Scan 25
Musical Courier 1895-01-09: Vol 30 Iss 774, 1895
80 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 26. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1brilliantly in every phrase. Theodore Thomas demonstrated his greatness as an orchestral conductor by his superb reading of this work.
3* * *
4Thursday afternoon Miss Eliza Aurelius gave a song recital before the Jannotta Vocal Club. The program was:
5"Twilight" …………………………………………….. Thomé
6Piano Romance Poétique ………………………………. E. Liebling
7Miss Augusta G. Austin.
8Mignon, "Polonaise" …………………………………. Thomas
9Miss Eliza Aurelius.
10Song, "O that we two were Maying" ………………… Gounod
11Miss Ida Belle Freeman.
12Piano, Tarantella, "Venezia e Napoli" ……………… Liszt
13Miss Augusta G. Austin.
14Songs—
15"Nightingale's Trill" ……………………………………. Ganz
16"The Violet" …………………………………………….. Hood
17"I am thine forever" ……………………………………. Schlesinger
18Miss Eliza Aurelius.
19"The Swing" …………………………………………….. Eleanor Smith
20"Autumn" ………………………………………………. Miss Ida Belle Freeman.
21"Fairy Bread" …………………………………………… Bailey
22Duet, "Till we meet again" …………………………… Misses Aurelius and Freeman.
24Miss Aurelius has a brilliant soprano voice and her vocalization is even and always distinct; she sings artistically and with excellent expression. She demonstrated her executive ability in the "Mignon" polonaise and showed fine musical feeling in the group of songs. Miss Austin, who is an advanced pupil of Emil Liebling, has excellent command of the piano. She was enthusiastically received by the audience, and deserves commendation for her fine playing. She made an excellent impression by her artistic performance of Liszt's tarantella.
26* * *
27Marie Edwards, not yet seven years of age, gave a concert at Central Music Hall Wednesday night. This child has unmistakable musical talent. Her playing is not equal to that of some other little ones who have played here in public before, but she has the gift of absolute pitch and can tell instantly and accurately the names of any tone, chord or discord struck upon the piano. She also wrote upon a blackboard a melody as it was played upon the violin. Dr. Ziegfeld, president of the Chicago Musical College, conducted the examination of the little girl in these exercises and expressed himself as surprised at the accuracy with which she answered all questions. The friends of this child are making a great mistake, however, in bringing her before the public as an infant prodigy. This is the surest way to spoil her and prevent the development of her talent. Her proper place is in the play room and the study. If she is kept from the concert stage until she is fitted by study to properly play the piano she will undoubtedly be heard from as a great artist, but it must necessarily take years for the accomplishment of this result. There have been many infant prodigies in the musical world, but so far as I can remember at this moment, Mozart is the only one who really fulfilled the promise of his childhood.
29* * *
30Mrs. Emma Porter Meakinson and Miss Marie L. Cobb gave a fine program at the musicale given by Mrs. Frederick Haskell Monday night.
32* * *
33Hans Balatka, the veteran musical director of the West, will be given an honorary festival on the occasion of his fiftieth anniversary as a conductor and teacher of music in this country. The committee, of which Emil Hoechster is chairman, is making arrangements to give Mr. Balatka a fine testimonial.
35WALTON PERKINS,
37Townsend H. Fellows.—Townsend H. Fellows, the baritone associated with Will E. Taylor's quartet, at the Rev. Madison Peters' Church, on the Boulevard, is also the baritone at the Temple Beth-Elohim, in Brooklyn.
39The Bulow Monument.—A monument to Hans von Bulow is proposed by a long list of admirers, beginning with Helmholtz, dead since his name was put on the list, and ending with Brahms. It is to be placed in Hamburg, the "city where the closing years" of Bulow's life were spent. American subscribers can send their contributions to Baroness Romaine von Overbeck, 1325 Massachusetts avenue, Washington, D. C.
41Played it on Bleuer.—Ludwig Bleuer, violinist of the Detroit Philharmonic Club, has been sadly imposed upon by a young fellow named Gustave de Muranyi, who was introduced to the violinist shortly after the latter's arrival in this country last August, and who claimed to be an artist and a countryman of Bleuer. The artist claimed to be in hard luck, and Bleuer not only helped him financially, but commissioned him to paint a portrait. He also loaned the artist a number of accessories to be used in painting the portrait. Mr. Bleuer left Detroit on a tour with the club, and when he returned the artist had disappeared, after first collecting $35, which he claimed was due on the portrait, from the gentleman with whom Bleuer resides. The portrait, which had not even the dignity of a caricature, Muranyi left with his landlady as security for a $50 board bill.—Exchange.
43and above all the beautiful, finely orchestrated intermezzo, which will undoubtedly make its way as a concert number. Among the most noticeable numbers in the first act are: "Why, Pink is the Only Thing, of Course," "You May Talk if You Can," and the spirited, descriptive song and chorus, "The Herds are Rushing O'er the Plain." The entrance of "Sir Lionel" is effective, as is the song that follows, and the finale is a piece of work that would do credit to any writer of opéra comique. It is diversified, the instruments accentuate the text, there is delightful detail and at the same time there is the steady movement toward a climax, which is neither anticipated nor frittered away. Mr. Woolf may well be proud of this finale and the intermezzo.
45As for the sentimental songs, they are not cheap and sugary appeals; they are love ditties that are not exaggerated until they seem too swollen for operetta. The instrumentation is discreet and effective. The bassoon is used with full appreciation of its humorous nature, and the brass is not employed to divert the hearer from any poverty of ideas. The audience that called out the composer again and again paid him the just tribute of thankfulness for the pleasure given it by his music. For in this operetta is no attempt to catch the attention by cheap or vulgar musical device. "Westward Ho" is the work of a sincere musician.
47The performance was smooth. Mr. Woolf conducted the overture and Mr. J. J. Braham led the operetta with personal authority and musical intelligence. Miss Fanny Johnston as "Violet" delighted the eye. She has improved as a singer and there is no reason why she should not be a beloved figure on the operetta stage. Mr. George F. Marion as "Colorado Sam" gave a forcible sketch of a half reformed, good natured tough. Mr. Ryley was an Englishman of the familiar Ryley stamp. Miss Annie Lewis was vivacious as an ex-typewriter girl. Others in the cast were Miss Annie Sutherland, Miss Rissi, Miss Biffen, Messrs. Clinton Elder and Harry Davenport.
49* * *
50Considerable stress was laid by the friends of the librettist on the fact that "Westward Ho" is distinctively American. But we have seen American operettas before. Within a few years appeared "Puritania," "The Knickerbockers," "The Maid of Plymouth," "Priscilla," that blood-curdling Indian operetta sung by the Bostonians (I never can spell its title). Surely there is no claim that this is the first American operetta.
52Now I am ready to acknowledge that a defined locality and fixed time are indispensable to the deserved success of an operetta. I confess I am interested in those eastern lands discovered by French librettists, where there are strange laws, stranger customs, and a singularly flexible code of private morality. So, too, I like to travel in operetta to France and Italy and Germany, and am only disturbed seriously when the low comedian insists on introducing poker and baseball into a civilization of the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Nor do I wish logical conclusions unless they are the end of absurd or grotesque premises, according to the Gilbertian formula. Nor is the fact that an operetta is "clean" or "refined" ever a sufficient compensation for dullness.
54* * *
55Lillian Russell opened a two weeks' engagement in "The Grand Duchess" at the Tremont Theatre December 31. She was supported by Miss Annie Myers, Messrs. Wilke, Bell, Mostyn and Howard. The piece was mounted gorgeously, I am told, but the keynote of the performance was anything but Offenbachian.
57The Kneisel Quartet gave a concert in Union Hall December 31. The program was as follows: Beethoven's A minor quartet, op. 132; a novelty, a sonata for 'cello and piano, op. 1, composed by Pfitzner, of Frankfort, and played by Messrs. Schroeder and Arthur Whiting, and a quartet in G major by Haydn. I regret to say that I cannot find anywhere an adequate account of the sonata. The reviewers were at the production of "Westward Ho."
59Pleasing concerts were given last week by the Dartmouth College Glee Club and Mr. Clayton Johns. The latter was assisted by Miss Franklin, Miss Little and Mr. Gebhard.
61* * *
62The program of the Eleventh Symphony concert, given the 5th, was as follows:
63Symphony in D major (K. 504) ……………………………………… Mozart
64Divertimento in A minor, for violin and orchestra …… C. M. Loeffler
65Preambule.
66Eclogue.
67Carnaval des morts.
68(Ms.) First time.
69Suite, "Aus Holberg's Zeit" ……………………………………… Grieg
70Overture, "Carnaval" …………………………………………….. Dvorák
71(First time.)
73Mr. Loeffler's composition is one of genuine interest. The first movement opens immediately with the solo violin in loose figuration, a sort of perpetuum mobile against a
75MISS ANNETTA HULLAH,
76PUPIL OF LESCHETIZKY,
77Takes pupils at her residence,
7814 Palace Gardens Mansions, Notting Hill Gate, W.,
79London.
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