Scan 17
Musical Courier 1895-03-20: Vol 30 Iss 784, 1895
126 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 18. See the scan on archive.org.
1Ceraldine Morgan.
3THE violin has been the vehicle for bringing into notice a vast number of celebrities, and among these occur the names of many women. Of recent date, among the names that have figured conspicuously on the programs, is that of Miss Geraldine Morgan, violinist.
5Born in New York city, she studied first with her father, the late Mr. John P. Morgan, who was a prominent musician and musical director and the organist of old Trinity Church for eight years. After her father's death Miss Morgan studied with Dr. Leopold Damrosch. After two years he advised her to go to Germany and continue her studies. Mrs. John P. Morgan, Miss Geraldine's mother, who is the translator of the works of Brahms, Bruch, &c., and such works as Tannhäuser and Rubinstein's book A Conversation on Music, took her four children to Leipzig, where their father had studied before them in the Conservatory and received the grand prize. Miss Geraldine and Mr. Paul Morgan (the 'cellist), then seven years old, entered the Conservatory. The violin master engaged at the Conservatory at that time was Prof. Henry Schradieck, with whom Miss Morgan studied two years, at the end of which time she played the Mendelssohn concerto, with orchestra accompaniment, in the old Gewandhaus. Before Miss Morgan finished her studies with Professor Schradieck he took her to Berlin and introduced her to Joachim. It was at that period that her work began to take on its great importance.
7This is how Miss Morgan tells the story:
9"After hearing me play Dr. Joachim at once accepted me as a pupil. I studied with him in the Hochschule (Royal Academy) for three years. Paul and I each had a free scholarship presented to us, and after the third year I took the Mendelssohn prize, competing with forty other artists from various parts of Europe."
11"And you are the only American who has won this honor?"
13"Verily, yes. I made my début, under Joachim's direction, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the assistance of Prof. Heinrich Barth, the pianist. From that time on, together with my brother Paul, the 'cellist, I traveled over Germany, playing in the leading cities. Dr. Joachim introduced me to England, and there I played the double concerto by Bach for two violins, with orchestra accompaniment, together with my master at the Crystal Palace. Then I made a six weeks' tour through England and Scotland with Madame Antoinette Sterling and De Pachmann. As a substitute for Madame Norman Neruda I played at the great Gürzenich concerts in Cologne under Wüllner."
15"And during all of these journeyings your opportunities for meeting celebrities were great?"
17"True; I met Brahms, Bruch, Von Bülow, Mme. Schumann, Piatti, Sarasate, Reinecke, Carl Bohm, Heinrich Hofmann, Moskowski, Henschel, Paderewski, Sir Frederick Leighton, Alma Tadema, Marcus Stone, Robert Browning, John Bright, the Mendelssohn family and many others."
19"You played by royal command?"
21"Not by command, but I played for Princess Mary, Duchess of Teck, the Duke of Teck, their daughter, Princess May, Princess Louise and Lord and Lady Leven."
23"What is that about your having played before Liszt?"
25"Oh, I was but twelve years old at that time. It was at Weimar. The dear old man was quite enthusiastic—so much so that he named me 'Paganina.'"
27"With whom did you make your début in America?"
29"The Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Walter Damrosch. After that I played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I also had a splendid reception at the Springfield festival last season."
31"You have done some other work in New York?"
33"A great deal. I have played before all of the large glee and choral clubs in this city and made several tours in the provinces. Last autumn I made a brief journey through New England. But the last important concert of which I wish to speak is the musicale given by Mrs. Cleveland at Washington, on which occasion Paul and I played. The musicale was given in the East Room of the White House. The decorations were beautiful, and there was a great number of guests. Paul and I also played at a reception given in our honor by Mrs. Bissell, the wife of the Postmaster-General, at their house in Washington. We played several times at the house of the Secretary of War."
35"And your next concert will be given in New York?"
37"Yes, the afternoon of Tuesday, April 2, at the Chamber Hall in Carnegie Music Hall. It will be a subscription concert, given jointly by my brother Paul, Mr. Henry Holden Huss and myself. Our program will consist of classical chamber music."
39"What is the history of that famous Stradivarius upon which you play?"
41"Originally Joachim loaned it to me, and I played on it under those conditions six years, until finally some of my New York friends purchased the instrument from my old master and made me a present of it. Connoisseurs value it at $5,000. My brother Paul has a 'cello made by the oldest violin maker, Gaspar da Salo, in 1615. The instrument was presented to my brother by some well-known artists in Berlin. He also has a 'cello that Joachim gave him."
43"How shall you dispose of your summer?"
45"After filling the engagements that I have already booked, I shall pass two months at Bar Harbor."
47The Ashforth Concert.
49THE fact that Mme. Frida de Gebele Ashforth gave no pupils' concert last year, and that at her concerts one always enjoyed a rare vocal treat, crowded Chickering Hall to its utmost capacity Tuesday evening of last week. And the affair was, as usual, a huge artistic success. The singing of her pupils again displayed the fruits of Madame Ashforth's catholic and sympathetic training. Their resonant and even tone production, ease and fluency of delivery, purity of style, correctness and elegance of phrasing, general artistic interpretation, enunciation and pronunciation of the various languages sung were all in evidence. With the exception of two, none of the young ladies who sang in this concert speaks the language they sang in. And much praise must be awarded their correct pronunciation. Eclecticism reigned as usual in the scheme of the entertainment, for church, opera, Lieder, Balladen, chanson were all represented, and even the American composer was not forgotten. Latin, French, English, German and Italian were sung, and the spirit and the atmosphere of each style were clearly indicated. This was the program, which contained some novelties:
51Trio, Elijah…………………………………………..Mendelssohn
52Love Song…………………………………………..Beach
53Soupire (new)………………………………………Bemberg
54Song………………………………………………….E. Nevin
55Fidèle Coeur (new)……………………………….Vidal
56Berceuse, Jocelyn………………………………….Godard
57Wanderer's Nachtlied (new) (MS.) (Violin obligato)……Burmeister
58Lied (new)…………………………………………..Fielitz
59Der Gärtner…………………………………………Kahn
60Aubade……………………………………………….Lalo
61Sweetheart…………………………………………..Cowen
62Alt-märkisches Volkslied (new)……………………..Hollaender one of two readings
63Alt-märkisches Volkslied (new)……………………..Hollander one of two readings
64Agnus Dei (Violin obligato)………………………..Bizet
65Schmerzen…………………………………………..Wagner
66Le Chemin du Ciel (new)…………………………..A. Holmes
67Sérénade (new)……………………………………Nicossias
68Villanelle……………………………………………d'Aqua
69Lied (new)…………………………………………..Schaeffer
70Selections-
71Schön Gretlein (new)………………………………Fielitz
72Waldruf (new)………………………………………Schmidt
73Salve Regina……………………………………….Henry Parker
74Pastourelle…………………………………………Haydn
75Scene d'Ophélie (Hamlet)………………………….A. Thomas
76Roumanian Song…………………………………..Clayton Johns
77Ballade……………………………………………..Hartmann
78Sonntag…………………………………………….Brahms one of two readings
79Sonntag……………………………………………..Brahms one of two readings
80Chanson de Capri (first time here)…………………Massenet
81Air, Pérle du Brésil (Flute obligato)………………David
82Duet, Stabat Mater………………………………..Mrs. Letha Goodell.
83Misses Wright and Mandelick.
85Miss Akers sang the familiar and trying scene from Hamlet with facility and finish. Laura Moore's group of songs were delivered with musicianly authority and with much ardor. Indeed, with Miss Blumenberg, Miss Moore possessed a marked dramatic temperament. Miss Blumenberg was nervous in Mr. Burmeister's charming song, but her voice warmed and she sang the Fielitz Lied with great fire and musical passion. She has plenty of voice and temperament. Miss Wright did some very good work, and the Qui est Homo with Miss Mandelick was well sung. Mrs. Goodell sang the florid measures of Charmante Oiseau in a manner that would have melted the cockles from the coloratura heart of a Marchesi. Miss Mandelick sang Bizet's rather theatrical Agnus Dei with taste, and her voice is as sonorous and as rich as ever. Special praise must be awarded Misses Fanning and Lander, Mrs. Barnum, Miss Hart and Mrs. Sherwood, who all did full justice to their excellent training, revealing besides talent. Madame Ashforth evidently makes her pupils think. It was altogether a gala night, and the audience discovered pretty faces and toilets as well as good singing. Miss Janie Babcock played the violin obligato very musically, and Mr. Carl Wehner was the flutist. Misses Florence Manchester and Adelaide Lander can be commended for their occasional piano accompaniments. Mr. E. Bello was the regular accompanist. Madame Ashforth was called out, and right well she deserved the salvo of applause that welcomed her. The public only sees the results, but she has to daily face the grim problem of tone production, phrasing and interpretation. It is to be hoped that she will not skip another year; in fact, unless rumor is very much mistaken, she may be forced to give another concert before this season has expired.
87Fifth Concert of Boston's Band.
89THE fifth and last concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra was given in the Metropolitan Opera House last Thursday evening. Marie Brema was the solo singer and this was the program played:
91Overture, Elegy, in C minor (MS.) (first time)………….Robert Kahn
92Aria from Reine de Saba…………………………….Gounod
93Fantastic Symphony, No. 1, in C major, op. 14a……..Hector Berlioz
94I. Reveries—Passions—largo, C minor, 4-4.
95II. A Ball : Valse—allegro non troppo, A major, 3-8.
96III. Scene in the Fields—adagio, F major, 6-8.
97IV. March to the Scaffold : allegretto non troppo, G minor, 4-4.
98V. A. Walpurgis Night's Dream—larghetto, C major, 4-4.
99Allegro, C minor and C major, 6-8.
101SONGS WITH PIANO.
103Mainacht…………………………………………..Brahms
104Time's Garden………………………………………Goring Thomas
105Von Liebe……………………………………………Kjerulff
106Overture, scherzo, notturno and wedding march, from Mendelssohn the Midsummer Night's Dream………….
108This scheme was by no means a satisfactory one. More than one of the Mendelssohn numbers was superfluous. The nocturne and the wedding march are banal and either the overture or the scherzo should have been given. Played contiguously they cloyed.
110The band was at its best in the scherzo, which was played with great finesse. The Berlioz symphony has begun to collect Time's avenging dust despite its beauty of orchestral color and the enormous technic displayed in the writing. The march and the whirling orgy and parody of the Dies Irae remain still as superb specimens of what might be called the diabolic school of writing. Berlioz was certainly a diabolist of the purest water. The orchestra was far from flawless in the work, slips in intonation and rhythm occurring, and the tubs that did duty as bells were not quite in tune. But the work as a whole was given with spirit and brilliancy.
112Brema sang the war-worn aria "Plus Grand dans son Obscurité" with great dramatic power. She literally rehabilitated its musty measures. Her singing of the Brahms song was very satisfying and intensely musical. The Thomas song is rubbish, unworthy of his fame, belonging as it does to the category of songs of the Lost Chord variety. But as she sang it very well, and Mr. Schroeder's 'cello obligato being very inspiring, the audience—a small one—redemanded the numbers. Brema, who reveals herself on the concert stage as a stalwart example of healthy womanhood, sang with much buoyancy the Norwegian composer's Von Liebe. Its motif is distinctly Valkyrian. This true artist will undoubtly tone down her exaggerated style into a cooler and more grateful method of expression. All that she does savors of the footlights. She is nothing if not dramatic, and there is an abounding passion and vitality in her work that is very infectious. She enjoyed a marked triumph at this concert.
114The novelty proved to be an unpretentious overture by Robert Kahn, a pupil of Brahms, and evidently a young man of great promise. Not alone his skill in handling or his melodic material, but his formal sense is never at fault. That it suggests Brahms is inevitable, and as Mr. Apthorps says in the Boston Transcript, "this is entirely normal and to be expected. Kahn is still young and in his first manner, and the first manner of almost every composer is that of his teacher or model; a composer's individuality crops out, as a rule, only in his second. And just here, by the way, the thought presents itself to us: if a young composer's first manner begins with Brahms, what incalculable phases may not his third manner assume?"
116Kahn has used the overture form with respect and concision, although never in the conventional sense, as is evidenced by his ingenious use of a theme from the introduction in the work itself. Kahn's themes are melodic and his treatment lucid, and his admirable mastery of the mechanism of his art as well as knowledge of instrumentation all have enabled him to produce a work which augurs much for his future. That he has said nothing new is granted, but his voice is nevertheless individual and fresh. We expect big things of Robert Kahn. Mr. Paur conducted in his usual earnest but angular manner.
118Barcelona.—Since the terrible loss of life in the Lyceo Theatre of Barcelona, caused by the bomb throwing anarchist Salvador, the management had no reason to expect success and it seemed hazardous to begin this season's performances. At first nothing would draw, but clever management turned the tide in its favor by producing novelties such as Manon, Amico Fritz, Cavalleria Rusticana, and the ballet The Doll Fairy. The excellent artists engaged at the Lyceo contributed to the increase of the audiences.
120New York College of Music
122128 & 130 EAST 58th STREET,
123ALEXANDER LAMBERT, Director.
125The College offers unusual advantages for a complete musical education. Catalogue sent free on application.
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