Scan 14
Musical Courier 1895-02-27: Vol 30 Iss 781, 1895
84 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 15. 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.
1that story," so I will merely make mention of the fact that after twenty minutes of screaming and applauding it became necessary to remove the piano from the stage in order to disperse the crowd. If America does not wish to miss a very good thing, let it have Sauer soon for a concert tour. It would find in him half a dozen artists condensed into one—this man with a very sympathetic face and immense head of hair. Everyone raves about Pachmann's wonderful fingers, the nicety of his playing. Sauer is in this respect his equal; in fact, Sauer seems to have everything. He is certainly all-satisfying to me. Dignity, breadth and depth are evident; he is intensely musical and finished; there is temperament enough for three men, but wonderfully controlled; you know he feels what he plays; it becomes part of himself; but head and heart are so in unison, the technic is so immense, that you only appreciate these details afterward.
3While Sauer plays one thinks only of the music. He is one of the fortunate few who possess feelings to live up to, and is able to live up to them. Usually it is one or the other. What a beautiful thing the Schubert fantasia is when so interpreted!
5The Beethoven and Brahms numbers were particularly effective. I use the word "effective" in its full sense, which implies so much under the circumstances that I think it unnecessary to analyze the entire program. Hanslick speaks of Sauer as the most fascinating pianist of the present time, and everyone is unstinted in praise. Sauer is a fine and admirable man, which fact affords me great satisfaction. So many celebrities are in private so little that their artistic greatness seems only a just atonement, but Sauer is a whole souled, generous minded man, with a keen appreciation of the merits of his fellow artists and a heart for all humanity.
7Patti came and gave a concert, and as the house was sold out the newspapers were able to chronicle the fact that the diva was in excellent humor. The fact that great stress was laid on the once red hair, now black, the youthful figure, beautiful jewels and magnificent gown is significant enough. All this gush is sickening. If Patti needs that sort of thing she should give up, and need it she certainly does. If curiosity be the attribute of any people it is the Viennese, hence the crowded house. It all made us feel quite blasé.
9LILLIAN APEL.
11Switzerland.
12MONTREUX, February 4, 1895.
14LAST week we had a veritable embarras de richesses so far as music was concerned. On Monday was Sarasate, of whose concert I have already written you; Thursday was Kleeberg, and Saturday the Chorale de Montreux gave a concert to its active and passive members.
16Mlle. Kleeberg gave us a small though varied program. The first number, Beethoven's concert in C major, with orchestral accompaniment, was finely rendered, the rondo allegro being especially well played. She is brilliant and graceful, with an easy method, entirely free from those posings and contortions that spoil so much good playing. Essentially a Schumann scholar, her solo in the second part—his Des Abends—was beautifully given; the feeling that Schumann requires in his interpreters was not lacking. In the Schubert and Chopin selections she was equally happy, her brilliant playing in her Chopin encore causing the house to enthusiastically recall her. Mlle. Kleeberg, together with Sarasate, must have a poor opinion of Montreux audiences, for not one single flower did she receive. Such cold receptions are undoubtedly dampening to an artist's ardor.
18At this concert the Kursaal Orchestra gave here for the first time Saint-Saëns' Phaeton symphony, against the wish of many German fanatics. Herr Jüttner certainly had a difficult part to play in pleasing so mixed an audience, one without a standard and equally without musical taste. Cultivated people from the great art centres clamor for classic concerts; the Wagner enthusiasts raise their protests and desire only Wagner; the French enjoy the works of their own masters and decry the Germans, and the English are indifferent to all if they are allowed the privilege of conversation during the music; of course for these people the Wagner music is best, so the Thursday concerts are the best attended. Recently we had Haydn's Pauken Schlag symphony, and an English woman near me remarked: "Oh, that old thing! Why, I heard that when I was a child." So runs the world away.
20The Swiss people are more musical in their taste, and Jüttner often gives them special programs wherein figure local composers, or we hear again the well loved Fête des Vignerons.
22Strange to say, in such beautiful, natural surroundings, the Swiss themselves are not prepossessing in appearance or manner—are entirely lacking in that charm and expression that their setting of nature would seem to impose. They have no voices, yet have musical aspirations, support many amateur musical clubs, and occasionally delight their friends and themselves by a public concert. The choruses are generally good, the Chorale de Montreux, under Herr Lochbrunner, being well drilled; but they are weak in soloists. Saturday they gave us the Erl King's Daughter, by Gade, and the beautiful music suffered at their hands. It was evident that rehearsals with orchestra had been too few.
24The contralto was taken ill at the last moment, and the singer who replaced her was unfamiliar with the part. The baritone has a good voice and dramatic delivery, and delighted his audience of friends. The Choeur des Vignerons of Mendelssohn and Le Matin of Kuhn were much better given. Romance for the violin by Prof. Jean Muller, executed by Herr Recht, first violin at Kursaal, with his usual sentiment and feeling, was not, musically considered, worth listening to. Herr Recht phrases admirably; his playing redeemed an otherwise tiresome composition. In the whole thing there are only the last notes that are good, and it is hardly worth while listening to a long romance simply for the closing bars. The audience was an invited one, and closed the evening with a supper, followed by dancing till dawn.
26We have a string quartet, organized for mutual pleasure, whose chamber music I am one of the privileged few to enjoy. It is certainly a privilege, and I cannot resist imparting my impressions to you, the performers themselves being interesting, inasmuch as some of them, at least, promise to themselves and to their friends a brilliant future.
28The violinist, Otto Seiler, is a pupil of Joachim, not nominally so, as many, but really for three years under his direct tuition. He has a splendid technic and has thoroughly imbibed the master's classic method; but he is by temperament cold, and not even the sweetly sighing tones of his beautiful Amati can rouse him into passion. Just Seiler's opposite is the viola of the quartet, Sandon Recht, the first violin at Kursaal, and also a pupil of Joachim. He is in many ways a remarkable man. His body is excessively tall and thin, crowned by a face of dreamy poetic beauty that mirrors the artist's soul within, and in its perfect outlines and the brilliant yet shadowed eyes invariably recalls to my mind that other gifted yet unhappy soul, Chopin. He plays with all the fire and expression that Seiler lacks, yet is not his equal in point of technic. The 'celloist, Stephan von Kugler, is, like Recht, Hungarian and a pupil of Popper. He owns a magnificent instrument, is an artist to his finger tips, full of ambition and spirit, and devoted to his art. The second violin, Karl Groetsch, is quite young, and almost equally as good a Chopin piano player as a violinist. one of two readings
29The violinist, Otto Seiler, is a pupil of Joachim, not nominally so, as many, but really for three years under his direct tuition. He has a splendid technic and has thoroughly imbibed the master's classic method; but he is by temperament cold, and not even the sweetly sighing tones of his beautiful Amati can rouse him into passion. Just Seiler's opposite is the viola of the quartet, Sandon Recht, the first violin at Kursaal, and also a pupil of Joachim. He is in many ways a remarkable man. His body is excessively tall and thin, crowned by a face of dreamy poetic beauty that mirrors the artist's soul within, and in its perfect outlines and the brilliant yet shadowed eyes invariably recalls to my mind that other gifted yet unhappy soul, Chopin. He plays with all the fire and expression that Seiler lacks, yet is not his equal in point of technic. The 'celloist, Stephan von Kugler, is, like Recht, Hungarian and a pupil of Popper. He owns a magnificent instrument, is an artist to his finger tips, full of ambition and spirit, and devoted to his art. The second violin, Karl Groesch, is quite young, and almost equally as good a Chopin piano player as a violinist. one of two readings
31We heard to-day Mozart's D dur quartet and Haydn's Es dur, op. 9. It was all delightful; the andante from Mozart perfectly given, the instruments in accord and the players inspired by the same spirit. Haydn's quartet was perhaps even better played, the master having a quaint charm that never grows old.
33Would that I had the musical knowledge, the phraseology to rightly describe their playing! Suffice to say it was musically a delight, and from the aesthetic point of view perhaps even more so. I could not but recall the many similar scenes in which Gluck, Weber, Mozart and Haydn themselves had been actors—there was something old-world, artistic, in it all. These men, artistic to their hearts' cores, snatching time between arduous duties to make music for music's sake, and finding in their small audience and their own enjoyment ample compensation for their efforts, enforce upon one the nature of European charm. It is not all of life to live; one must make beautiful the way. It is a privilege to hear such music when the musician's craft, spurred by the musician's nature, gives truest expression of his art. Some day some of these men will become world known; then pleasurable will it be to recall such episodes of their early career.
35N. S.
37Music in the Salon.
39FOREIGN artists coming to New York complain bitterly of the treatment they receive at the hands of certain hostesses who make it a point to announce a series of musicales for the season. If the artist be a singer, pianist, violinist or mandolinist who comes from Europe with a reputation but without having previously mapped out any tour, relying upon a New York social verdict to set the ball rolling, he or she will be sought out by a score of society lion hunters within twenty-four hours after landing in America. The artist will be told that Mrs. X. is to give a swell soirée musicale and that if the artist will but consent to appear and electrify my lady's guests, she (my lady) being the holder of the keys to the social heaven of the metropolis, from that time forth the request of the artist will amount to a command, for the reason that my lady creates the appetite for fads and the mighty phalanx of the old rich, the rich old, the newly rich and the richly new will shower the artist with invitations to sing at a fabulous price per minute. Of course, the artist fancies that that is the way they do things in the States, and in order that the artist may get on, he or she accepts the invitation of Mrs. X. with joy and feasting. Mrs. X.'s musicale is of course a thundering success and the artist goes home elated. Not a day passes until the artist has received a visit from a dozen hostesses who make overtures for his or her services. Naturally, the artist wishes to know how much it will pay, as the landlord has just presented his bill.
41"Oh!" exclaims the hostess, "Mrs. X. paid you nothing. By appearing at our musicales you will make a great reputation. The society reporters will take you up and you will be able to demand your own price."
43The artist again argues that no doubt that is the way they do things out here, and consents to permit his or her name to go down for a number on the program. But the eleven remaining hostesses all confront the artist with the same proposition—play or sing for social influence.
45The landlord grows impatient and no remuneration comes as the result of professional services. The season slips by and instead of having reaped a golden harvest through the medium of these swell society musicales, the artist is obliged to face a financial blizzard. It is all due to the fact that the richest women, those who ought to become patronesses of music in a substantial sense, are the first to demand free service. "Get something for nothing" is their motto. "Our guests praise us for the splendid entertainment that we give them. What do we care who suffers the consequence. The artist? Who is he? Why bless you, our standing order to the caterer is so many covers, so many waiters, so many spoons, and, by the way, you might send along an entertainer, provided that you know one who is seeking a reputation through an introduction to society's ranks."
47It is said that one very well-known lady who revels in Billingsgate will walk up half a dozen flights of stairs if there is a prospect of persuading an artist to appear at one of her musicales on a free basis.
49Mrs. Theodore P. Ralli gave a musicale Monday afternoon, at her residence, No. 6 East Fifty-fourth street, in honor of her sister, Mlle. Zealie de Lussan. The program was decidedly an interesting one, those who contributed to it comprising Mlle. de Lussan, Mr. Perry Averill, Miss Martina Johnstone and Faik della Sudda Bey, the Turkish pianist. There was a crush of guests, about 800 being present, including persons prominent in society, of whom were these:
51Mrs. Wilber Bloodgood, Miss Collins, Mr. C. L. Collins, M. Botassi, Mrs. J. F. de Navarro, Prince Lubecki, Mrs. Henri Braem, the Misses Braem, Gen. Horace Porter, Count Naselli, Mrs. George F. Baker, Miss Baker, Mrs. W. H. Harrison, Miss Skidmore, the Misses du Vivier, Baron A. Rosenkrantz, Mr. Peter Moller, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Postley, Mr. and Mrs. William Burden, Mrs. William Pollock, Mr. and Mrs. S. W. Bridgham, Mme. Fabricotti, Mrs. H. S. Kingsley.
53Mr. W. Johnson Quinn sent out cards for a soirée musicale at the Hotel Empire, Wednesday evening, February 20. The program was interesting from a musical stand-
55SUBSCRIPTION RECITALS
56At Madison Square Garden Concert Hall
57BY—
58Mr. E. A. MacDOWELL,
59Thursday Afternoon, February 28,
60Saturday Afternoon, March 2.
61For subscription blanks kindly address
62BREITKOPF & HÄRTEL,
6339 East 19th Street, NEW YORK.
65MISS
66DORA VALESCA
67BECKER,
68THE AMERICAN VIOLINISTE.
69ADDRESS:
701402 Lexington Ave.
71NEW YORK.
73Music Printing BY ALL PROCESSES.
74F. H. GILSON COMPANY,
75Lock Box 550, Back Bay, Boston.
76The most complete and extensive Music Printing Establishment in America. Correspondence solicited. Julv 31.
78GARGLA'S HINTS ON SINGING.
79GARGLA'S HINTS ON SINGING.
80GARGLA'S HINTS ON SINGING.
81"The most practicable, useful and reliable singing tutor yet written."
82London : E. Ascherberg & Co.
83New York : Edward Schubert & Co.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.