Scan 14
Musical Courier 1895-12-11: Vol 31 Iss 823, 1895
87 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 15. 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.
1Clara Munger, and this is her only composition. It is hoped that she will find time to write other songs.
3Miss Elsie Lincoln, Miss Edith Castle, Mr. H. Gittus Lonsdale, Mr. Frank Kennedy and Mr. Bertram Shapleigh gave concerts on Wednesday afternoon and evening and Saturday afternoon and evening in Association Hall.
5Miss Edith Castle has been heard at a number of concerts and musicals during the past month and has many engagements booked for the winter. On Wednesday evening she sang in the Central Church as well as in Association Hall, Friday afternoon at the Vendome and last week with Miss Harriet Whittier at a private reception on Commonwealth avenue.
7Mr. Jerome Hanshue, a pupil of Mr. A. J. Hubbard, and a member of Mr. Hubbard's opera class, has been engaged by the Castle Square Theatre and will be heard in a number of operas during the winter. Mr. Hanshue and Miss Edith Mac Gregor sang at Gloucester Wednesday evening in the Rose Maiden cantata, both receiving high compliments for their work.
9Miss Gertrude Franklin's pupils' recital will take place in Steinert Hall December 12 at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. On Monday afternoon Miss Franklin will give a song recital at the same place, when she will be assisted by Miss Chase, Mrs. Loring and Signor Tirindelli, his first public appearance in Boston. Miss Franklin will sing four of Signor Tirindelli's songs—Love's Seasons, Amour—which is in manuscript—Cosa Dira la Gente?, and Amore Amor!, which have not as yet been published in this country. Signor Tirindelli will play a sonata by Tartini written in 1692. He will also accompany Miss Franklin in a group of songs.
11A second season of the Brookline Young People's Concerts is announced, to be given on the afternoons of January 2, 15 and 29, and February 13, under the management of Miss Theodora Cabot and Mrs. H. H. Gallison, and an exceptionally interesting and instructive course is promised, with musicians of the first rank. The concerts will be but an hour in duration, and their educational character will be strictly adhered to.
13The Euterpe Mandolin, Banjo and Harp Club, assisted by Miss Dora P. Damon, cornetist, will make their first public appearance since returning from Europe at the musicale to be given next Wednesday evening at the Young Men's Christian Union.
15The violin recital by M. Delisle de Larapide was given in the hall of the Theosophical Society, No. 24 Mount Vernon street, Friday evening.
17The members of the Harmony Club held their regular meeting Thursday evening at the clubrooms, No. 136 Boylston street. A program of music and readings was given by Mrs. Harry Bailey, reader; Mrs. Mattie Spiller, clarinetist; Mrs. Eben Bailey, soprano soloist, and Mr. Eben Bailey, pianist.
19Miss Gertrude Capen, on account of a decided increase in the size of her audience, held her fourth pupils' recital in the vestry of the New South Church, instead of in the parlors as formerly. Miss Capen read a unique setting of her own to violin and piano accompaniment. Miss Frances Burnham assisted.
21The First Corps of Cadets has again called Mr. R. A. Barnet to its aid, and he has produced a new burlesque, entitled The Strange Adventures of Jack and the Beanstalk, which the cadets will give at the Tremont Theatre in February. The music is by Mr. A. B. Sloane, of Baltimore. Principals, chorus and dancers are already hard at work on the new piece, and rehearsals are held at the armory every Monday and Thursday evenings, under the direction of Messrs. Seymour, Barnet and Sloane. The costumes and dances will be novel, as usual. The favorites of former years will be in the cast and the corps will also present some new performers, of which it seems to have an unlimited supply.
23Walter Damrosch's Opera Company will come to the Boston Theatre on Monday evening, February 3, for a season of twelve performances, embracing the first five evenings and the Saturday matinée of each week. No performances are to be given Saturday evenings, so as to avoid a conflict with the Symphony concerts. The repertory has been arranged as follows:
25FIRST WEEK.
26February 3—Lohengrin………………Wagner
27" 4—Die Walküre..}
28" 5—Fidelio………………………..Beethoven
29" 6—Siegfried…………………..
30" 7—Die Meistersinger………….Wagner
31" 8—(mat.) Tristan and Isolde…….
33SECOND WEEK.
34February 10—The Scarlet Letter……..Walter Damrosch (In English. First performance in America.)
35February 11—Der Freischütz………………Weber
36" 12—Götterdämmerung…
37" 13—Tannhäuser…………………Wagner one of two readings
38" 13—Tannhäuser………………..Wagner one of two readings
39" 14—Lohengrin…………………
40" 15—(mat.) The Scarlet Letter……Walter Damrosch
42The Boston C. E. Gospel Chorus will give a grand concert on Thursday evening, December 19, in Music Hall, Boston, for the purpose of raising money to be sent to the relief of the Armenians in this time of terrible distress and persecution. The chorus will be assisted by Mr. Carl Peirce, violin soloist, accompanied by Mr. H. P. Chelius. The Boston Singers' Male Quartet, composed of Mr. T. E. Johnson, Mr. J. F. Hanshue, Mr. W. W. Walker and Mr. W. H. Clark, will assist with quartet and solo numbers. The Day sisters—Misses Hattie, Avis and Helen Day—will give duets and trios.
44Miss Charlotte W. Hawes' lecture on bells will be delivered in Copley Hall next Monday afternoon at three o'clock, and will be illustrated by the Shipp brothers, bell ringers, and by the choir of the Arlington Street Church.
46The auction sale of subscription seats for the coming season of grand opera, beginning February 17, 1896, at Mechanics Building, under the direction of Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau, will be held at the Tremont Theatre on Thursday, December 12, at 4 o'clock p. m.
48Singing or Declamation?
49To the Editor of the New York Times:
50ALTHOUGH I am an amateur, I have been for many years a devotee of music and have had opportunity of hearing many of the first vocal artists of this (and I may say, of a past) generation, from Sontag to Melba, and from Mario to De Reszke. The result of my observation and experience I will, with your kind permission, endeavor to embody in the following brief remarks.
52I think there is nothing more patent to the lover and the unprejudiced critic of music than the fact that, as a rule, the Germans cannot sing. The later works of Wagner do not require for their interpretation artists skilled in the divine art of bel canto, but those practiced in musical declamation (a very different thing), and who combine with it a superior knowledge of the art of acting. With modern operas of the German school the orchestra is predominant, the voice alone a mere auxiliary, but I acknowledge this is not altogether so when the voice and the acting are considered in conjunction.
54Now, I fancy there are, in these days, but few musicians, be they amateur or professional, but will acknowledge that, in a general sense, the Germans lead the world in music, both as to their composers and perhaps (instrumental) executants, but as vocalists pure and simple they are immensely inferior to Italians or those who have been taught to sing in the Italian school. Perhaps a great deal of what appears to be musical declamation in Wagner's operas might appear quite differently if sung by artists educated in this school, and who had (feminine) something besides a cat-like note in their voices, or (masculine) a roughness and inflexibility inconsistent with the production of agreeable tones. The voice! the voice! For Heaven's sake let us have the voice!
56Now I think some such ideas as these must have actuated the musical critic of the Times (the best in the country) in writing some weeks (or was it months?) ago, an article wherein he advocated the production of German opera with the aid of Italian artists or those educated in the art of the bel canto, not necessarily Italians—they may be Poles, Spaniards, or Europeans of countries other than France or Germany—who know how to act. When this consummation is effected, Wagner and other great composers of his school will receive a more efficient interpretation than heretofore.
58OLD STAGER.
59New York, December 2, 1895.—Times.
61Weimar.
62WEIMAR, November 26, 1895.
64SINCE my last letter there have been several events of interest here; the first was a concert given by Willy Burmester in conjunction with Ernest Hutcheson, a young pianist who is making a name in Germany.
66The E flat major sonata for violin and piano by Beethoven was a treat one seldom has the privilege of enjoying. Burmester has been so thoroughly and favorably criticised in THE MUSICAL COURIER by Mr. Abell that any further remarks from me would be superfluous, only I wish to say that his classical playing impresses me even more than his technic. Hutcheson proved himself on this occasion a most worthy companion to Burmester, and the two artists played with one mind and soul. Altogether it was an ideal performance. Burmester played also the Faust Fantasie by Wieniawski, several small numbers, and his own arrangement of Paganini's Witches' Dance; of course the latter piece teems with almost insuperable difficulties. It is no light task to accompany such a program as the above, especially considering the tempi Burmester sometimes takes in the Paganini piece, and occasionally one would think it impossible for the piano to keep pace with the violin, but the pianist was perfectly equal to the occasion and did not miss a note.
68And now a word about the final piano solos. Hutcheson played the C major fantasia of Schumann splendidly, and created quite a sensation with some Chopin studies, particularly the one in thirds and that known as the Revolution study, which Chopin is said to have composed on receiving news of an insurrection in Poland. In the first number the player revealed himself as an earnest musician, and the studies gave him an opportunity of showing off his gigantic technic.
70The second and third subscription concerts in the Court Theatre followed close on each other; in the first, Liszt's Symphony to Dante's Divine Comedy was given. This work is rarely performed, and was interesting chiefly on that account.
72Conrad Ansorge played the Beethoven E flat major concerto, and showed us just how it should not be done. I was painfully surprised to hear such a bad performance after his brilliant recitals here last winter, and I can only attribute it to the fact that he has been hard at work lately on a composition for orchestra, which was produced at the same concert without making any favorable impression. Far more interesting was the last theatre concert, in which Hugo Becker, the celebrated virtuoso and court 'cellist to the Grand Duke of Baden, played his new concerto. It is an interesting work, distinctly superior to the average virtuoso compositions written for 'cello. The form is very modern, as the following short analysis will show: The first subject in A major is bright and vigorous; the second, in the orthodox dominant key, of a more singing character. The development is important, and contains some choir contrapuntal work; it leads to a peroration for the orchestra, after which the adagio immediately follows. This consists of a slow, somewhat Wagnerian theme in C sharp minor, with an alternative melody of waltz-like rhythm in D flat. After a repetition of the slow subject the muted horn suddenly enters with the original A major theme, which is now repeated at length, as is also the second subject, transposed in the usual manner to the tonic. The coda brings some new matter, and abounds in extremely difficult double stopping for the 'cello, which leads the work to a brilliant and effective conclusion.
74The orchestra is well written for throughout, and plays a very important part, but without ever putting the solo instrument into the background. Herr Becker was most enthusiastically received, and played two solo numbers with piano accompaniment and had a double encore.
76EDW. W. OSBORN.
78Dusseldorf.—Benjamin Godard's La Vivandière was given on November 15 at the City Theatre, Dusseldorf, for the first time in Germany. Frau Felicia Kaschowska sang the title rôle. In spite of the weakness of the text the opera made a success, and will soon be produced at the Court Theatre, Dresden.
80Munich.—The Court Opera of Munich is preparing for the second half of its season a revival of Don Juan. The original score of the work is in the possession of Mme. Viardot Garcia in Paris, and the opera was produced for the first time in Prague, October 24, 1787. The bill announced it as Don Giovani Ossia il Dissoluto punito, drama giocoso in due atti con balli analoghi, Parole del Signor Alberto da Ponte, musica del celebre maestro Sign. Amadeo Mozart. For this production Intendant Possart will try for the first time the "rotary stage" invented by Karl Lautenschläger, which will permit the numerous changes of scene to be made without a drop scene.
82Fritz Spahr's Playing.—Fritz Spahr is now on a concert tour with the singers Carl Gregori and Margarethe Grosschupf. This talented young violinist recently played the G minor sonata by Tartini and the air by Bach, also the cavatina by Raff, at a concert at Leipsic. The Leipsic critic Professor Vogel said the following about our young artist:
84Fritz Spahr's rendering of Tartini's sonata in G minor, the air by Bach, and Raff's Cavatina, again demonstrated this virtuosos superior talent. His large tone and depth of expression made a lasting impression on all present.—Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten.
86Fritz Spahr began the concert with the G minor sonata by Tartini. Spahr has a very large tone and a sure technic. He also had great success with the well-known beautiful air by Bach and Raff's well-liked cavatina.—Leipziger Tageblatt.
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