'Albert's newly finished opera, "Ghismonda," will be heard for the first time at one of the next symphony evenings of the Royal Orchestra, under Weingartner's direction.
19The Paris "Figaro" published last week Emperor William's "Song to Aegir" with GERMAN text.
21Instead of the usual pupils' recital the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory gave night before last an excellent and most interesting teacher's Vortrags Abend. Dr. Reimann played an organ prelude by Bach; Professor Waldemar Meyer performed the posthumous concertina for violin by W. Taubert, once first conductor at the Berlin Royal Opera House. Liszt's symphonic poem, "Orpheus," was played in an arrangement for two pianos by Prof. Karl Klindworth, and Dr. E. Jedliczka and Mrs. Amalia Joachim sang Lieder by Schubert, Schumann and W. Berger ("Kinderlied"), accompanied by Mr. Mayer-Mahr.
23At the matinée for the benefit of the members of the ballet, which will be given at the Royal Opera House the second Christmas holiday, Johann Strauss' "Fledermaus" will be given, with only first-class artists from among the personnel of the Royal Opera House. This will be great fun. The same experiment was tried at Vienna with uproarious success during the recent Strauss jubilee.
25Angelo Neumann's contract as director of the Prague German Landestheater has just been renewed for another ten years. This settles all rumors of his coming to Berlin to take the direction of one of the principal theatres of this city.
27Franz Rummel achieved a tremendous success at Vienna last week, where in the first concert he gave there he performed the Beethoven G major, the Schumann and the Saint-Saëns G minor piano concertos. He was called out no less than seventeen times. Miss Lilian Apel will tell you the rest.
29The "National Zeitung" of to-day says: "From the American Legation we learn that the number of Americans who come to Berlin for a more extended sojourn is this year much larger than it used to be heretofore. The possibilities of hearing much and good music is for most of them the motive of their selecting Berlin for the education of their children. We are told that if this increase continues a few years longer Berlin will soon have a noteworthy American colony. It is easy to convince oneself of the fact of how numerously the music students from across the ocean are represented here by going to the popular concerts of the Philharmonie. Every third person you meet there in the couloirs during the intermissions is speaking English."
31Well, this is as it ought to be, but the "National Zeitung" should have added, which probably, however, the writer of that paragraph did not know, that most of these English speaking persons are subscribers to THE MUSICAL COURIER.
33Music in Public Schools and Colleges.
35IN a recent number of THE MUSICAL COURIER a writer under this head spoke rather slightingly of music taught in the public schools, saying: "But what man can say that he has traced results from this teaching?" &c.
37I, for one, desire to say that it has been my opportunity to observe certain very important and beneficial results. Having taught violin playing and also conducted choral societies in three different States of the Union, I have noted that in those States where the children learned something of music in the public schools, their sense of relative pitch was so well cultivated that they acquired correct intonation on the violin in one-tenth the time that those did who had had no such previous opportunity. Their sense of rhythm and accent was also correspondingly better. If this was the case with violin playing, it was a hundred times truer in the case of choral societies. In Auburn, N. Y., where the writer now resides, it is perfectly practicable for a competent man to collect a chorus of 200 or 300 voices, and after a few months' training bring out almost any of the standard oratorios or cantatas. Within the last few years the writer recalls Haydn's "Creation" and Dudley Buck's "Forty-sixth Psalm," conducted by E. E. Scovill, and Bennett's "May Queen," by Mr. T. Ward, besides numerous smaller works; and yet Auburn is not, among the cities of western New York, a distinctively musical place. Were it not for music in the public schools this would be an impossibility.
39As to the "stupid puerilities" which the children are made to sing, so the former writer complains, I do not see where he can find them, at least in the series of music readers used in this State (Luther Mason and Julius Eichberg) though were he speaking of certain books I have seen prepared for use in country singing schools in the West, I would not dispute him. In the books prepared for the primary grades, there must of course be very simple and unpretentious melodies, for even could the little children all be gifted with the miraculous musical perception of a young Mozart, yet their immature voices extend over only a very small range of pitch—often less than an octave—and this the teacher must not make them try to exceed, or there is danger of detriment to their future voice. In the music readers used in the higher grades, particularly the High School Music Reader, prepared by the late Mr. Eichberg, and now in general use, the most fastidious could not complain of poor taste in the selections. Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Rheinberger, as well as many of the best English and American composers, are well represented.
41One thing more: although the writer of this article has never been personally employed in the business of public school music teaching, he has had the pleasure of acquaintance with many of those most prominent in this calling, and has found them, almost without exception, to be among the most intelligent and conscientious of any class of musicians. He is convinced that if there were anything radically wrong with the system, they would not be slow to attempt to right it.
43EDWIN H. PIERCE.
45P. S.—Perhaps I ought to say, that with the exception of what is said about music in public schools, I am in entire sympathy with all the views expressed in the article which I have just criticised. I only dislike to see blame laid where it is most undeserved.
47E. H. P.
49THE London Symphony Orchestra Company, Limited, a new organization formed through Mr. Daniel Mayer, will be formally brought into existence through the issue of a prospectus this week. It will have a capital stock of £25,000, divided into 5,000 shares of £5 each, £1 per share payable on application, £1 on allotment, and the balance of £3 payable £1 at a time, but in no case can more than one call be made for £1 per share at intervals of less than three months. The board of directors includes Mr. Victor Rubens (chairman), 8 Kensington Palace Gardens; Mr. Alexander Siemens, 7 Airlie Gardens, W.; Mr. Carl Meyer, 36 Hill street, Berkeley square; Mr. Daniel Mayer, 18 Great Marlborough street, W. This is the outcome of five years of preparatory work of Mr. Daniel Mayer, and it reflects great credit on him that such an able board of directors should be willing to undertake this important move in establishing a permanent orchestra that is capable of great things. The character of these men is sufficient guarantee that this project, which they have carefully considered in every direction, will be carried out to the letter.
51Mr. Rubens is a member of the firm of Rubens & Reichenbach; Mr. Siemens is principal of the great electrical firm of Siemens, Halske & Co.; Mr. Carl Meyer is widely known as being connected with the Rothschilds; Mr. Daniel Mayer is virtually Erard in London, and this proves conclusively that the London Symphony Orchestra Company has capable men to direct an important body of this kind. The orchestra will contain eighty performers, and every man will be engaged for his whole time, and under contract not to play for any other organization. Mr. Henschel has accepted the post of first conductor. All the business of the company will be conducted from the Concert Direction of Mr. Daniel Mayer, at 8 Argyll place.
53They will give at least thirty concerts in London each year, fifteen classical and fifteen popular, and the present symphony concerts will be merged into the larger organization. They will also give fifty concerts in provincial towns, all of which work Mr. Mayer has mapped out. In addition to these, the orchestra will be available en masse, with or without conductor, for choral societies all over the provinces, at a certain fixed charge, so that any society can secure the benefit of a perfectly trained orchestra at any time. Another feature that Mr. Mayer has combined with these is that he will have Mr. Henschel's enlarged choir at his disposal for whatever concert in London he wishes to avail himself of them, thus enabling him to give any of the great choral works. Arrangements are being made for the organization of this orchestra as soon as possible, but they will not commence their series of concerts until the autumn of 1895. It will readily be seen that an orchestra of this size, made up of our best instrumentalists, with such fine instruments as they have in their possession, and being in constant drill and practice, will be able to reach a high degree of executive perfection. Another benefit to be gained will be in their educating the public by giving them so much good music, and this they will be able to do at a minimum price, thus giving every reason for a liberal support. The scheme has been carefully prepared in every detail by Mr. Daniel Mayer, and there is no doubt in my mind but that he will be able to carry it to a very successful issue. He deserves very great credit for having brought into existence this important institution.
55Mr. Frederick Griffith gave his second flute recital at the Salle Erard Friday afternoon, when, as on the former occasion, he succeeded in delighting his audience. He gave German's suite for flute and piano, two nocturnes for flute, piano and violin by Behr, and a little known theme and variations in E minor by Schubert. He was assisted at the piano by Miss Llewela Davies, who with Mr. Frederiksen, the violinist, played several solos. The vocal music was given by Miss Mary Harris and Mr. Arthur Thompson.
57One of the most successful recitals that has taken place since the initiative of these by Mr. Leonard Borwick and Mr. Plunket Greene last January was the second attempt to interest and entertain the public last Friday afternoon at St. James' Hall. These gentlemen have both become great favorites, proof of which was seen in the large attendance and the appreciation shown by those present. Mr. Greene was not in very good voice, and consequently seemed nervous, but the audience did not apparently notice
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