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Musical Courier 1895-01-09: Vol 30 Iss 774, 1895
70 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 7. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE MUSICAL COURIER.
3BERLIN BUDGET BRANCH
5GERMAN HEADQUARTERS OF THE MUSICAL COURIER, BERLIN, W., LINKSTRASSE 17, December 18, 1894.
7THE Royal Opera House claimed my attention on Tuesday and Saturday nights of last week because of the joint "guest" appearance here of Ravelli, the tenor, and D'Andrade, the famous baritone. As I wrote to you in my last week's budget, originally there had been three "stars" for this short stagione of opera in Italian which is giving relief to our German repertory, but so great was the fiasco which the elderly Mrs. Gye-Albani made at her first appearance in "Traviata" that she did not care running the risk of a representation of the much younger "Gilda" in such first-class company. She therefore was excused on the plea of "hoarseness," and will not sing here again with her two former partners, but will save herself for one grand and final effort in "Marguerite," which she is to sing to-morrow night.
9Meanwhile the tremendous audience of last Tuesday night (the vast house was completely sold out from top to bottom) had no reason to feel aggrieved over Mme. Albani's "hoarseness," for besides the financial advantage of a reduction in the prices of admission (orchestra stalls were at 8 marks instead of 12, as heretofore), they were the gainers also artistically by the substitution of our great little prima donna, Frau Herzog, for the perennial Albani in the part of "Gilda." She sang it superbly, and so carried away the entire audience that D'Andrade after the scene with "Germont père" virtually was forced and in his turn actually and bodily did force "Gilda" to appear with him before the curtain. It was but fair that this breaking in upon the strict rules of the house was not reproved or fined by the stage management or Count Hochberg, for the slender little woman whose wrist was in the firm grasp of the able-bodied signor could no more have prevented her being dragged before the curtain than the management could have stopped the roar and thunder of applause and approbation which the baritone's action produced on the part of the public, who had all along been clamoring for Mrs. Herzog. The only drawback—a slight one in view of the advantages—was that our soprano did not know the rôle in Italian, and as she was called upon at short notice could not memorize it in that foreign tongue, and thus again one of those incongruous, polyglot performances took place of which you have had samples also in New York.
11D'Andrade himself was a glorious "Rigoletto" vocally, but histrionically he indulged, for my taste at least, in a bit of overacting. The Berlin press and public, however, seemed to be delighted beyond measure, and had nothing but praise for the foreign artist.
13A great and most desirable improvement had taken place in the few days between the "Traviata" and the "Rigoletto" performance with our old little friend Signor Ravelli. Not only did he "duke it well," but he was also in fine voice, and he sang with some of his old time fire and vigor. He also came in for a great share of the applause.
15Of the home artists Krolop was excellent as the bloody "Sparafucile," while Miss Rothauser's voice in the part of "Maddalena" did not blend well with the others in the great quartet of the final act. She came also very near upsetting this gem by an entrance two bars too premature. However, partly Weingartner was to blame for this. He conducted the first two acts with the greatest of care and happiest results, but he is hardly in sympathy with that sort of music, and besides it evidently is not his forte. Be that as it may, the orchestra and entire ensemble were not up to standard in the last two acts. Lübeck also played the 'cello obligato rather poorly.
17The first concert hour of my Wednesday night I gave over to Miss Anna Bromberg, who, with the assistance of the pianist Felix Dreyshock, had arranged a well attended concert at Bechstein Hall. The young lady is not exactly a singer about whom one might grow enthusiastic, for she lacks taste and certain sympathetic qualities but she has naturally a fair and quite powerful dramatic mezzo soprano voice, and with better training she may some day or other become an artist. I heard from her Schumann's "Melancholie," in which, indeed, the reproduction corresponded to the title, and three Franz Lieder ("Die blauen Frühlingsaugen," "Vergessen" and "Maedchen mit dem rothen Muenchen"), which convinced me that I did not want to hear any more that same evening.
19Dreyshock played Schumann's "Kreisleriana" rather neatly, but with a short tone and dry touch, which they cannot stand very well.
21I got down to the Singakademie in time to hear the greater portion of Ernest Hutcheson's second piano recital. His fame as an artist and pianist of extraordinary qualities had spread so rapidly after the first concert that this second one was quite well attended.
23I have spoken at length in a former letter about this young Australian (he is now only twenty-three years of age), who is the most talented of all of Stavenhagen's pupils. His technic is something wonderful in its evenness, and he is just as perfect in the most delicate as in the most ponderous passage, scale and wrist work. The last movement of Schubert's D major sonata, op. 53, which was the only one I heard, was musically delightful, the Haydn F minor variations clean cut and most intelligent, while the great E minor prelude and fugue by Mendelssohn was a model of clearness in voice playing. For general finish I liked the Chopin Polonaise-Fantaisie best, and for intensity the Brahms B minor rhapsody. Two consolations in E and D flat, by Liszt, were performed so exquisitely that I came very near imagining them to be really beautiful compositions, and the Liszt sixth rhapsody was played with such verve and bravura that I willingly joined with the public in a furore of applause, and listened to two transcriptions, the scherzo from the "Midsummernight's Dream" music, and the Schubert-Liszt "Erkling," which formed the double encore granted on this occasion.
25Hutcheson is a great pianist and personally a most modest, charming, young fellow. I predict for him a brilliant future.
27Thursday I was called away to Leipzig on business, and therefore could not attend the fourth Joachim Quartet evening, of which you will find particulars, however, in Mr. Abell's column. I was especially sorry I could not hear the new string quintet (two 'celli), by August Klughardt, the excellent Dessau Court conductor, and a musician of the highest attainments.
29I also had to miss the second of Vladimir de Pachmann's piano recitals at Bechstein Hall, of which I append the program:
31Sonata, op. 39………………………………………C. M. v. Weber
32"Warum?"………………………………………op. 12………………………………………R. Schumann
33"Grillen"………………………………………op. 11………………………………………J. Brahms
34Capriccio, op. 116, No. 1………………………………………J. Brahms
35Ballade, G minor, op. 23………………………………………F. Chopin
36Nocturne, op. 37, No. 2………………………………………F. Chopin
37Impromptu, op. 36………………………………………F. Chopin
38Two preludes, op. 28, No. 19 and 24………………………………………F. Chopin
39Berceuse, op. 57………………………………………F. Chopin
40Two valse, op. 64, No. 2, and op. 42………………………………………F. Liszt
41Legende, No. 2………………………………………F. Liszt
42Etude de Concert, No. 2………………………………………F. Liszt
43Mazourka brillante………………………………………F. Liszt
45In Leipzig I met Possart, the Munich royal intendant, and I learned that he would not relinquish under any circumstances the contract concluded with Weingartner for 1896. Well, unless the Emperor, who is almighty, should intervene, we shall probably lose our first and best concert, but by no means best operatic conductor, and Munich will be the gainer thereby. We shall have, however, their prima donna, or rather first dramatic soprano, Miss Ternina, with whom the contract for the Berlin Royal Opera House has now definitely been settled, while Munich will get in her stead Mme. Doxat, from the Leipzig Opera House.
47General Director Hermann Levi, of Munich, happened to be in Leipzig on the same day, where he gave a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, at which he conducted some Wagner numbers and Beethoven's C minor symphony. I should have liked to have followed an invitation to stay over to hear this interesting concert, but I had to hurry back to Berlin for the Beethoven program, which was performed at the Royal Orchestra's fourth symphony concert on Friday evening under Weingartner's direction.
49As usual on these occasions, and possibly even more so, the vast auditorium of the Royal Opera House was thronged with a fine and representative audience. In fact a larger attendance would have been a physical impossibility, for, both at the public rehearsal and the concert proper, at the closed window of the cashier's box the sign "Ausverkauft" (in English "sold out") was displayed.
51If I mentioned before that Weingartner is unquestionably a finer concert than he is an operatic conductor, he never proved the truth of this assertion more conclusively than he did last week in the direction of two elder Verdi operas on one hand and that of this concert on the other. But I shall go beyond the mere assertion and give as one of the reasons for this remarkable circumstance that he is as a concert conductor decidedly theatrical, while in operatic performances he is the reverse by paying too much attention to the orchestra and too little to the soloists. But there is also such a thing as being too theatrical, and the effect which Weingartner on Friday night achieved with the otherwise most wonderful performance of the third "Leonore" overture I ever heard, was partially spoiled for me through the physical over-exertions and the body contortions in which the conductor found it necessary and proper to indulge. For the great masses that sort of thing looks imposing, and undoubtedly is effective, but as a whole it is theatrical and nauseatingly ad captandum.
53Why did he not work so hard over the "Coriolan" overture and the "Pastoral" symphony, both of which works were given with equally admirable finish and precision? The pastoral symphony was really delightful throughout and Weingartner achieved with it just as great a legitimate success as he did in the "Leonore" overture by means which seemed to me equally as undignified as they were artificial and unartistic.
55It is not often that we have any soloists at these concerts, for Weingartner evidently does not like to share the honors with anybody else. He is conductor and soloistic attraction unified and concentrated in the same person. This time, however, the program called for the services as soloist of one of the most sterling musical artists that have of late come to Berlin. I mean our excellent new concert master, Prof. Carl Halir, who performed the Beethoven violin concerto in a manner worthy and befitting the occasion, the remembrance of Beethoven's birthday. I don't want to trespass upon Mr. Abell's special ground, but I wish to say that the Larghetto and the Rondo of the concerto were given with a beauty and finish, and at the same time with a breadth and dignity, nay absolute spirit, of consecration, such as outside of Halir I have heard in the performance of this work only from the king of violinists, our venerable and venerated Josef Joachim.
57He is the only one with whom I care to compare Halir, and the same comparison was heard all around and among a public which through strong applause and repeated recalls showed intelligent appreciation of so great a performance.
59At noon of the same day a Helmholtz in memoriam celebration took place at the Singakademie, which was both befitting and highly impressive.
61The a Capella, chorus of the royal high school for music sang, under Prof. Ad. Schulze's direction, before Dr. Von Bezold's eloquent speech, a six-part chorale, "Blessed are the Dead," by Heinrich Schuetz. After the speech Josef Joachim, Helmholtz's old-time friend and admirer, played Schumann's "Abendlied," and then the chorus concluded the celebration with the singing of an eight-part song, "Our Fathers hoped for Thee," from Brahms' "Festive and Memorial Sayings."
63About Saturday night's performance of Verdi's "Ballo in Maschera," I can be short, as the principals in the cast were, of course, the same as those of Tuesday's "Rigoletto" performance. Ravelli's "Riccardo" was by far the best impersonation of the three he has given. He was in superb voice, and his high chest notes rang through the house in an enthusiasm-awakening manner. We have no such tenor among the regular personnel of the royal opera house. D'Andrade, as "René," was a bit disappointing, not dramatically, but vocally. His great monologue in the fourth act, which usually is the climatic effort of all big baritones, came dangerously near falling flat. Again Mrs. Herzog gave a charming and vocally flawless impersonation of the page, "Oscar," and Miss Hiedler sang well and acted in a dignified manner the part of "Amelia." The only poor representation was that of Miss Pohl, who was cast for the witch "Ulrica," after Mrs. Ritter Goetze had to be excused on account of temporary indisposition. It would have been better to have sent for Mrs. Staudigl, who is an excellent "Ulrica," and who was available, than to have intrusted the part to a novice.
65Weingartner and the orchestra again were more than disappointing. He conducted from a piano score, and missing some of the entrance cues, a number of mishaps occurred in the orchestra. But outside of this the performance was a good and a highly interesting one. It is wonderful how some of these earlier operas of Verdi's wear on account of the truly dramatic instincts of the composer. Auber's pretty opera, based on the same subject, has long ago joined the silent majority.
67Last night (Monday of this week) I was finally vouchsafed the good fortune (?) after an interval of nearly three years of again hearing Vladimir de Pachmann. It was his third and nominally last piano recital here at Bechstein Hall, but so little impression did the two former make that the pretty concert room, which accommodates less than 500 people, was not even comfortably filled. Pachmann appeared on the platform more than a quarter of an hour behind the appointed hour of 7.30 p. m., and he seemed exceedingly nervous and irritable or irritated at something or other. The first thing I noticed was that he, whom I had last seen with a full black beard and mustaches, was absolutely clean shaven, and this gave him the looks of a little monkey actor.
69His playing was the greatest disappointment which I have undergone this season, and I now understand why some of my esteemed Berlin colleagues spoke so slightingly about the first two recitals, which I was prevented from attending. His performances last night were so extraordinarily poor, technically and in point of memory, that I
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