Scan 11
Musical Courier 1895-06-05: Vol 30 Iss 796, 1895
83 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 12. 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.
1(Message), Salome (Offertoire in F minor), Guilmand (Offertoire on two Xmas themes), Bach (Fugue in E flat, St. Anne's), Sterndale Bennett (Barcarolle, from fourth concerto), and Best's March for a church festival. In all these numbers Mr. Fairclough, who is a pupil of Mr. C. E. Clemens, organist of St. George's Church, proved himself a thorough and musicianly organist of special accomplishments in the art of registration and a reliable player who is destined in the future to be of undoubted service to his native land.—Berliner Wochen Bericht.
3G. H. Fairclough, a well-known Canadian organist and pianist, who has been studying during the last two years in Berlin with professors Von Petersen, W. Freudenberg, R. Succo and Mr. C. E. Clemens, and who at the same time was Berlin correspondent for the London Magazine of Music, has returned to America.—Berliner Signale.
5I can in the highest manner possible recommend Mr. G. H. Fairclough, whose organ playing I had an opportunity of hearing in an organ recital given by him in the English Church, Berlin, and whose piano playing I have also had occasion to judge in frequent ensemble playing with me, to all musical committees, conservatoires and churches. Mr. Fairclough during his residence here has made himself a recognized and popular member of Berlin musical circles.—Phillip Roth, Musical Critic and Editor, Berlin.
7He also took private lessons in composition from Prof. W. Freudenberg, and thus our readers will see that Mr. Fairclough is well prepared to teach piano, composition, harmony, theory, and has made special preparation for concert, organ and church work. That church which is fortunate enough to secure him will find an earnest musician and man of high character. He holds a certificate from the Hochschule for piano, theory and history of music, signed by Dr. Joachim.
9Frank Taft's Pentecost Music.
11TEMPLE BETH-EL has just closed a notable celebration known as the Feast of Weeks, or the Pentecost. The musical program was one of the most generously compiled of any during the season.
13The celebration is observed two days by the orthodox and one day by the reformed congregations. About sixty children were confirmed. There was an increased choir, with Mr. Frank Taft in the capacity of organist, and the Rev. Herman Silvermann cantor. There were over 3,000 persons in attendance at the Wednesday morning service, which was really brilliant.
15Here are the programs in full for the two services:
17TUESDAY EVENING.
18Organ prelude, Sonata in F minor, Mendelssohn; Hodu Ladonoy, Haydn; Worship the Lord, Gaud; Borchu, Sch'chma, Michomacho, Vajedaher, Cantor recitative, Atoh Becharta, Traditional; O Let Them Praise the Lord, Whoso is Wise, Guilmand; Mercy and Truth, Haydn; Waanachnu, Sultzer; Kadish (organ), Palestrina; Adon Olom, Rossini; Organ postlude, Rienzi March, Wagner. one of two readings
19Organ prelude, Sonata in F minor, Mendelssohn; Hodu Ladonoy, Haydn; Worship the Lord, Gaud; Borchu, Sch'chma, Michomacho, Vajedaher, Cantor recitative, Atoh Becharta, Traditional; O Let Them Praise the Lord, Whoso is Wise, Guilmand; Mercy and Truth, Haydn; Waanachnu, Sutzler; Kadish (organ), Palestrina; Adon Olom, Rossini; Organ postlude, Rienzi March, Wagner. one of two readings
21WEDNESDAY MORNING.
22Organ prelude, Fantasie, Lemmens; Horeu, Goldstein; Borchu, Traditional; Sch'chma, regular, traditional; Michomacho, traditional; Kedusha, Marzo; Cantor Recitative, L'dor Vodor, Atoh Becharta, traditional; Priest's Blessing, traditional; Silent Prayer (organ), Wagner; Hallelujah, Neukomm; Hodu, Traditional; Minhametzar, Haley; Ono, traditional; Eukomocho, Gau; Adonai, Adonai, Sultzer; Sch'chma (new), traditional; L'cha, Levandowsky; Gadulu, Sultzer; Hodu, Sultzer; Schuro, Faure; Hear Our Prayer, Haydn; hymn, Father, See Thy Suppliant Children; Hymn, Floral Song, Davis; hymn, Guide, O Guide This Hopeful Band; Sch'chma (new), traditional; Baruch (new), traditional; Zimloc, Haydn; Largo (violoncello solo, Mr. Louis Blumenberg), Handel; Waanachnu, traditional; On that Day, traditional; Kadish (organ), traditional; Adon Olom, Rossini; organ postlude, Festival Finale, Taft. one of two readings
23Organ prelude, Fantasie, Lemmens; Horeu, Goldstein; Borchu, Traditional; Sch'chma, regular, traditional; Michomacho, traditional; Kedusha, Marzo; Cantor Recitative, L'dor Vodor, Atoh Becharta, traditional; Priest's Blessing, traditional; Silent Prayer (organ), Wagner; Hallelujah, Neukomm; Hodu, Traditional; Minhametzar, Haley; Ono, traditional; Eukomocho, Gau; Adonai, Adonai, Sutzler; Sch'chma (new), traditional; L'cha, Levandowsky; Gadulu, Sutzler; Hodu, Sutzler; Schuro, Faure; Hear Our Prayer, Haydn; hymn, Father, See Thy Suppliant Children; Hymn, Floral Song, Davis; hymn, Guide, O Guide This Hopeful Band; Sch'chma (new), traditional; Baruch (new), traditional; Zimloc, Haydn; Largo (violoncello solo, Mr. Louis Blumenberg), Handel; Waanachnu, traditional; On that Day, traditional; Kadish (organ), traditional; Adon Olom, Rossini; organ postlude, Festival Finale, Taft. one of two readings
25The Feast of Weeks, which is one of the most important held during the Jewish year, is also the last of the annual holidays. The next celebration will occur next autumn.
27To Hamburg.—Mme. F. d'Arona, her daughter and her husband, Mr. Carl Le Vinsen, will leave for Hamburg on the steamer Prussia on June 22.
29Miss Marie Geselschap.—Miss Marie Geselschap, the pianist, left for Europe on Saturday on the City of Antwerp for London. Miss Geselschap will visit Helsingfors, Finland, to be the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Busoni.
31Frieda Simonson.—Frieda Simonson and her mother leave for Europe to-morrow, June 6, on the Columbia. After visiting Berlin the young pianist will play at Meiningen at the court concert. She will return early in October to fill numerous engagements already made in this country.
33CLARY,
34CONTRALTO
35For . . .
36Oratorio,
37Concert
38or Recital.
39ADDRESS DIRECT:
40Remington Squire,
41MANAGER,
42113 West 96th Street,
43NEW YORK.
45THE
46HENRY WOLFSOHN
47Musical Bureau.
48FOR THE BEST ARTISTS
49OBTAINABLE APPLY
50No. 131 East Seventeenth St.,
51NEW YORK CITY.
53BERLIN BUDGET BRANCH
55GERMAN HEADQUARTERS OF THE MUSICAL COURIER.
56BERLIN, W., LINKSTRASSE 17, May 15, 1895.
58WELL, the grave and great conductor question in Berlin has been settled as far as the Royal Opera House orchestra is concerned. As I foretold in this budget several months ago and have reiterated since several times, Weingartner will remain. I knew it all along and I am now privileged to make the first public mention of the fact, none of my Berlin colleagues having as yet positive knowledge on the subject. My idea was and still remains that Weingartner tried a bluff; he never really intended to go to Munich. Why would he? Why should he give up the first position in Berlin to assume a secondary one in Munich, where he would most assuredly have to play second fiddle to Hermann Levi, while here he plays absolutely and in fact first fiddle, even if he has to share that position, in name at least, with Dr. Muck and Josef Sucher—I say, why would he?
60If it had been with him merely the question of a few thousand marks raise in salary, well, he got it; his other demand, that of being raised in rank and title above his two colleagues, he did not get through, and that is no more than right. He is and remains one of the three first conductors, but there is no primus inter pares. On the whole, however, I think Mr. Weingartner was glad enough to give up his bluff and allow himself to be spoken to by Director Pierson, the very man against whom he thought he was operating. Our energetic and far seeing opera house director, however, balked Weingartner's game by another and still bigger bluff, and the latter did not see through the game, but dropped his hand. What the nature of this bluff was those who think it worth their while to read this budget attentively will know; for the others, I am not going to repeat it, as I don't care to drag into this exposé the name of a third party, who was unconsciously and most innocently, as far as he and I are concerned, used as a lever upon Mr. Weingartner's easily frightened susceptibilities.
62Not yet settled, however, is the conductor's question as far as manager Hermann Wolff's series of ten Philharmonic concerts is concerned. Richard Strauss, excellent composer, musician and conductor that he is, did not draw, and I think Wolff is too shrewd a business man under the circumstances to re-engage him. But whom will he take as successor to Hans von Bülow's baton? Wolff, too, was speculating somewhat upon Weingartner in case the latter should really leave the royal orchestra, but this chance is gone now, and whom he is going to take nobody as yet knows; in fact, I doubt whether Wolff himself knows.
64The most important conductor question of all, however, will shortly arise in Leipsic. It is known to me, although the matter is still a profound secret as far as the Leipsic public and even the Leipsic press are concerned, that the venerable conductor, Dr. Carl Reinecke, will lay down his baton for good shortly, and that next season he will not be any longer the conductor of the Gewandhaus concerts. It is no secret that these concerts together with the Leipsic Conservatory have run down considerably of late years. As far as the old renowned Gewandhaus concerts are concerned it is sufficient fact to speak for itself and to explain everything when I state that for the last few years no regular private rehearsals were held for these concerts.
66The public rehearsal was the only one that took place, and that of course was no rehearsal at all in the true sense of the word, as nothing was rehearsed, the orchestra never was stopped, they played things through while Reinecke beat time, and then the concert proper took place. This of course could only be carried through, because no novelties of importance or difficulty were given during these four years, the programs containing nothing but the old standard works, which a good orchestra like that of the Gewandhaus could play through without much rehearsing. If, however, a Brahms or a Rubinstein or a Grieg wanted any of their works performed properly at one of the Gewandhaus concerts they had to and did come to Leipsic, and rehearsed and conducted themselves.
68This almost incredible state of things might have continued for an indefinite period, and, in fact, until the Lord would have seen fit to remove the veteran Dr. Reinecke from this mundane sphere of activity, had it not been for THE MUSICAL COURIER. Our active, energetic and zealous Leipsic correspondent was the first one to throw some light into and disclose the bad musical status of Leipsic. His scathing letters were read with avidity and they begot quite a newspaper controversy. The immediate result, and one of the results Mr. August Güssbacher may be proud of having achieved, is the retirement from the direction of the Gewandhaus concerts of Dr. Carl Reinecke. Who will be his successor? An offer, and a very tempting one, has been made to Dr. Carl Muck, first conductor of the Berlin Royal Orchestra; but Dr. Muck refused, preferring his assured and honored Berlin position to the cleaning out of the Leipsic Augean stables. Where will they find another Hercules both willing and capable of undertaking this job? Echo answers, Where?
70* * *
72There were a few stragglers last week who somewhat belatedly sought musical honors in Berlin. Two of them were operatic singers, both from other cities and both figured as altos on their respective programs.
74The first one was Miss Lina Ruecker, from the Wiesbaden Royal Opera House. She gave a concert of her own in Bechstein Hall on last Thursday night. Her voice, although designated as an alto, has none of the alto timbre, but is a pronounced mezzo soprano of not very great depth and with rather unsatisfactory vocal schooling. Her singing generally was so poor (I heard her in the first Fides aria from Le Prophète and some Lieder by Bungart, Schumann, Saal, Dessauer and Zumpe) that I wondered how she ever managed to get an engagement at so important an opera house as that of Wiesbaden; and why in the name of goodness she should have invited the Berlin press to listen to her unavailing wailings, and that on a lovely, warm spring night which one might have spent much more pleasantly than at Bechstein Hall, I do not know.
76Herr Felix Meyer, royal Prussian chamber virtuoso, assisted and played in his usual careful but by no means inspiring style a very weak Legende in C minor by C. Bohm and a moto perpetuo by F. Ries. Toward the close of the latter number Mr. Meyer's E string snapped and he retired prematurely. It is hard to be inspiring when you are perspiring.
78* * *
80The other operatic singer who on Saturday night virtually gave the "blow out" in Bechstein Hall was Agnes Hermann, from the Cologne City Theatre. She is artistically far more advanced than her Wiesbaden colleague, and she has a voice of considerable charm, depth and sonority. Of the Lieder she sang I liked best four by Arno Kleffel entitled Wiegenlied, Duftende Lindenblüth, Verrath and Der Schmied. Some of the Berlin music critics were also largely represented upon the program, songs by Eichberg, Tappert and von Koss being sung, and I hope not as a sop to Cerberus.
82Instrumental variety was brought into the program by the pianistic performances of Georg Liebling, who, however, did not have one of his very best days. He only played well a somewhat Schumannesque and very pretty piece entitled Dämmerstunde, op. 9, of his own, while for the Schumann Aufschwung he lacked spirit, and
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