Scan 31
Musical Courier 1895-12-11: Vol 31 Iss 823, 1895
30 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 32. 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.
1NEWARK.
2NEWARK, N. J., December 8, 1895.
3TWO important events marked the concert record of this city during the past week, namely, the first appearance of Mr. Julius Lorenz as conductor of the Arion Society in Newark since his arrival in this country on September 21 and the début at Wissner Hall of Countess Gilda Ruta, court pianist and composer to her Majesty the Queen of Italy.
4Mr. Lorenz, who succeeds Mr. Van der Stucken, batoned an orchestra of forty-five New York musicians and in true German style sang with as well as conducted the Arion Singing Society. The fine impression made by Mr. Lorenz in the Krueger Auditorium upon this auspicious event was one calculated to increase with a hearing of each performance with this finished musician as conductor, whose methods are so original, sympathetic and yet forceful indeed; the influence and personal magnetism with which he imbues his performance are positively unusual in a man in his capacity.
5The aggressive characteristic of Lorenz's work is his scrupulous appreciation of tone color and perfect phrasing and a most effective manner of gathering his forces for a climax or crescendo, and thus sending his diminuendos to the very ends of his musicianly fingers.
6Lorenz is withal simple and true in his bearing, avoiding unnecessary physical exertion. His beat, though decisive, is a peculiar one and most expressive of his desires, so readily responded to by his musicians, and he avoids the overdone antics of the average German conductor.
7Free from egotism, full of the refinement of German sentiment, keenly alive to the exigency of his responsible position, and master of a wonderful native ability developed in the right channel, combined with an indefatigable spirit of progress, I give him less than five years to become a powerful musical influence in this country.
8To return to the performance of Gilda Ruta in Wissner Hall, where she played to an audience that taxed its capacity. She opened the program with her own numbers, Notturno, Danza Mística and Allegro Appassionata. Later she played three Van Westerhout numbers and a nocturne and polonaise by Chopin.
9At Wissner Hall the countess played brilliantly, demonstrating herself to be mistress of technical skill and poetic expression. Immediately after this concert she was driven to the Krueger Auditorium, where, under the baton of Lorenz, she played the adagio from her own concerto in C minor, also her own bolero, accompanied by the full orchestra. Here Ruta was in her happiest mood; she was accorded an enthusiastic reception and recalled many times.
10Mme. Ruta fully demonstrated her ability as a pianist of extraordinary resources. Her playing was distinguished by expression, a finished style and poetic beauty. Her touch, though womanly, impresses one as having much reserved power, yet marked at times by a bewitching coquetry and daintiness of execution. She was assisted vocally at Wissner Hall by Miss Sophia Friedman, soprano; Signor Pisacane, baritone, and Mr. F. A. Mollenhauer, violinist.
11Miss Friedman was most successful in her interpretation of the LieTe, Signor, from the Huguenots; Adams' Holy City, and some German Lieder. Her voice is a broad, full soprano, and her education has been one fitting her for grand opera. Miss Friedman introduced the novelty of standing at the piano and accompanying herself.
12The soloists at Krueger Auditorium were Gertrude May Stein, contralto; Miss Flavie Van den Hende, violoncellist, and Maurice Kauffman, violin. At both concerts a Wissner grand piano was used.
13Last week's letter failed to record a concert of much interest in Newark, being a day late for publication, that of the Peddie Church Choir, under the direction of Mr. James Sauvage. It was a matter of comment that the ensemble work done by this choir was the very best ever given in that church. The tone quality was good and the attacks and execution were remarkably well done. The soloists were Mr. Gwilym Miles, baritone, and Miss Helen Burnham, of New York, contralto, both pupils of Mr. Sauvage. Mr. Miles is engaged as soloist for the coming production of Mendelssohn's St. Paul in Newark, December 12. Mr. Sauvage also had the assistance of Mr. Warren at the organ and Lonzo Sauvage at the piano. The concert was one of the most successful given this season in Newark.
14MABEL LINDLEY THOMPSON.
16BUFFALO.
17BUFFALO, N. Y., December 7, 1895.
18OUR Symphony Orchestra concerts opened in a blaze of glory, with Tschaikowsky's Symphony Pathétique, and Mme. Clementine De Vere-Sapio soloist. Mr. John Lund is of course conductor, and has now a fully equipped orchestra under his baton; some half a dozen new men have been added, among them Mr. Otto Malms, formerly of G. W. Hunt's defunct Erie (Pa.) Conservatory of Music.
19The symphony was listened to with devoted attention and, I also believe, real appreciation. Mme. Sapio, the interesting program and lovely weather combined to fill the house, both at the public rehearsal and in the evening. The soloist sang in superb style Massenet's Esclarmonde aria, and later songs by Von Weber and her husband, as well as a characteristic serenade by Wolff, of Berlin, the latter group accompanied by Mr. Riesberg.
20The second concert had this program: Overture, Fingal's Cave, Mendelssohn; concerto in E flat, Beethoven, Miss Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler; dream music from Hänsel and Gretel, Humperdinck; La Rouet d'Omphale (Saint-Saëns), Scène Amoureuse (Lund), scherzo (Litolff), Mrs. Bloomfield Zeisler; overture, Flying Dutchman, Wagner.
21The usual symphony was omitted on account of the Beethoven concerto, which Mme. Bloomfield Zeisler is to play in New York very soon I believe. This concerto was to me the gem of the concert, and after these many years one hears it again with the purest musical delight. This could hardly be otherwise, for the performance of both soloist and orchestra placed it on an exalted height. Mme. Zeisler can storm the heavens, as of old, when she chooses, but she has also gained an artistic repose—a beautifully classic imperturbability, which found its expression in this old Emperor concerto.
22At the matinée she played two new Moszkowski pieces (op. 64, dedicated to her) as encores, and in the evening, notwithstanding extreme physical weariness, the Chopin G flat valse and Liszt Erlking, all with a beautiful touch and elegant, I may say aristocratic, conception.
23Then she hastened away on a midnight train to Chicago, full-o' noise, to her lonely husband and big boy. Her triumph here was complete, unexampled since Paderewski two years ago. The newspaper critics have nothing but adulation for the slight woman with the wonderful fingers—and yet more wonderful musical head. In 1883, in Leipzig, Leschetizky said to me: "Keep your eye on Fannie Bloomfield, a young Chicago girl, one of my best pupils; you will hear of her."
24So we have, and here we have the mature, conscientious, God-gifted artist!
25The Humperdinck dream music was interesting, but Lund's richly orchestrated and impassioned "love scene" hit the mark, and was wildly applauded and encored. This is a movement of singular, intense and dramatic moments, and seizes hold of the listener with a mighty force. I predict its performance in New York ere many moons.
26Miss Carlotta Desvignes is to be the (vocal) soloist at the next concert.
27The Orpheus concert, the first of this season, also directed by Mr. Lund, was full of interest from first to last, with Mrs. Corinne Moore-Lawson soprano soloist; a full orchestra (not strings alone), and some seventy men in the chorus. Again, it was one of Lund's creations which was to make the hit of the evening, his Ausfahrt, or Wanderer's Song, for chorus and full orchestra, being the opus in question. I cannot imagine anything nobler, more dignified or impressive than the refrain with which each verse ends—
28Ich fahr' in die Welt.
29A whirlwind of applause greeted the last note, and continued until the number was repeated. Such music appeals to the heart, and particularly is this the case in the second strophe, in which the orchestra has much that is important; throughout there is a full, thick plum pudding kind of harmony, which is a characteristic of Lund's works. Sturm's Letzte Skalde and
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