Scan 13
Musical Courier 1895-11-06: Vol 31 Iss 818, 1895
75 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 14. See the scan on archive.org.
1BOSTON, Mass., November 3, 1895.
3THE program of the first Kneisel Quartet concert, October 28, in Association Hall, was as follows:
5Quartet, A minor, op. 51, No. 2…………………………… Brahms
6Suite, op. 34, for violin and piano (first time)……………… Bernard
7Quartet, G major, op. 76, No. 75…………………………… Haydn
9Sar Péladan, unconsciously a rare humorist, although Nordau is inclined to take him seriously, in his novel Istar devotes a chapter to Brahms. He first informs his readers that Brahms is an intense Protestant, who would not use the Roman Catholic ritual for his Requiem; that he is a German of the Germans, and when someone addressed him as "Genius!" in a letter and not "Mr. Doctor, Professor Emeritus," he was seriously offended. The Sar after stating these damning facts remarks, "I am surprised that Germany has reckoned him for thirty years among her artists." Thus he lays a foundation for a remarkable and fantastic palace of criticism. I regret I cannot give you a general idea of his reasoning and conclusions; they are not for virgins and boys. He speaks in one of his mildest passages of this singular characteristic of Brahms: "No matter what the opus may be, you recognize the heart that has consented; the intellect alone recoils; this artist, who has chosen themes of love—themes free, mad, made with a chanson of the wind in the hair of a savage woman who combs herself with a nail, has portrayed incomparably the fear of being compromised or deceived, the worldliness of love." To him Brahms is a gypsy remembering herself though clad in conventional civilized dress; or a minx who guards her stays during the most reckless hour. And listen, pray, to this opinion: "The aesthetic who is acquainted somewhat with anthropology will always prefer to hear a feminine performance of very passionate works like those of Chopin or Brahms; while the quartets of Beethoven, the ultima verba of art, and the greatest part of the sublime Wagner require 'une exécution de mâle.'"
11"'Voici les pieds de Péladan," as Laurent Tailhade sings in'a bitter ballad.
13I could never understand what the Sar was driving at until I heard Monday night the second and the third movements of the A minor quartet played in marvelous fashion. Melancholy oozes from each page, yet it is the melancholy wooed by Thomas Hood.
15I saw my mother in her shroud,
16Her cheek was cold and very pale;
17And ever since I've looked on all
18As creatures doomed to fail.
20There is the thought of unattainable desire; there is the sight of aimless, restless clouds running anywhere—anywhere to get away from the dead moon; there is the smell of forest smoke coming over a dreary field scented only by tall, viscous weeds.
22And yet this music is so beautiful in mournfulness. Here is the true requiem without words. A requiem over buried hopes, ambitions, lusts. And even the dead in life find comfort in the burial hymn.
24This, however, is only an individual impression. Others while recognizing the inherent beauty no doubt caught fair glimpses of Hungary in the third movement and heard gypsy songs transmuted by Brahms, the alchemist. You will laugh, but the quintet in the first act of The Merry War always had the same effect on me as did this third movement: no goose-flesh, no feverish shivers, but the sensation of inexplicable, beautiful melancholy. Perhaps Péladan is right:—pagan abandon clamped by the stays of conventionality, checked by inherited Calvinism.
26***
28The suite by Emile Bernard was played here for the first time. Was it ever played in New York? You heard a piano trio by him in '93; his organ pieces are known to your chief organists; and very likely his violin concerto has been played in New York.
30This suite is a favorite with Sarasate, who has given it with Berthe Marx at least three times in London; the first performance was in '93. Probably Mr. Kneisel heard it in London last June. However that may be, he and Mr. Ernst Perabo, the pianist, received the hearty thanks of the audience for their brilliant performance of the charming music. The first movement, moderato, is not especially striking in itself. Yet it commands respect for the clean cut workmanship, and it suggests still better things to come. These hopes are fully realized.
32The allegretto is fresh, tuneful, spontaneous; the tempo di menuetto is graceful, bewitching in its principal theme, without affectation of archaism, and without impertinent bizarrerie; the finale is where passion first enters, and passion does not forget beauty. The whole suite is delightful music, sane, wholesome, elegant. There is no trick in harmony or rhythm that leads to suspicion of a deliberate pose. The suite is the frank and genial work of one who has mastered his trade and does not deem it necessary or dignified to advertise the fact. Furthermore Bernard thinks for himself.
34There are other pieces of Bernard; among them a Divertissement for wind instruments (1890), said to be of great worth; a Fantaisie for piano and orchestra, first played in Paris in '88; Paysage and Rondo fantastique for orchestra (1891)—the Paysage is said to resemble a cool landscape of Puvis de Chavannes; an aria for viola and piano (1892), and William the Conqueror, for baritone, chorus and orchestra, to be produced soon at a concert of the Paris Opéra. Shall we ever hear any one of them?
36Mr. Perabo is a most admirable ensemble player. Why not? He has abundant technic, large intelligence, the soul of an artist; he also is a born ensemble player, a gift that cannot be purchased. With him as pianist and Mr. Kneisel as violinist the suite was heard to full advantage.
38The Kneisel Quartet gave its first concert in Association Hall, without doubt the best room that can be secured here for its audience. It is a cheery room; the acoustics seem to be excellent. To be sure, the hearer is obliged to climb steps even before he enters the main door of the building, and somehow or other in a Y. M. C. A. hall there is the thought of "notices for the ensuing week" to be read, and a possible collection to be taken.
40The next concert will be November 25.
42***
44A public hearing of the Roman Festival Mass, by Mr. Augusto Rotoli, was at St. James' Church, Wednesday evening, October 30. The program was as follows:
46Sonata Pontificale……………………………Lemmens
47Mr. J. Frank Donahoe.
48Roman Festival Mass……………………………Rotoli
49Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus (unaccompanied), Agnus Dei.
50Postlude in F………………………………….Southard
51Mr. Walter J. Kugler.
53The soloists were Miss Elizabeth Clahane, Miss Teresa Flynn, Mr. Rotoli and Mr. Clifford. The chorus of sixty voices was assisted by the Sanctuary choir. Mr. Kugler was the organist.
55The following note will enable you to form an idea of Mr. Rotoli's purpose:
56In the basilicas of Rome an orchestra is never employed. At festivals the accompaniment is furnished by the organ, 'cello and bass. Occasionally the number of these instruments is increased, according to either the size of the chorus or the capacity of the choir gallery. Sometimes, also, there are added to this trombones and a kettledrum. The ordinary instrumental accompaniment in the other churches is composed of organ, one bass, one 'cello, though in some instances, where the power of the organ is limited by reason of medieval construction, two trombones and a few basses supply the deficiency. In these churches at elaborate ceremonies a grand orchestra is used, but at such times the organ is silent. The combination of an organ and a small orchestra is used only in the churches of the towns near Rome; and the form of such an accompaniment is called provincial. The music which Mr. Rotoli has written, novel as it may seem to Americans, is intended to correspond to the traditions with which he is familiar by training. The accompaniment, accordingly, is similar to that used at San Pietro in Vaticano, San Giovanni Laterano, Santa Maria Maggiore and other Roman basilicas; that is, it is made up of organ, 'cellos, basses and a kettledrum. The motive therefore, of the composition of this festival mass, besides the endeavor to preserve the traditional Roman musical grandeur which befits the words of the service, is to illustrate that style of accompaniment which makes the celebration of mass in the cathedrals of the Eternal City so religiously imposing."
58This mass was first heard in the service of the church at St. James', Christmas, 1894. It was given also the following Sunday.
60Mr. Rotoli's mass is a work of uncommon merit. Viewed solely as music and apart from the thought of the ritual, it would inevitably command respect and awaken admiration from pedagogue and amateur. It combines the free and natural voice writing of the Palestrina school, the Italian sense of beauty, the modern dramatic feeling of young Italy. How very effective, for instance, are the convulsive shudders in the Misere of the Qui Tollis, the treatment of the Crucifixus, the unexpected entrance of the Hosanna at the end of the Benedictus Qui Venit!
62There are abundant evidences of Mr. Rotoli's contrapuntal skill. The double canon for four part chorus, for instance, is enough to win the praise of a college of professors. But the counterpoint is never introduced for mere display of technical skill. This skill is always in the service of the beautiful. The beautiful in turn adorns and enhances the imposing solemn ritual. An emotional, dramatic mass—without the taint of sentimentalism, without trivial, cheap effect. For pure beauty I know of nothing in modern church music, except for Verdi's Requiem, that equals the opening tenor solo of the Agnus Dei.
64Mr. Rotoli may well plume himself on this admirable display of intelligence, art, temperament and true religious feeling.
66The performance was excellent. The large church was crowded with a deeply attentive audience.
68***
70On several occasions I have alluded in THE MUSICAL COURIER to the athletic and stentorophonick comedian Mr. William Wolff, of the Castle Square Theatre. I fear now that I have done a great man injustice, for I observe in the Opera Glass for November, published in Boston, the following tribute: "The name of William Wolff has won golden opinions of press and public, and he is in the front rank of the leaders in Stageland. With all his success he is as modest, quiet and unassuming off the stage as the humblest member of his company. Never courting flattery, and never troubled by the ramblings of ignorant, ill-bred, stupid or prejudiced critics, he keeps serenely before the public as its warmest favorite in comic opera." "Serenely" in connection with Mr. Wolff is good.
72***
74In La Saison Musicale, Paris, 1867, is found this singular bit of news: "A citizen of New York has presented his country with a fine composition. This man of heroic courage has set to music the Constitution of the United States."
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