Scan 6
Musical Courier 1895-02-27: Vol 30 Iss 781, 1895
100 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. 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. February 5, 1865.
7IN my last week's budget I promised to let you know something about Miss Irene von Brennerberg, whose name I then mentioned incidentally. The young lady has been highly recommended to me by our Vienna correspondent, and I understand that she is engaged for Chicago from the beginning of next fall. I was doubly interested, therefore, in a concert which Miss Brennerberg gave in Bechstein Hall Tuesday night of last week, and in which she met with considerable success. I could not truthfully say that she is a phenomenal or even a very remarkable violinist, but she seems to be a very satisfactory one both from the musical and the violin player's standpoint. The latter one will be taken and enlarged upon in Mr. Abell's column, and I can therefore content myself with stating that Miss Brennerberg played Spohr's Gesangsscene and a Rêverie by the Parisian violinist, Marsick, as well as Wieniawski's Sielanka, with nice and firm tone, clean intonation and in a straightforward, musicianly manner. What pleased me most was her sweeping and yet graceful bow arm.
9It seems hardly necessary to inquire too closely about the personality which I believe is hidden under the pseudonym of Jenny Rosa, a young lady who had volunteered her assistance as vocalist for this concert, and who sang in a very amateurish manner Lieder by Schubert, Brahms, Richard Strauss and others.
11Mrs. Henriette Billenberg had her hands full with the accompaniment of the Spohr concerto, in the last portion of which she ran away with the violinist, but the leader she accompanied acceptably.
13Another concert the same evening took me to the Singakademie, where Miss Ottilie Fellwock was holding forth to a large sized and delighted audience. This handsome and stylish young lady has one of the finest true contralto voices one can hear, and she sings with taste, having been taught by the late Jenny Meyer of the Stern Conservatory, a real mistress of the vocal art.
15Miss Fellwock's program was of the most varied kind, embracing numerous songs from Schubert's An die Leyer down to Braga's Angel's Serenade, one of those numbers (this time with 'cello obligato) which is apt to drive one to despair. The best sung Lieder of the evening were Brahms' Meine Liebe ist Grün, and Rob. Franz's Willkommen mein Wald. In Schubert's Death and the Girl, the low D at the close was missing, which for me spoiled the effect. Any contralto who does not possess that note should not, in my estimation at least, sing this beautiful song.
17A song, Ich Liebe Dich, by Jos. Schultz, the excellent young accompanist of this concert, was redemanded. It did not deserve this compliment, although it was finely delivered, for Schultz not only took the words of Grieg's most celebrated song, but he also took the Grieg melody, and that should be avoided.
19In agreeable contrast to the previous concert the assistance at this soirée was on a par with the concert giver. Anton Hekking, the violoncellist, whom you know well and favorably all through the United States from his former connection with both the Boston and New York Symphony orchestras, played a trashy Servais fantasy, Le Désir, and later on Popper's Sarabande, a beautiful melody by Massenet, an unaccompanied and very difficult gavotte by Bach, the slow movement from Hans Sitt's really interesting 'cello concerto, Schumann's Abendlich and Davidoff's Am Springbrunnen. Hekking's remarkable technic is the same as of yore, nor has he lost any of his former brilliancy of tone, clearness of intonation and general virtuosity of style.
21Both Miss Fellwock and Mr. Hekking were highly successful with their public, and came in for a good deal of applause and many recalls.
23Two singers claimed my attention on Wednesday evening. The first one of these, a baritone named Hermann Gausche, who gave a concert in Bechstein Hall, was new to me. He seems, however, no new hand, and I understand that he has studied a good deal and everywhere, last with Stockhausen, of Frankfort. If this be true it remains equally true that Herr Gausche has a good deal to learn yet, or what is possibly still more true, there is a good deal which he never will learn. He sang with great and most painfully apparent effort, and his style and general delivery are just as strained as his vocalism. I heard Liszt's Loreley, Brahms' Veerath, Schubert's Erlking, and three of the seven Loewe ballads which were on the program, then I could stand it no longer.
25The concert giver's conjugal spouse, Mrs. Hedwig Gausche-Scharffenberg, was the accompanist, and a very insufficient one, for when she once planted down her foot on the loud pedal she did not deign to remove it again until the last note of the song had been struck, no matter whether the harmonies meanwhile had been changed by the composer from X major to Q minor.
27From Bechstein Hall I went down to the Singakademie in the interesting society of Prof. Julius Hey, the great vocal teacher, whose pupil, Miss Rosa Olitzka, from the London Royal Italian Opera, gave her second concert here on that occasion. I have spoken of Miss Olitzka's fine contralto voice in a former budget, but am forced to state that this time she was evidently suffering from a cold or some other indisposition, for the lady was by no means in as good voice as at her former concert. Her program was interesting and well selected; also not lacking in variety, as you may judge for yourselves:
29Gesang—
30Quella fiamma…………………………………………..B. Marcello
31Gottes Zeit…………………………………………………….J. S. Bach
32Tre Giorni son Che Nina………………………………….Pergolese
33Concerto, A minor, for 'cello……………………………….C. Saint-Saëns
34Lieder—
35In Questa Tomba…………………………………………..L. v. Beethoven
36Erster Verlust……………………………………………….F. Schubert
37Erlkönig………………………………………………………A. Seppilli
38Arie, son cœur souvre à ta voix, from Samson et Dalila…………………………………………..C. Saint-Saëns
39'Cello soli—
40Adagio………………………………………………………..D. Popper
41Rondo………………………………………………………..L. Boccherini
42Wagners…………………………………………………….H. Schlemmeller
43Lieder—
44Von Ewiger Liebe…………………………………………..J. Brahms
45Erlkönig duenst…………………………………………….A. Rubinstein
46Chant Hindou, with 'cello obligato………………………..H. Sommer
47Du Mäichjunger Knabe……………………………………H. Sommer one of two readings
48Du Mühlenjurer Knabe…………………………………….H. Sommer one of two readings
49Little Dorry (by request)………………………………….A. Seppilli
50Widmung……………………………………………………R. Schumann
52The best sung number on the program was the Beethoven In questa tomba aria, the most successful one with the public, Seppilli's Little Dorry, which stupid ditty had to be repeated just like last time.
54It is rather a curious fact that both at Miss Olitzka's concert, as well as Miss Fellwock's, a violoncellist was chosen to give instrumental relief to the vocal utterances. I cannot find the selection a wise one in the case of a contralto concert, for the violoncello, through its very tone character, offers too little color contrast. In this instance, moreover, the violoncellist chosen, Hugo Schlemmeller, from Leipzig, was by no means a remarkably good master of his unwieldy instrument. He played without pronounced defects, but also without particular merits in any one direction. His innocuous and very weak composition, Lullaby, was redeemed by the same audience that redeemed Little Dorry, which fact in itself speaks volumes for the musical intelligence of an assembly of people which lacked nothing in either numbers or enthusiasm. In composition it was an audience of such description that if some one for a bad joke had taken along a Shophar to the sacred precincts of the Singakademie and had inadvertently given a sudden blast of Teikioh on this euphonious musical instrument, seven-eighths of the audience would certainly not have failed to fall down on their knees and worship the Lord Zebaoth, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Otto Bake accompanied everything with his usual skill and direction.
56Not three graces but three disgraces gave a concert in the Hotel de Rome on Thursday night. The principal evil-doer, and in fact the organizer of the affair, I am sorry to say, is an American, Miss Rose Snyder, from Chicago, who is mistaken in the idea that she has a voice, and still more so in the hallucination that she knows how to sing. She tried the bolero from Verdi's Sicilian Vespers on a slim but kindly audience, and she made a dismal failure. Hardly less pronounced was the fiasco of Miss Selma Krause, who butchered the Chopin A flat ballad on the piano, but who had at least the lame excuse that she seemed frightened out of her wits, if she ever did possess any of the latter commodity. Miss Elsa Barkowska, an alleged violinist, gave us the Beethoven G major romanza and a Ries gavotte, and proved herself in every way a fit companion of her confederates. No more of that, if you please, ladies!
58A very interesting musical soirée was given a little later on the same evening at Bechstein Hall by five of the members of the Hanover Court Orchestra in conjunction with the pianist Carl Major, also of Hanover. This Mr. Major was in reality the minor element in the organization, but the remainder of the sextet form a woodwind chamber music organization. A similar combination exists now in England, and was in existence at one time in Berlin, when Franz Rummel was living here, and gave his famous chamber music evenings. But nothing like it has been heard here after that.
60The Hanover Court Opera musicians are Messrs. Willy Herbert, flute; Reinho'd Ohley, oboe; Johann Sobek, clarinet Hermann Richter, horn, and August Fedisch, bassoon. The moving spirit seems to be the clarinet player, Sobek, from whose pen a quintet, op. 23, in B flat, for the just mentioned combination of instruments, was performed which shows no little technical skill and a fine feeling for and knowledge of the best effects to be gotten out of each instrument. Musically, it is not exactly a very grand work, but a very pleasant one to listen to. A quintet for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, op. 20, in E flat, by Th. Verhey, I missed on account of the previously mentioned concert.
62A theme and variations for piano and flute, op. 160, by Schubert, is not one of the immortal Franz's immortal works. It was probably written to order. The flutist played very well, while the pianist was mediocre.
64The final number was Beethoven's very Mozartian quintet, op. 16, in E flat, for piano and woodwind, which is one of the most pleasing of the master's early works. I enjoyed it immensely, especially as the woodwind players were so excellent and the ensemble left nothing to be desired. The same organization will give two more concerts here. They are highly welcome.
66On Friday night I gladly followed an invitation of the Intendency of the Royal Opera House to witness the first performance of the newly mounted and newly restudied Fra Diavolo, Auber's most charming comic opera.
68The new mise-en-scène by Tetzlaff and the decorative arrangements by Brandt, as well as the newly painted scenery of the first and third acts, representing the country near Terracina, all were excellent and very pleasing to the eye. The ear had every reason to be no less satisfied with a fine and lively ensemble performance, as far as the orchestra and chorus under Weingartner's direction were concerned. Some of the principals, however, left much to be desired. Absolutely good was only Frau Herzog as Zerlina, whose singing and acting were equally charming. Neither Schmidt, however, nor Miss Rothauser quite seized or reproduced the humor contained in the rôles of the English traveling Lord Cockburn and his wife, Lady Pamela. Philipp acted well as Fra Diavolo, but his voice was not quite up to the emergencies of the title part, while Sommer had the true tenor quality of voice for the part of the young officer Lorenzo, but, as usually, acted like a stick.
70Krolop and Lieban in the parts of the banditti were rather funny in the bedroom scene of the second act, but in the third act, which greatly depends upon their efforts, they overacted beyond all measure of endurance. They played entirely to the gallery, and of course the gallery was correspondingly happy.
72It is very kind of the management to give us during the enforced interregnum and absence of all novelties at least some good revampings of older master works.
74All next week Wagner's Nibelungenring will hold the boards. Rosa Sucher will take leave of us in the part of Brünhilde. This week she sang Isolde, but was not in the very best of voice nor Stimmung. The destruction of the Elbe created a panic among the artists who are going to leave for the United States soon. Rothmuelh is already on his way, trembling, and Mrs. Sucher, who leaves on the 10th inst., shivers at the very thought of the ocean. The only brave one is Franz Schwarz, the Weimar baritone, who a few days ago jumped into the breach here and gave a fine representation of Don Giovanni, instead of our own Bulsz, who was not yet in trim to sing the part for which he had been announced.
76Sylva, our excellent tenor, however, is now on his way to complete recovery. I called on him a few days ago, and though he was then still in bed he is now announced to sing again in Bajazzi and Cavalleria Rusticana by the end of this week.
78The first one of a cycle of four song recitals announced by Miss Jettka Finkenstein, chamber singer to the Grand Duke of Hesse, was given in Bechstein Hall on Saturday night. The scheme of the program embraces arias and Lieder of the most important kind and in chronological order from the old Italian masters of the sixteenth century down to the song writers of our day. This is a comprehensive idea, but in looking over the four programs I find much that is wanting and I see some that hardly deserve a place among the important things. The very first program left out the name of Monteverdi, an aria of whom had, however, been promised in the preliminary advertisements.
80The program as sung was the following:
82Come raggio……………………………………………..Caldera (1670-1736)
83Nina………………………………………………………..Pergolese (1710-1736)
84Ah se tu dormi…………………………………………..Vaccai (1790-1848)
85Der Wegweiser…………………………………………Schubert
86Die Forelle……………………………………………….Schubert
87Im wunderschönen Monat Mai…………………………..Schumann
88Aus meinen Tränen spreissen…………………………..Schumann
89Ach, wenn ich nur ein Liebchen hätte……………………Mendelssohn
90Von ewiger Liebe………………………………………..Weber
91Ach, der deutschen Volksliedern………………………..Brahms
92Schwesterlein…………………………………………….Schubert
93Aus meinen grossen Schmerzen………………………….Franz
94Es hat die Rose sich beklagt……………………………Brüll
95Willst Du mein sein………………………………………Davidoff
96Leis bewegt hat sich der Vorhang………………………Davidoff
97Aime-moi…………………………………………………Chopin-Viardot
99Frau Finkenstein has a powerful voice of considerable range and rather dark color, but of remarkable flexibility, if
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