Scan 35
Musical Courier 1896-03-04: Vol 32 Iss 835, 1896
69 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Boston Symphony Concert.
3THE fourth concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra occurred last Thursday night at the Metropolitan Opera House. The program was announced as follows:
4Orchestral fantasia, Midnight at Sedan………Heinrich Zöllner (First time.)
5Aria, With Verdure Clad, from The Creation……Josef Haydn Concerto for violin, No. 22, in A minor..Giovanni Battista Viotti
6Moderato.
7Adagio.
8Cadenza by Mr. Kneisel.
9Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, op. 28………Richard Strauss Symphony No. 4, in E minor, op. 98………Johannes Brahms
10Allegro non troppo.
11Andante moderato.
12Allegro giocoso.
13Chaconne. Allegro energico e passionato.
15Mr. Kneisel was suffering from tonsilitis and was altogether a sick man, so he did not play the Viotti concerto. This was a grievous disappointment, for Lillian Blauvelt, the solo singer, was not at her best and sang in a rather constricted and careful fashion. Instead of the violin solo we got Mozart's lovely Voi Che Sapete, from Nozze di Figaro. Her work lacked color and that diminuendo on G in the Haydn was not flawless in intonation. Strangely enough, there was a false entrance in the accompaniment, which must have tried Mr. Paur's patience considerably. Such slips are unusual in the playing of this orchestra.
17It is only fair to say that Miss Blauvelt has been suffering from nervous prostration this season, and was not therefore in her usual artistic form.
19The symphony was Brahms' fourth, beloved of mathematicians and musicians for its strenuous idealism, grim logic and inevitable development. Crabbed it is at times, but then we cannot always feed on flame and sounding lasciviousness. There is much nonsense written about Brahms' lack of color and sensuousness. The truth is that this composer hates Orientalism in music, whether in content or color. His sense is never at fault for the proper garb for his musical ideas. To dress up in gorgeous livery the andante of this symphony, with its major-minor mode (the Phrygian), would be obviously ridiculous. The rage for sensational music, for music that attacks the nerves and gives one no mental food, should not blind us to the fact that the elevation of thought, sobriety of ideal and the lofty plane maintained by this composer are reassuring facts for the lover of pure and undefiled symphonic music.
21Brahms is the composer for musicians, he has the courage of his simplicity, and he is feared by mere amateurs and dabbling dilettanti. Two terrible angels with forbidding swords guard the gateway of his land. They are named Form and Logic, and they rule in the country where sour underwood sometimes obscures the vision, but the stately oaks are ever there, and then beyond are the mountains, implacable, remote, but kissing the zenith.
23The first allegro, built on two notes on a descending inflection, is strong, smelling of Beethoven and powerful in development. It reminds one in its obstinate grappling with the theme of a savage, psychological bulldog shaking a slim victim to the death. The second movement is lyrical, despite its austerity of mood and mode. The daring chaconne shows the master hand in the variations. The work was last played here by the Philharmonic Society.
25The concert opened with Mr. Zöllner's orchestral fantasia, Midnight at Sedan. It was given before in this city under the composer's direction. It is a large, diffuse canvas, full of fleeting shapes. It is not original in idea or treatment, Tchaikowsky being suggested in manner. The composer has musicianship and some taste, but an individual style he has not yet compassed. The instrumentation is modern and too often noisy. Altogether, while the work is an ambitious one, it did not make a strong impression.
27The novelty was genuinely novel, to employ a Celticism. Richard Strauss, who is the German Berlioz and who is as fantastic as Saint-Saëns in his search for new themes; he is really a decadent, as Mr. Henderson christened him some years ago. His feeling for orchestral color is almost abnormal, and abnormal is his voicing of the instruments. The prankish actions of that Middle Age merry mountebank known to literature as "Till Eulenspiegel," or 'Til Owl-Glass," is the subject of his latest rhapsody. The form of the work is called rondo, but the form is extremely tenuous, the spirit entirely scherzoso. It is hell itself let loose in an orchestral frolic. There is much burly humor, and the tricky, bizarre orchestration, the heavy fooling—you hear the screaming din of a medieval drunken carouse, and the warning rattle of the night watch—the audacity in treatment are all truly the composer's. He is a man of talent, and he says nothing in this composition in an unparalleled manner. This crazy caprice is capital fun for a musician, and is stuffed with curious orchestral effects. It is Puck in Boots—Teutonic boots—and was wonderfully well interpreted by the orchestra.
29Mr. Paur conducted, and the attendance was discouragingly small.
31Hamburg.—Mozart's Cosi fan tutte was revived February 3 at the City Theatre, Hamburg, in commemoration of its first production on that stage a century ago.
33Lillian Blauvelt is taking a well deserved rest during the month of March. The report that she is suffering from nervous prostration is an error. She is spending her vacation South, and came East specially for her engagements with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, after which she will return South and remain until April 1.
35Klafsky, the brilliant dramatic prima donna of the Damrosch German Opera Company, made her first New York appearance on last Monday night in the opening performance of Fidelio at the Academy of Music. This is one of the soprano's greatest operas. Her supremacy in the leading rôle of Beethoven's great work has aroused anticipation as much as intense, interested excitement. Her Ortrude, conceded to be one of the most magnificent on the living stage, will be presented to-night (Wednesday). The world of music awaits it with anxiety. Upon the close of her operatic engagement Klafsky will remain here for a number of festivals already arranged for at Cincinnati, Indianapolis and elsewhere.
37George J. Hamlin, the delightful Chicago tenor who has now made himself a favorite all over the country, has been engaged as one of the leading tenors of the Cincinnati Festival. He will alternate with Ben Davies in the solo and concerted work and is voted in advance an emphatic artistic success. Following press notices have recently been received:
38Last night's concert will be remembered for one thing—the excellent work of Mr. George Hamlin, of Chicago. He has a lyric tenor voice of good quality and timbre. His selections last night would have taxed almost any voice to the utmost, and to say that having them he is scarcely giving him his just need of praise. The Hamlin was composed of one of the classics and rendered in a manner which could scarcely be improved upon, and the concert was a grand success.—Kansas City Times, February 12, 1890.
40Mr. George Hamlin, of Chicago, the Chief Feature of the Evening.
42The program which was arranged for Mr. Hamlin was a neat departure from the more conventional concert, and gave the singer opportunity to display a remarkable voice, ranging in power and synthetic execution far above what is ordinarily heard and affording his audience a rare musical treat. Mr. Hamlin sings without apparent effort, approaching difficult passages with remarkable ease and retaining his expression throughout. His selections were all repeatedly encored.—Kansas City Journal, February 12, 1890. one of two readings
43The program which was arranged for Mr. Hamlin was a neat departure from the more conventional concert, and gave the singer an opportunity to display a remarkable voice, ranging in power and synthetic execution far above what is ordinarily heard and affording his audience a rare musical treat. Mr. Hamlin sings without apparent effort, approaching difficult passages with remarkable ease and retaining his expression throughout. His selections were all repeatedly encored.—Kansas City Journal, February 12, 1890. one of two readings
45Clementine de Vere-Sapio has had a flattering offer to head a concert company for a transcontinental tour in 1896-97. She has not decided to accept, so many other offers of varying character and attractive value are being made her. The lengthy tour would no doubt prove a most satisfactory and successful one for the fair prima donna, whose voice and general artistic powers are in their freshest, most brilliant condition.
47Mangione de Pasquale, the popular young Italian tenor, has been offered an excellent engagement for the New Orleans French Opera, but has declined on account of his contract with a prominent concert organization. He is at present in Atlanta, Ga., filling with immense success several prominent concert engagements. Voice and delivery with this gifted young singer steadily improve, and with his strong, dramatic talent a successful operatic career is obviously before him.
49Bloomfield Zeisler, whose active and brilliant success has everywhere been chronicled, will play at two piano and violin recitals in Chicago with Ondricek on March 5 and 7. Among other engagements Mme. Bloomfield Zeisler has just booked for the Springfield Musical Festival, where she will play the Schumann A minor concerto.
51Mme. Emma Juch has just been engaged for the next concert of the New York Oratorio Society, when Haydn's Seasons will be produced. She has also been engaged by a Bridgeport society, of which Mr. Frank Damrosch is the director, to sing in The Messiah. She sang in the opening concert of the Pittsburgh Orchestral Association on Thursday and Friday of last week, and has been engaged for the Thomas concerts in New York at the Metropolitan Opera House on March 21 and in Brooklyn on March 26.
53Ondricek's continued triumphs in Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Minneapolis have been unprecedented. After his Chicago recitals, March 5 and 7, the great Bohemian virtuoso will go direct to San Francisco, where he will open his season March 12th. Expectation regarding the marvelous attainments of the violinist is rife on the Pacific Coast, and a big welcome awaits him.
55Mrs. Vanderveer-Green is having continued success with the Emma Albani Concert Company. The following press notices are taken from Albany and Canadian papers:
56The contralto, Marie Vanderveer-Green, has a charming personality and her Scotch ballads met with much favor. Her Sands o' Dee, especially, was beautiful. Loch Lomond was enthusiastically received. She has good Scotch accent, and her voice is under perfect control, deep and sweet. Her stage presence is delightful. She has a future of great promise.—Albany Journal, February 6.
57Of those who composed Mme. Albani's company Marie Vanderveer-Green is a thorough artist, one of the best ballad singers that has been heard in Albany for many a year. Her singing of Fred Clay's wonderfully descriptive song, The Sands o' Dee, was something to be remembered; also the exquisite Scotch song Loch Lomond.—Albany Times, February 5.
58Mrs. Vanderveer-Green possesses a remarkably beautiful contralto voice, and last night it was perfection itself. She sung her ballads with a rare sweetness and expression.—Quebec Morning Chronicle.
59Marie Vanderveer-Green is certainly a superb contralto. In voice, method and manner she is simply perfect. Her French songs were much appreciated, and in her Scotch song, The Sands of Loch Lomond, she made a huge hit, and was recalled with such persistence that she gave a lullaby song.—Kingston, Ont., News.
60The first and only song recital to be given in New York by Mr. and Mrs. Georg Henschel will take place in Chickering Hall on the afternoon of March 30.
62E. C. Towne, the favorite tenor, has booked a number of engagements, among which are several leading spring festivals. His voice is admittedly one of the purest tenors in the country and his oratorio and lyric répertoire most extensive. He is always reliable and ready to sing at briefest notice any work which he may claim to have studied.
64J. Armour Galloway, the solo basso of St. Bartholomew's Church, is at present out West singing with continued success in a number of concerts. This musicianly young artist, who came a comparative stranger to the East and obtained his prominent church position easily, without favor, jumped quickly into artistic popularity and prominence in New York. His exceeding intelligence and wide musical knowledge, supplementing a vocal instrument of unusually even beauty and power, make him a most desirable artist, a fact which is each day further discovered to his advantage.
66Materna retains her supreme, original power to mold and move audiences at will. Her success with the Thomas concerts in Chicago can hardly be described by a lesser word than sensational. Upon her delivery of certain Wagnerian excerpts, with which her name will ever be predominately associated, the audiences became fairly frantic with enthusiasm. Materna sang to them with all her early force, freshness and command, and in return received ovations which have hardly at any period of her career been surpassed.
68Wm. H. Rieger has just returned from a very successful Western concert tour throughout which he filled most important engagements, both at concerts and in recitals, in the leading cities of the West. He is heavily booked for festival work during the spring season.
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