Scan 21
Musical Courier 1895-12-11: Vol 31 Iss 823, 1895
65 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 22. See the scan on archive.org.
1Blauvelt, Miss Hooper, Laura Sanford, Camilla Urso, and Howard Brockway.
3Another of last week's concerts in the same hall—the music room of the Pouch Mansion—was in aid of the Brooklyn Training School and Home. The participants were Mrs. Vanderveer Green, who has not developed into quite so heavy a singer as we had all surmised from the notices in the Australian papers, but who was most heartily greeted by her old acquaintances in Brooklyn; Miss Florence Knight, who sang Italian, French and Swedish numbers; Jessie Shay, the pianist, who continues to be a conscientious and painstaking young artist; Maurice Kaufman, violinist, who plays delicately, and the Berkeley Ladies' Quartet, which sang four numbers sweetly. The industrious and wideawake John Hyatt Brewer directed the performance.
5Mr. Brewer was again in charge at the concert given in the Lee Avenue Congregational Church on Wednesday night. On that occasion he ordered the concert of the Caecilia Ladies' Vocal Society. The members of this harmonious band have held together so nobly and so long that their union really seems to hold a promise of permanence, and in vocal societies that is unusual. Whether it is that such societies divide into cliques, each mortally jealous of the other, or whether the members betake themselves to matrimony and forget their music, or whether other societies spring up in the neighborhood that promise more for less money, or what it is, it is a fact that it is hard to keep life in a chorus like this for more than three or four years, and the history of music in Brooklyn is marked all the way by wrecks. Some of them struggle bravely enough to keep going after the desertions and jealousies have set in, and they offer an unashamed front when it comes to the collection of money to pay their expenses. I remember that somebody sent me some tickets, unsolicited, and, to tell the truth, unwanted, for the concerts of one of these societies, and next season I received a second batch of tickets for the concerts of the same society, with a demand for $10, and they wanted it quick. As I was at that time getting nearly as much opera and orchestra as I could digest, I allowed my local pride to smother itself and sent the tickets back with regrets and thanks.
7However, I have never heard that the Caecilia Society has done such a thing as this, and, what is more, I don't believe it has. It has too many rich wives of rich men in its ranks. And good living has not affected their voices, either. Don't you guess there is more or less nonsense about good food and plenty of it being an injury to the voice? Plain living and high singing? Bah! Look at our actors. Boiled oysters at all hours. Welsh rarebits, champagny water, free lunches, lobster salads, afternoon steaks, midnight terrapin—everything that is good to eat and drink and that their purses will buy these favored people absorb into themselves, and there is nothing the matter with their voices as a rule.
9Look at some of our fat lawyers and hear them plead in court. Their tones are as full and musical as those of a De Reszké—if they see in the distance a check as large as Mr. De Reszké pulls out of the treasury every Saturday.
11Well, once more the society of saints named after Caecilia was in good voice and followed the baton of Mr. Brewer promptly and cheerfully. It sang Max Vogrich's Love and Mirth, Max Bruch's Flight into Egypt, Edward Elgar's The Snow, a Neapolitan air describing in frivolous language the kermesse of Mastr' Andrea, Lysberg's Evening Bells, Arthur Foote's setting of Kit Marlowe's Come Live with Me and Be My Love, and a cantata by John Hyatt Brewer, with John Payne's Herald of Spring for a framework. This work of Mr. Brewer's is worthy of serious consideration and much praise. One of our local papers credited him with taking his inspiration from Dudley Buck. I know that he admires that writer, but I do not think that he copies him. He positively does not do so intentionally. There is certain youthful bounce in Mr. Brewer's work that is characteristic, and he has a considerable facility in melodic invention. The verse beginning Lo! the Hillocks are Mad with Bliss has an especially bright and springy melody, and if he keeps on writing things like that his music will be sung outside of Brooklyn. The vocal soloists were Miss Laura Moore, "the pocket Patti"; Miss Annie Dennison, contralto, and Mrs. B. W. Marinus, also contralto.
13Mr. Anton Hegner played some light and pretty pieces on his resonant and sweet toned 'cello. The accompanists were Miss Grace Povey at the piano and Mr. William Armour Thayer, organist. Mrs. Bernard Peters, wife of the editor of the Brooklyn Times, is the esteemed and tactful president of the Caecilians.
15Quite a long time ago Mr. Dudley Buck, of our town, wrote The Golden Legend. It is superfluous to repeat the remark about the standing of a prophet in his own country, although this is not a case that prophecy has anything to do with. The piece was good enough to sing in Cincinnati, where it took a prize of $1,000, but it has never been given in its entirety in this town. But we are to have it at last on the night after Christmas from the mouths of the Oratorio Club. There will be about 200 singers. Walter Henry Hall, an Englishman, is the one who has engaged to give Brooklyn the first hearing of a Brooklyn composition. We are still waiting to hear Mr. Buck's Light of Asia. They have had it in London and I think, in New York, but not here. Once they tried to give it in New Jersey, but the composer put his veto on it, because they had intended to give it there with a piano instead of an orchestra. He told me that he would not allow it to be given at all unless it was given right. At the coming performance there will be an orchestra of forty pieces and the soloists will be noted choir singers. Mr. Buck himself has consented to lead the performance of his own work, and Mr. Hall will direct the chorus in Mendelssohn's Loreley.
17They tell us that we cannot have Theodore Thomas in place of Mr. Seidt, no matter how much we may want him. His dates are all filled, but I am glad to learn that he will happen around here at least once on his own account before his season is over. It is a dangerous thing for a man to stay away from his reputation for several years, but I fancy that if Mr. Thomas were to return he would be received here with open arms and loose purse strings.
19I was not among the favored few at the "smoker" of the Musicians' Club the other night, not having been invited, but I hear that Mr. "Jack" Dempsey covered himself with glory by his performance of The Two Grenadiers. A good singer is "Jack," and he keeps on being better all the time, which is the best thing one can say of a man. He was one of the participants in a concert at 170 Remsen street a few nights ago, when Mr. Carl Venth, violinist, and Mr. Robert Thallon, pianist, also of Brooklyn, appeared in support of the giver of the concert, Miss Georgia Raymond, soprano. The other associate singers were Miss Katcheniswerth, contralto, and Mr. Charles Stuart Phillips, tenor.
21Mrs. Alexander S. Bacon, wife of the local reformer, appeared in concert recently for a benefit. She has a soprano voice of limpidity and sweetness, and its schooling has been good, but there is as yet a lack of warmth and spirit.
23There was an "olde folks' concert" at the Park Avenue Chapel last week. I wonder if there are others of them anywhere else in the world. And can you remember when they were thought to be as interesting and desirable as oratorio, especially in regions where operas, theatres, novels, dancing, beer, tobacco, and everything else that was pleasant and life giving were frowned upon as too religious?
25This week we are to have a Wednesday afternoon and evening ballad concert under the auspices of the Brooklyn Institute. The participants are to be Charlotte Walker, Gladys Hörlocker, William Williams, Grant Odell, Albert Mildenberg and Abram Ray Tyler. To-night the Brooklyn Sängerbund will be heard in new music at the Academy; to-morrow night the Apollo Club will occupy the same building, with Dudley Buck in the lead, and Camillo Urso and Lillian Blauvelt as soloists. The Kuster-Thies concert will also occur to-morrow night at Association Hall. Then next week we have the Boston Symphony Orchestra again, and pretty soon Paderewski and the opera. Oh, we're alive over here—some weeks!
27Mr. Anthony Stankowitch's Concerts.
29MR. ANTHONY STANKOWITCH was heard in three concerts last week in and about Boston—at Bradford Academy Wednesday afternoon, Abbott Academy, Andover, Thursday afternoon, and Union Hall, Boston, on Friday evening. At the first two concerts Miss Bertha Cushing sang.
31The program for Bradford and Abbott academies were arranged with a special view to what would prove interesting to the pupils of these institutions, and that the audiences are most enthusiastic goes without saying. The large hall at Bradford Academy was well filled, not only with pupils of the school, but there were present many of the society people of both Bradford and Haverhill who take an interest in affairs musical.
33Mr. Stankowitch was not feeling well, but his program was played delightfully and brilliantly, the audience listening with the most rapt attention, as if fearing to lose a single note of the music. Miss Bertha Cushing has an unusually fine contralto voice, which was heard with fine effect in the songs selected.
35There was a good audience of about 150, which was delighted with Mr. Stankowitch's playing, and many congratulations were heard from those who had been able to hear him, while many expressed personal thanks to him for so enjoyable a concert.
37Bradford Academy, where the concert took place, is an old-established school, having been founded in 1803. It is finely located on high ground and from the upper floors are magnificent views of the surrounding country. Miss Ida C. Allen is the president.
39The music departments of both this and Abbott Academy are in charge of Professor Samuel M. Downs, who arranges each year for one or two series of concerts, when the best obtainable talent is engaged. Professor Downs believes that it is a part of a musical education to hear good music, and through his pupils and friends interested in the school these concerts are supported. It was arranged last year that Mr. Stankowitch should play at one of the concerts, but through a series of mishaps he did not arrive in time.
41PROGRAM.
43Magic Fire…………………………………………Brassin
44(Closing scene of Wagner's opera, Die Walküre.)
45Carnaval, op. 9………………………………………Schumann
46Mr. Stankowitch.
47Chimney Song………………………………………Griswold
48Eclogue……………………………………………..Leo Delibes
49Si j'étais un jardinier………………………………O. Chaminade
50Miss Cushing.
51Serenade……………………………………………Henselt
52If I were a Bird…………………………………….Henselt
53Pastoral……………………………………………..Liszt
54Valse Impromptu…………………………………..Liszt
55Mr. Stankowitch.
56Ecstasy………………………………………………Mrs. Beech
57Spring……………………………………………….Miss Cushing.
58Elves at Play……………………………………….Heymann
59Song without words……………………………….Tschaikowsky
60Scherzo……………………………………………..Moszkowski
61Tarantelle…………………………………………..Moszkowski
62Mr. Stankowitch.
64Pirani.—Eugenio Pirani has written a "melolog" or melodrama on Heine's Ballad, Edith of the Swan's Neck. The musical accompaniment differs from the usual melodrama form, in not leaving the text to be spoken alone at times, and may be described as durchcomponirt, and forms a piece of music that has a right to exist for itself.
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