Scan 41
Musical Courier 1895-12-25: Vol 31 Iss 825, 1895
50 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026. Printed page 42. See the scan on archive.org.
1distinct and intelligent, and his tone firm and rarely sympathetic. He commands also a fluent, brilliant technic.
3But above all he possesses the power of entering into the spirit of the composer and developing the latent beauties of a composition by a poetic and intellectual insight. As an ensemble player Mr. Evans is recognized as having few rivals, and in the annual series of chamber concerts he has introduced many novelties to the Cincinnati public. Numerous professional musicians have under his tuition obtained valuable testimonials and certificates, and are filling responsible positions throughout the country with honor.
5Mr. Evans is conductor of the conservatory chorus, and in this department has also won for himself an enviable reputation.
7A selection from a letter written at Berlin under date of August 22, 1894, will give an idea of the high esteem in which Mr. Krüger was held by his teacher, Professor Genss:
9Mr. Krüger must be named as a musical talent of the first rank, and he always with the greatest diligence and conscientiousness has striven to develop his natural capacities and thereby has made of himself an eminent pianist, who has in his own concerts in Berlin and other cities attained brilliant success. With all the elements of a superbly matured technique, such as beautiful touch, pearly and sure velocity, &c., he unites a sound musical feeling. Also as a teacher I can say the best things of him, as I had occasion to learn where Mr. Krüger most successfully substituted for Prof. Karl Klindworth during a protracted illness of that master.—Prof. Herman Genss, Honorary Member of the Royal Academy in Bologna and Director of the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin.
11Prof. N. Böttcher, who has a celebrated conservatory of his own in Berlin, writes of Mr. Krüger:
13Mr. Krüger during the school year of 1890-91 was engaged as teacher of piano at my institution. As an artist he is thoroughly educated and talented as a teacher, which latter quality was manifested by the thorough manner in which he developed, both technically and musically, the talent of the pupils entrusted to him. His earnest ambition and his high sense of duty will insure him most admirable success as a teacher.—Director N. Böttcher, Berlin, August 10, 1894.
15The music director Prof Theodore Krause says in the Reichsbote, Berlin, December 6, 1892:
17Mr. Krüger has enjoyed instruction from Prof. Heinrich Barth. The musical virtues of his master, especially his artistic conscientiousness and faithfulness, even in the minutest details, have become inwrought into the nature of this young artist. He was especially successful in Listz's arrangement of the great A minor organ fugue of J. S. Bach, in which he realized wonderfully well that approximation to organ effect which Liszt's genius as an arranger has put into the wonderful bass notes. Also Beethoven's great C major sonata, op. 53, the young artist not only conquered the technical difficulties, but had so fully imbibed the rich thoughts in the composition that he was able to pour them out again mature and spontaneous.
19An authoress celebrated throughout Germany, Mme. Boy-Ed, says in the Eisenbahn Zeitung, October 25, 1892:
21Mr. Krüger is a gifted musician who cherishes a high ideal of artistic endeavor, whom technic serves as a means to an end, and who with soulfulness and intelligence buries himself in his task. The principal features of his playing are a soft and pleasant touch, a smooth, glittering technic, and a subtle and thoroughly intelligent use of the pedal, whereby both harmony and melody stand out tunefully, yet with admirable clearness. The passionate and gloomy Nachtstück, by Schumann, as well as the B flat minor nocturne of Chopin, in which is every emotion from sorrow to ecstasy, was excellently delivered by the young pianist.
23W. L. Blumenschein.
25MR. W. L. BLUMENSCHNEIN, the valued director of the chorus of the Cincinnati festivals, is a musician of equally high repute here and in Europe, and the following article, while indicating the artistic esteem in which Mr. Blumenschein is held in a leading musical centre of Germany, gives at the same time so condensed a sketch of his career that we feel we can do nothing better than reproduce it. The article was printed in an Ohio paper, and is but one of many which have been devoted to this excellent and active musician's abilities.
27The Chorgesang, of Leipsic, gives its first page to a handsome cut of W. L. Blumenschein and honors him with the following notice, which was translated from the German:
29It affords me unusual pleasure to be able to give you a sketch of a man who, when I first became acquainted with him in Springfield, Ohio, 1884, during the Sängerfest, as a most excellent festival director, had gained the highest regard and admiration of all those connected with the noble art of music, and who is at present filling one of the most enviable and responsible positions in the State of Ohio.
31In early youth he showed a remarkable interest and love for music, so that after a thorough preparation by the best teachers in Pittsburgh, where his parents lived, he went abroad and entered the Conservatory of Leipsic in 1865. There he enjoyed the instruction of Wenzel, Coccius, Oscar Paul, Reinecke, Richter and David, and with high honors left this famous school to return to America. Shortly after his arrival he was called to the musical directorship of the Philharmonic Society of Dayton, Ohio, where he has since lived and worked and untiringly still works, offering the public from year to year new examples of his creative power.
33Under his genial direction the Philharmonic Society has rendered the following works: Händel's Messiah, Haydn's Creation and Spring, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Athalia and Song of Praise (together with the preceding symphony), Spohr's Last Judgment, Gounod's Mors et Vita and Redemption, and Gaul's Holy City (with orchestra as well as organ accompaniment).
35Of the lesser chorus works were given: Fair Ellen, Mendelssohn's Forty-second Psalm, Gade's Spring Greeting and Crusader, Smart's Bride of Dunkerron; and with piano accompaniment Mozart's Requiem, Rossini's Stabat Mater, Händel's Te Deum, Zadock and Jubilate, Rheinberger's Toggenburg, Gade's Erl King and Christmas, Spohr's God Thou Art Great and Cecilius Hymn, Jensen's Adonisfest, and many other works for male voices and mixed chorus.
37And now I want to speak of the pedagogical side of his unceasing activity which has found expression in the happiest sort of results. It has been shown since our artist has become Dayton's leading pedagogical light in music that the direction of her musical taste has taken a strong turn toward betterment, and for this W. L. Blumenschein alone is to be thanked.
39With an energy disturbed by nothing, he has scattered good musical seed of such a kind that as teacher of voice and piano he has not only established for himself a name prominent far beyond the borders of the State of Ohio, but also under his influence Dayton has been carried ahead of much larger cities in the education of her students of music, as well as in rendering the great masterworks.
41A further evidence of his ability is his engagement as chorus director of the Cincinnati May festivals, a position which renowned musicians like Barus, Brand, Ehrgott, Foley, Mees and Singer filled before him; but none of these were able in so short a time to awaken such an interest in the study of musical works as our Blumenschein did. In seven months he accomplished as much as his predecessors had done in two seasons.
43As a composer W. L. Blumenschein has written only good music and of the kind that is always in demand, such as one voice songs, piano pieces, anthems, mixed and male choruses, published by the following firms: Ditson, Boston; Schmidt, Boston; Schirmer, New York; Rogers, Cleveland; Church, Cincinnati; Newhall, Cincinnati; Chicago Music Company; Brainard, Chicago, and Kunkel, St. Louis.
45Such statements as these warrant us in concluding that W. L. Blumenschein is a man who, on account of his increasing efforts, his untiring creative ability as well as his well-known musical capacity, is to be put in the list with those men at the mention of whose name one instinctively takes off his hat in admiration.
47This is my tribute to W. L. Blumenschein, a man who, in the true sense of the word, is a musical pioneer.
49The directorship of the Indianapolis, Ind., Lyra Society (male chorus and orchestra) was intrusted to him for a season; also the Springfield Orpheus mixed chorus, and, incidentally, two Ohio Sängerfests in Dayton and Springfield, respectively. Since the fall of 1891 the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus has been under his direction. When Mr. Blumenschein accepted this last-mentioned post the chorus
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