Scan 4
Musical Courier 1895-12-11: Vol 31 Iss 823, 1895
60 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 5. See the scan on archive.org.
1GERMAN HEADQUARTERS OF THE MUSICAL COURIER.
2BERLIN, W., LINKSTRASSE 17, November 19, 1896.
4NEITHER concert attending nor concert reviewing is always a pleasant task, and thus I have to-day, in starting in upon my weekly self-imposed task, to begin with a concert which cannot have been profitable to either the concert giver or the small audience which attended it a week ago to-day in Bechstein Hall. I refer to the concert of a pianist and composer called Carl Prohaska, who hails from Vienna. He began his program with the Beethoven Eroica variations, which he performed in the most perfunctory and uninteresting style possible. Well, thought I, perhaps he is one of those composer-pianists who can better produce music of their own than reproduce music of others. But, alas and alack! when I listened to his sonata for violin and piano in D major, which was the second number of the program, I found it just as dry and langweilig as his piano playing, and such a man comes all the way from Vienna, hires a hall, pays a manager, advertising and I don't know what, all in order to show a Berlin non-paying and, of course, not numerous audience that he is neither a pianist nor a composer! What for? Echo answers, What for? Theodor Krelle, a local musician, did the best he could with the violin part of the sonata, and that is not saying very much either. I, however, left the rest of the program to take care of itself and fled to the sacred precincts of the holy Singakademie, where Miss Frida Scotta was holding forth.
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8This young lady is a Scandinavian who bears the name of Schytte. Why she should have changed her name, seeing that she is as yet unmarried, is a secret I think; but I suppose it is none of my business. The fact is she is still young and very handsome, almost beautiful, of the dark haired denomination. She was likewise exquisitely dressed, if I remember right in some soft pink gown, with low neck, and—I came near forgetting to tell you—she also plays the fiddle. Last year she even played it better than this year, she coming then fresh from the hands of her teacher, but now she creates the impression that she left her teacher just a trifle too early. Her conception sounds slightly unripe, her technic is not as sure as it might be, her intonation not as pure as the proverbial freshly fallen snow, and yet the girl has talent, and not a little of it either. If she would stop concertizing now and return to serious study she might yet become a great artist; if not, she will probably go the way of Teresa Tua and not a few others—pretty, talented, but, spoiled by too early appearances and too much premature applause—have wandered. I don't know what Arthur Abell will tell you about this self-same young lady, and may be he won't agree with me at all. Nevertheless, the above is my opinion and conviction, and I shall let it go at that. I heard from the young lady the Saint-Saëns Rondo Capriccioso, which Sarasate plays in so finished style; a romanza in G by Holter, which was new to me and which I liked; Wieniawski's D major polonaise; the air on the G string by Bach; Faure's pretty berceuse, which is much en vogue, and Hubay's czardas, Heire Kati, as well as an encore. The audience was generous in disposition as well as fashionable in appearance.
10One of the concert giver's compatriots, Mr. Vigo Bielefeldt, "assisted" on this occasion. He is a high baritone who is said to be popular in his native land, but I am sure I don't know why. His voice is rather disagreeable in timbre and not sonorous, and he sings altogether like a hungry schoolmaster. He gave two groups of Lieder by his countrymen C. F. E. Hornemann and P. Heise, of which I heard only the latter, and found little to admire in them. The only party whom I saw applauding heartily was Mr. Bulsz, of the Royal Opera, who is always generous toward brother artists, even if they happen to be baritones like himself.
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14Wednesday evening I attended the first of two double piano recitals by those clever young English pianists Ross and Moore, pupils of Oscar Ralf. Of their new system of the division of labor put into operation at the piano I wrote to you in a former budget. It is new, of course, only in so far as it refers to works for the piano originally written for one performer, but now these two young fellows, who really play like a well matched team, seem to devote their joint efforts more upon works which are really composed for two pianos. This of course is, as the Berlin critics say, quite legitimate; but then there is nothing new in it. The young Englishmen gave us last Wednesday the ever beautiful Mozart sonata for two pianos, which they played with finish and in most musically manner. Then the well-known andante and variations by Schumann, which lacked somewhat in poetry as well as vim, and they performed still more dryly a scherzo in canon form for two pianos by Labor. This old Cologne teacher (I don't know whether he is still among the living, for he was old when I was young) has written something very laborious, and as a piece of ingenuity of musical workmanship it is interesting to read and study, but to hear it played is rather tedious. one of two readings
15Wednesday evening I attended the first of two double piano recitals by those clever young English pianists Ross and Moore, pupils of Oscar Raif. Of their new system of the division of labor put into operation at the piano I wrote to you in a former budget. It is new, of course, only in so far as it refers to works for the piano originally written for one performer, but now these two young fellows, who really play like a well matched team, seem to devote their joint efforts more upon works which are really composed for two pianos. This of course is, as the Berlin critics say, quite legitimate; but then there is nothing new in it. The young Englishmen gave us last Wednesday the ever beautiful Mozart sonata for two pianos, which they played with finish and in most musically manner. Then the well-known andante and variations by Schumann, which lacked somewhat in poetry as well as vim, and they performed still more dryly a scherzo in canon form for two pianos by Labor. This old Cologne teacher (I don't know whether he is still among the living, for he was old when I was young) has written something very laborious, and as a piece of ingenuity of musical workmanship it is interesting to read and study, but to hear it played is rather tedious. one of two readings
17The rest of the program consisted of works for one performer, the Chopin preludes in E flat and G, studies op. 10, Nos. 10 and 11, and op. 25, No. 3, as well as the F minor ballad; the Moszkowski barcarolle, an intermezzo by Schytte, and the Rubinstein C major octave study. All of these they play jointly, the one performer playing the treble with the aid of both his hands and the other the bass, of course without changing a note. I could not stay to hear them to the end, as I wanted to listen to at least a portion of Mrs. Gmür-Harloff's vocal recital.
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21When I reached the Singakademie I found the hall filled to the very last place, somewhat to my surprise. This is something quite unusual at vocal or other recitals given by artists who are not either world renowned or great local favorites. Both these qualities Mrs. Amelie Gmür-Harloff cannot as yet claim for herself, but she may get there some day. The reason for the great multitude's presence—was that the Empress of Germany attended the concert. As the fact that she would do so was noised about beforehand, it was H. I. H. who drew the crowd, not the artist. Anyhow the latter had the benefit of it, and so Her Majesty had done somebody a good turn. When I arrived upon the scene Her Majesty had already left the Singakademie, and she had left something else also, and that was the program, which she left topsy-turvy. Her Majesty had selected for her own and quite personal delectation some songs by Kjerulf and Grieg, which originally stood at the end of the program, and so they had to be sung out of their place. Probably Her Majesty, when she ordered the Scandinavian songs to be sung for her first, was unaware of the fact that Christian Sinding is also a Scandinavian. Be that as it may, through the reversal of the program I was enabled to hear some very interesting new Lieder (set to old words by Gottfried Keller) of the best of the modern Norwegians. Sinding. I liked the songs very well, and I recommend them to all lovers of interesting vocal novelties. What I wondered at most was their comparative simplicity of structure and accompaniment. Still there is lots of color, descriptiveness and life in them. The titles are Du Milchjunger Knabe; Roesschen biss den Apfel au (which is delightfully tragi-comic) and Wieglnäht der helle Mond.
23The Berlin critic-composers E. E. Taubert and Otto Lessmann were also represented with one song each on the variegated program. Mrs. Gmür-Harloff possesses a well trained mezzo voice, the culture of which allows her to sing even the difficult Benedict Carnival of Venice variations, which demand an agility which is rare in such heavy voices. Besides the lady sings with musical taste, expression and satisfactory delivery, as well as clear pronunciation of the text. Her husband is also a singer, and is engaged at the Weimar Court Opera.
25Miss Auguste Goetz-Lehmann, about whom I wrote last week, played some piano soli quite innocuously, and Otto Hake was in his best form as accompanist.
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29The Berlin Male Teachers' Vocal Society, under the direction of Prof. Felix Schmidt, is one of the best male choruses of the capital. The society gave its first concert of the season on Thursday night at the Philharmonie, when that spacious hall was filled to its utmost capacity.
31Hellemsberger's celebrated pun that it was voller Lehrer might have been safely employed on this occasion, but the remainder of the clever bon mot would have been out of place, for the hall could never have been voller, only leerer. Translation is impossible.
33The program was especially interesting, as it contained both novelties and some rarely heard works, and in its general make-up would have done credit to a Van der Stucken. Proceedings opened with a stirring hymn, To My Country, for male chorus and orchestra, by Hugo Wolf, the most promising of the young Austrian school of composers. This Fatherland's song, however, seems to be one of his earliest works, for the originality evinced in later compositions is wanting, and the entire opusculum is strongly influenced by the Meistersinger. Another novelty, to me at least, was Albert Becker's German Song of Victory, also with orchestra, which seems to be a pièce d'occasion; anyhow, this patriotic effusion of the Berlin composer of Masses for the masses sounds like made to order by hand or machinery.
35The second part of the program contained four a capella choruses, of which Vierling's Night in August was the most stimmungsvoll, 'Hegar's Rudolf von Werdenberg the most difficult and descriptive, and Kjerulf's Bridal Trip in Hardanger the most popular. It was redemanded.
37The most interesting portion of the program to me was the third and last, which consisted of Brahms' op. 50, his Rinalda cantata by Goethe, set for tenor solo, male chorus and orchestra. I have never heard this plastic and really important work of Brahms in the United States, and only once before in Germany. It made less of an impression then upon me than it did last Thursday in the fine performance under Professor Schmidt. Court Opera Singer Cronberger, from Braunschweig, sang the tenor part in a virile manner and with pleasing voice. The Philharmonic orchestra did its share conscientiously, and the large audience was interested and enthusiastic from the beginning to the end of the concert.
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41On account of the length of the afore-cited program, I could attend only the last section of the vocal recital which Mrs. Selma Nicklass-Kempner gave in Bechstein Hall on the same evening. I have, however, heretofore had several times occasion to refer to that lady's extraordinary Gestaltungs-vermögen and other gifts which make her singing of German Lieder an artistic enjoyment of a high order. I was fortunate enough in just dropping in upon the novelties, of which a song, Klein Kirsten, by the blind Landgraf Alexander Frederic of Hesse, was redemanded. Even if the program had not spoken of the Norwegian text of this song, the color of the composition and the characteristic fifths would have convinced me that Northern Stimmung was intended. Grieg's Primula veris; a very pretty song, Abendbesuch, by that talented young composer Hans Hermann; Kellermann's Zwiegespräch, and Ruckauf's. Lockruf formed the rest of the interesting group, which was supplemented by several encores.
43Mrs. Nicklass-Kempner is vocal teacher at the Stern Conservatory of Music, the director of which old renowned institute, Prof. Gustav Hollaender, participated in the evening's proceedings with a violin performance, which, however, I did not hear and about which Mr. Abell will have something to say.
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47Among the most fashionable and best attended concerts of the German metropolis are the subscription chamber music concerts of the violin virtuoso Florian Zajic and the most popular 'cellist, story teller and society pet, Heinrich Grünfeld. The latter gentleman you know from his tournee through the United States, and I can only say that he improves with age and upon closer acquaintance. His playing, too, is constantly improving, and I hope to see the day when he will be as good a 'cello player as he is a story teller, and then I shall see to it that he is re-imported into the United States, and I'll guarantee for his success.
49Zajic is an artist on the violin, and he is never disappointing in any of his performances. The two concert givers had a large gathering of society people at the Singakademie for their first concert of the season on Friday night. They formed themselves into a triumvirate with the assistance of that excellent pianist, Max Pauer, of Cologne, and they were jointly heard in a new piano trio in D minor, op. 32, by A. Arensky. It is a work deserving of recognition, and especially in the two middle movements, a very pretty scherzo in D major and a tender elegy in G minor, full of sentiment and poetry. The last movement is very clever, but likewise very difficult. The performers are to be praised for the choice of this novelty and likewise for the careful and well rounded reproduction.
51Of individual solo performances Mr. Zajic gave a finished one of Raff's Liebesfee, in which Mr. Pauer played the piano accompaniment, and Heinrich Grünfeld was heard in three smaller 'cello pieces, among which there was a tempting little valse movement composed by his brother Alfred, the Viennese pianist.
53Mr. Pauer gave us nothing new, his solo numbers consisting of the well-worn Chopin nocturne in D flat and the Weber Aufforderung zum Tanz in Tausig's disarrangement. The Cologne pianist's smooth and brilliant pianism, however, carried away the audience, and he was applauded, chosing for his encore Mendelssohn's E minor capriccio.
55Miss Caecilia Kloppenburg was down on the program for a group of five Lieder, which this time she sang attired in a pale light blue concert dress, with white trimming, while week before last she was dressed in white with pink. Both times her singing perfectly matched her dress.
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59On Saturday night the second chamber music service of the Hollander Quartet took place in Bechstein Hall. About the first one Mr. Abell wrote a lengthy report, and I can therefore spare myself the trouble of going into details about the playing of these four gentlemen. I anticipated, however, a great treat through the announcement that our genial operatic conductor, Hofkapellmeister Dr. Karl Muck, would take the piano part in a trio, op. 24, in G minor, by Eduard Nápravník, and that a new string quartet in the same key, by Hans Koessler, would be performed. In both cases I was doomed to bitter disappoint-
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