Scan 11
Musical Courier 1895-04-17: Vol 30 Iss 789, 1895
74 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 12. See the scan on archive.org.
1self and had to make several changes in the program. It was the first of three Lieder and ballad recitals which he is advertised to give, and as is always the case when this popular artist sings here, the hall was well filled. The public, moreover, was as kind and enthusiastic as it was numerous, and did not let the artist feel or suffer for the disappointment which it must have undergone through the changes in the program and the wheeziness of the singer.
3The Schubert Lieder and Loewe ballads had been sung by the time I reached the Philharmonie, and as special attraction and novelty a group of four Lieder by Richard Strauss were on the tapis. They were, however, not forthcoming, and in their stead I heard a carefully sung and, as always with Gura, highly artistic reproduction of Schubert's Prometheus and Loewe's best known ballad, Edward. Prof. Heinrich Schwartz, from Munich, accompanied admirably.
5***
7Friday evening brought the penultimate concert of the series of ten symphony evenings by the Royal Orchestra. As usual the great auditorium of the opera house was completely sold out. Weingartner's program on this occasion was a somewhat heterogeneous, albeit by no means an uninteresting one. The first half was modern, the second half classical.
9Saint-Saëns' symphonic poem "Phaëton" opened the proceedings. You all know it so well that I need not lose a word over it. The performance was a most brilliant one and elicited a veritable storm of applause. It was eclipsed, however, by the scene which followed the next number of the program. It consisted of an overture and entr'acte music from the opera Donna Diana, by Reznicek, a young Bohemian composer of great promise. The opera has lately been produced with more than usual success at Prague, where Weingartner happened to attend the première, and so fell in love with those two orchestral selections that he brought the manuscript (the work is not yet printed) along and placed them on his symphony program.
11The choice was a very happy one, especially so far as the overture in D major is concerned. It is somewhat in the style of Smetana's Bartered Betrothed overture, as bright and fresh as a beautiful spring morning, full of pregnant ideas and orchestrated with a master hand. The Royal Orchestra played this brilliant novelty under Weingartner's dashing direction in so virtuoso-like fashion that the effect was irresistible. When the cyclone of applause broke loose Weingartner rushed off from the stage and brought on the scared but good looking dark (so far in every sense of the adjective) composer, who was present and bowed his thanks rather timidly, but evidently much pleased. The applause continued, and then Weingartner repeated the overture, after which the same scenes ensued. It was a veritable and great success. Against the overture the little entr'acte music is a trifle disappointing. It consists in the main of two pretty but rather small and tame solo episodes for the violin and violoncello in A major, and cannot compare with the overture in either worth or effectiveness. Still it greatly pleased the audience, and another double recall for the composer was the result.
13After quiet had been restored Weingartner gave a superb and most finely worked out reading of Liszt's symphonic poem Tasso. The lamento was tremendously sombre and lugubrious, but the trivafio was a trifle too blatant for me. This is partly the fault of Liszt's orchestration, which a great conductor should tone down, while Weingartner delights in most glaring effects. Well, he certainly carried the audience with him, and I can only state that before his triple recall I withdrew in silent and most decided minority.
15Somewhat regretfully I left the opera house without having heard the Mozart Magic Flute overture and Beethoven's A major symphony, which formed the second half of the program, in order to be present at the concert of the Cologne Male Chorus Singing Society.
17***
19The Rhénish Vocal Society is generally considered the best one among the many hundreds of German male choruses. They are under the protectorate of H. M. Emperor William II., and as they gave this concert for the benefit of the Emperor William Memorial Church, and as furthermore the entire German Court graced the occasion with their august presence, it cannot be wondered at that the vast hall of the Philharmonie was filled to its utmost capacity.
21Socially the affair was a great success; financially this was likewise the case, inasmuch as a considerable sum was realized for the building fund of the said church, and artistically the concert was a real treat. Male chorus singing is highly enjoyable when it is done with such perfection of ensemble, nicety and attention to detail in dynamics and general expression as is practiced by the Cologne chorus under the graceful yet strong guidance of Concertmaster Joseph Schwartz. The selections they gave brought nothing that was new to me, except the choruses Deutschland's Trost, by Heinrich Zoellner, the former conductor of the society, and Der Schonste Klang, by Joseph Schwartz, the present conductor. It goes without saying that all the singing was received with considerable applause, led by the Emperor in person, and that encore demands were the order of the evening.
23Max Pauer, the excellent Cologne pianist, had come over with the society to play for the good cause, and he gave a powerful, polished and pleasing reading of the Weber Concertstück and of two smaller solo numbers by Liszt and Xaver Scharwenka.
25A special attraction of the evening was also Mrs. Lieban-Globig's artistic singing of two groups of Lieder, among which the delightful Kinderlied by Hans Hermann and Carl Loewe's gay ditty, Niemand hat's Gesche'n, took the audience by storm, and of course led to encore demands. A more charming delivery and clearer pronunciation than Mrs. Lieban's I have rarely heard, and her soprano voice is as sympathetic as it is resonant and beautiful.
27Our Cologne guests will be heard in two more concerts for charitable purposes before they return to the Rhine laden with laurels, trophies and glory.
29***
31The most important musical event of the week was the long delayed first performance of the newly staged and newly studied first grand opera by Richard Wagner, his Rienzi. It finally took place at the Royal Opera House on Saturday night after one more and last postponement from Thursday to Saturday, whereby hangs an almost tragicomical tale. Incidentally I mentioned in my last week's budget the presence of Arthur Nikisch at the final rehearsal for Rienzi, and that he met there Cosima Wagner. The composer's wife had also attended the five hour rehearsal on the day previous, and it was intended that after these two final rehearsals, each of over five hours' duration, Wednesday should be an off day for the artists concerned in the performance, which latter was to have taken place, as I said before, on Thursday night. Cosima had declared that she had come to Berlin only to attend the final rehearsals and that she could not stay over for the Thursday performance, as for Friday early she had arranged a meeting at Bayreuth with her assistants and advisers for the next Bayreuth festival scheme.
33On Tuesday evening after the final Rienzi rehearsal she was the guest for dinner at Count Hochberg's, and our gallant and hospitable intendant then said that he would not hear of his guest's departure before the real performance had taken place. Cosima urged her inability to stay on account of the previous and to her very important meeting. Then Count Hochberg undertook to arrange the matter to everybody's satisfaction, and began to telegraph to all parties concerned that the Bayreuth meeting would take place there on Friday afternoon, instead of, as originally agreed upon, Friday forenoon. This would give Cosima a chance to hear the performance, take the Berlin-Munich night express and be in her beloved Bayreuth by Friday, 2:30 p. m. All seemed right and settled now and the news soon spread that Cosima would remain over and attend the performance.
35The opera house was sold out and though prices were raised originally they soon commanded a premium. But there was one day, one whole day yet, ere the night of the performance, and this was too much for Cosima to remain idle. Instead of going shopping in the capital of Germany, as some women folks undoubtedly would have done, she ordered another rehearsal for the soloists and on Wednesday at 10 a. m. she had them all around her on the stage of the Royal Opera House. First she gave them a speech of an hour and a half of what they ought to do and what they should shun doing and then she went with each one over his part for a couple of hours or so. Poor Sylva, who had only recently risen from a sick bed and who wanted all his energy and voice for the trying night of the performance, looked glum, but did as he was bidden and sang—and on Thursday he was hoarse. The première had to be postponed until Saturday—and, Cosima had to leave for Bayreuth without having heard Rienzi except in rehearsals. So much for too much rehearsing!
37The performance, however, justified the pains that had been taken with the resuscitated Rienzi, and if Richard Wagner could have witnessed it he would have been extremely gratified and would have withdrawn his formerly justifiable reproach that Rienzi fluttered over the German operatic stages like a "plucked chicken." New feathers of the most brilliant and costly description, as well as of historic correctness, had been draped around his chicken; the mise-en-scène under Titzlaff's experienced and tasteful hand was the most gorgeous and befitting which I have yet seen in Berlin, and the clippings of the wings and tail, which formerly had been indulged in (many of them sanctified by Wagner himself), had been allowed to grow anew. For the first time, instead of the customary sword dance in the second act, the pantomime originally written and intended by Wagner for this scene was given, and it was very beautiful as well as effective. It represents the tragic fate of Lucretia, the revenge of Collatinus and Brutus upon Tarquinius and the delivery of Rome from the bondage of tyranny. The music to this pantomime is among the most beautiful as well as characteristic in the whole work. Wagner wanted this pantomime represented on the stage by real dramatic artists and not by members of the ballet. It was at first intended to follow this instruction of the score, but later, with the consent of Cosima, the parts were after all taken by some of our coryphées, among whom our old friend Miss Urbanska as Lucretia acted not only in most graceful, but also in most convincing and dramatic fashion, thus certainly realizing Wagner's intentions, while the gentlemen, Winter (Tarquinius), Zorn (Collatinus) and Quaritsch (Brutus), could not break themselves from their ballet manners of exaggerated gestures and were hard treading upon the thin line which separates the sublime from the ridiculous.
39For the first time also the third act, which has hitherto always been curtailed so that every particle of sense was knocked out of it, was now given in its completeness, embracing the people's prayer while Rienzi's fight with the Nobili is taking place behind the scene, the return of the victors, the bringing on upon a bier of the dead body of old Colonna and his son Adriano's oath to revenge his father's death. While this scene is going on in front, in the back of the stage the wounded and dead are being carried off the battle-field. This portion of the work is also musically among the strongest of Wagner's earliest writings, and I maintain that, without having heard it and other resurrected former clippings, no one can judge rightly of a work which, despite its strong Meyerbeerian and Spontini influence and reminiscences, still shows to a marked degree already the claw of the young lion.
41In the last act Rienzi's prayer, which used to be cut also and which is decidedly the noblest musical thought in the entire opera, is given completely. The duet between Rienzi and Irene, as well as the final and parting scene between Irene and her lover Adriano, have, according to logic, been put in their old place, and thus the work in its completeness, with a very few and unimportant cuts, is being given here and consumes four hours and a half for its time of performance, just as does Die Götterdämmerung.
43I want to say that the grand and extremely beautiful new scenery was painted by Professor Brückner, of Coburg, and that the costumes were designed by Prof. O. von Heyden, of Berlin.
45Vocally and instrumentally the performance no less than decoratively showed the splendid forces of our Royal Opera House to the very best advantage. The greatest of praise belongs to Court Conductor Dr. Carl Muck, under whose baton the work was performed with a perfection of detail, with a rare smoothness, and at the same time with a power and energy, with a rhythmic and dynamic pre-
46(no line here) one of two readings
48MR. WATKIN – MILLS, one of two readings
49ENGLAND'S EMINENT BASS-BARITONE, one of two readings
51Principal of the Leeds, Birmingham, Gloucester, Hereford, Worcester, Bristol, Hanley and Cheltenham Festivals; also of the Royal Albert Hall, Crystal Palace, Richter and other important concerts, will revisit the United States, and will be available for oratorio operatic and ballad engagements from the first week in December. one of two readings
53Address one of two readings
54N. VERT and C. A. ELLIS, one of two readings
55Music Hall, BOSTON, MASS. one of two readings
57WALTER J. HALL, one of two readings
58LESSONS IN VOICE PRODUCTION, one of two readings
59ARTISTIC SINGING and one of two readings
60ADVANCED PIANOFORTE PLAYING. one of two readings
61Studio: Nos. 705 & 706 Carnegie Hall, New York. one of two readings
63FRITZ SPAHR, one of two readings
64… Concert Violinist and one of two readings
65Violin Teacher, one of two readings
66PFAFFENDORFERSTRASSE 11, one of two readings
67LEIPZIG, GERMANY. one of two readings
69AUGUST GEMÜNDER & SONS, one of two readings
70"Art" Violins, one of two readings
71Solo Mandolins and Guitars, one of two readings
72Greatest Awards Columbian Exposition, 1893. one of two readings
7313 East 16th Street, near Fifth Ave., New York. one of two readings
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