Scan 5
Musical Courier 1896-03-04: Vol 32 Iss 835, 1896
94 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 6. See the scan on archive.org.
1features, and the best was certainly done for it by the execution.
3M. Safonoff, something the style of man of Mr. Theodore Thomas, with the addition of a small pointed beard and greater suppleness of wrist, had the quality of getting and keeping himself en rapport with the audience, and of seeming to let the orchestra play itself while holding them with the grip of a general. His direction was poetic without affectation, extremely warm and near us, and he seemed to address himself chiefly to the first violin, with whom he shook hands during the applause. Something seldom seen here, many of the orchestra rose to join in the salutations, a sign, they say, that something unusual has been discovered.
5Other numbers on the program were the immortal C minor, from which I think our Star Spangled Banner must have come, the Richepin-Georges chansons, the Siegfried murmurs and the Berlioz arrangement of the Invitation to the Waltz.
7One of the best features of the whole thing was the exquisite behavior of the audience, who seemed to have learned the secret of true politeness—respect for the wishes of others.
9M. Lhévinne is to give a special concert here next week. He has nothing to do now but keep up the standard in order to reap a golden harvest, in the best sense." He was to have assisted at Madame Roger-Miclos' musicale yesterday, but was prevented, his place being filled by the aimable and gifted hostess, who played a Le Borne concerto, a Chopin scherzo and several accompaniments in her exceptional manner.
11Madame Roger-Miclos' entertainments are rare treats, poetic recitation being added to the musical features. All the work rendered is always by the best artists. The beauty and unique dressing of the pianist give the cue to the elite " assistance " which is always present. Madame Miclos leaves Paris soon for another extended tour. A trip to America is being whispered for next year. one of two readings
12Madame Roger-Miclos' entertainments are rare treats, poetic recitation being added to the musical features. All the work rendered is always by the best artists. The beauty and unique dressing of the pianist give the cue to the elite " assistance" which is always present. Madame Miclos leaves Paris soon for another extended tour. A trip to America is being whispered for next year. one of two readings
14M. Julien Tiersot, well known for his musical research, has started on a tour through North France, Holland and Belgium, giving illustrated lectures on the old, popular French songs.
16A talented pupil of Mme. Gabriel Krauss has made an excellent début in Lakmé at the Opéra Comique.
18The leading social musical event of this week is the English Embassy concert, gotten up and largely enriched by the talents of the charming Franco-American-Anglo leader, Mrs. Austin Lee. The program was an interesting one. M. Widor was prevented from assisting in it by the death of M. Thomas.
20Mr. Cyril Dwight Edwards sang in the afternoon concert given and created a most favorable impression.
22The wife of Dr. Nansen is a singer—not that that had anything to do with sending him to the North Pole necessarily.
24FANNIE EDGAR THOMAS.
26Percy Free Organ Recital.—Mr. Richard T. Percy will give the third of his series of free organ recitals in the Marble Collegiate Church, Fifth avenue and Twenty-ninth street, to-morrow (Thursday) afternoon, at 4 o'clock. The assisting soloists will be Wm. H. Rieger and Miss Josephine Jennings.
28Carlotta Desvignes Will Sing.—Miss Carlotta Desvignes, the contralto, is fast booking important engagements. She will sing at the Elmira festival among others. On Monday, February 24, Miss Desvignes sang at the Bagby musicale at the Waldorf and achieved immense success in a group of delightfully sung songs by De Koven.
30Second Szumowska Recital.—The second chamber music recital by Mlle. Antoinette Szumowska, piano, and Messrs. T. and J. Adamowski, violin and 'cello, will take place at Mendelssohn Glee Club Hall on Monday afternoon, March 9. The program will include Beethoven's A major sonata for piano and 'cello, Schumann's trio and D major, and a solo by Mlle. Szumowska.
32An Enormous Success!
33Preghiera (Prayer). Preghiera (Prayer). Preghiera (Prayer).
34New Sacred Song by Pietro Mascagni.
35Published in three keys with, Violin, Organ and Harp obligato ad lib. HINTS ON SINGING by MANUAL GARCIA. The most practicable, useful and reliable singing tutor yet written.
36LONDON: E. ASCHERBERG & CO. NEW YORK: E. SCHUBERTH & CO.
38BLUMENBERG,
39The Famous Violoncellist.
40ADDRESS:
41International Bureau of Music,
42112 East 18th St., . . NEW YORK.
44Music in Frankfurt.
45FRANKFURT-A.-M., February 13, 1896.
47JENO HUBAY, the composer and violin virtuoso, was soloist at the Symphonie Friday night. His playing of the Saint-Saëns Concertstück, op. 20; adagio from sixth concerto, Spohr, and an original composition, In the Spinning Room, won for him the heartiest approval of the critics, as well as of the public.
49Last night Alexander Petschnikoff, the young Russian violinist, with whom THE MUSICAL COURIER readers are well acquainted, played at the Opera Concert under Herr Dr. Rottenberg. His numbers were the Tschaikowsky violin concerto, op. 35, and a couple of Bach chaconnes. Here are two violinists worthy of study. Both possess the greatest technical facility; possibly the young Russian has the larger stock, with greater variety, but that is hard to say.
51Both are rare artists, Hubay more of an artist by cultivation, Petschnikoff a born virtuoso, cast in a larger mold of genius than the other. Neither produces tones remarkable for volume. Hubay's work is the more temperate and reposeful; his playing is grace and elegance itself, always subdued in color and well within the lines of accepted classical interpretations. He is never sensational and his reading of the Saint-Saëns Concertstück lacked the element of French fire and coloring such as is necessary to the correct interpreting of the works of that writer. The adagio from Spohr Hubay's ease and artistic repose enabled him to play to perfection, and in the last number, which is his own, he carried his audience with him in his Spinning Wheel around and around with such elegance and grace that I don't wonder that he has found such favor in conservative Frankfurt.
53Alexander Petschnikoff, on the other hand, is to my mind the "new king," and I earnestly cry, "Long live the king!" He is a violin giant, with his Russian blood showing in true dramatic emotion and fire such as is uncommon even nowadays among virtuosi. He has twice the genius of Hubay, with the emotional stress on every note of Ysaye and the technical perfection of Thomson.
55That ponderous concerto of Tschaikowsky's was a thing of life and beauty in Petschnikoff's hands. He understood its yearnings, its passions, its sobs and its outcries. He poured Russian blood and fire into a Russian mold. Never have I listed to more masterly work; certainly this artist has made more of an impression on me than any I have heard since leaving America, and I am confident that a host of America's music lovers will say with me: "He is indeed a master."
57The Bach numbers were ideally interpreted by Petschnikoff, but I must stop on this line to say that a young English violinist sat beside me last night listening spellbound to this young giant play. At the beginning of that complex cadenza, in the first movement of the concerto, my friend grasped my arm. As his wonder increased, so did his grip, until I feared the loss of that member, and with it the fulfillment of my own musical hopes, when suddenly the cadenza closed and my friend's grip relaxed, and he whispered to me in a regular "English whisper": "Say, Eames, that chap plays like two men!" and I believed him.
59Hubay's opera, The Violin Maker of Cremona, was given for the first time here last Sunday night. I might call it a "howling success"—howling, because of the presence of the composer and because of his most artistic performance of a characteristic Hungarian violin solo that the story of the opera calls for.
61The book of the opera is not over-interesting, but the music is as a whole most graceful and charming. The work reflects the characteristics of its composer vividly, and is always temperate, as is he in his solo work; never in the opera does he show eccentricities in striving for effects or in the handling of instrument or voice. There are no melodies in it that cling tenaciously to one for days; it has no solos of especial value in themselves. Hubay seems to have been a careful student of the new as well as the old masters without using the extreme effects of either. This opera is not great, but is surely a worthy addition to musical literature as a musically work, pure in form as it is graceful in musical action.
63Josef Wieniaski, the pianist, was to have given a recital on Monday evening, but illness compelled him to postpone the engagement. Herr Wieniaski and Herr Professor Heermann, violinist, appeared at the chamber music concert last week and performed the former's new Sonate, op. 24, for piano and violin. I could not attend the concert, but critics seem to agree that the sonata is not equally balanced in difficulty or amount as between the instruments for which it was written, the violin having far the heavier part. They further say the sonata is highly colored and very attractive in graceful themes, which the critics say are insufficiently developed. This week will bring us a return of Falstaff, The Violin Maker of Cremona and other older operas. I meant to speak more in full of the opera orchestra here, but for this time it will suffice to say that this orchestra is doing thoroughly high-class work in everything it presents and is the best regular opera orchestra that I have ever heard. It could hardly be less with such a leader as Herr Dr. Rottenberg, who is a most magnetic conductor and efficient all around musician.
65The program for the next chamber music concert, Friday evening, is a Tschaikowsky quartet, a quintet by Mozart and a Beethoven trio.
67HENRY EAMES.
69Alfred A. Farland.—Alfred A. Farland, who has earned for himself the sobriquet of the Paderewski of the banjo, is having an unusually busy season. Mr. Farland will be the star attraction at the great banjo concert to be given in Chickering Hall March 5, when he will play a Popper tarantella and the finale to the William Tell overture, which have been arranged for the banjo by himself. The latter number would appear to most people as an impossibility to transcribe for the banjo, but Mr. Farland can accomplish with his instrument things undreamed of by all other banjo virtuosi, and produces effects hitherto unknown and considered not feasible with an instrument of the banjo character.
71Mr. Farland has booked the following engagements: March 12, Springfield, Mass.; 16th, Ridgway, Pa.; 17th, Erie, Pa.; 18th, Toledo, Ohio; 19th, Ann Arbor, Mich.; 20th, Grand Rapids, Mich.; 21st, Chicago; 23d, Washington, Ia.; 24th, Wapello, Ia.; 25th, Hannibal, Mo.; 26th, St. Louis; 27th, Indianapolis; 28th, New Harmony, Ind.; 30th, Louisville, Ky.; 31st, Dayton, Ohio. The month of April is just as regularly filled for the Eastern States. Mr. Farland may give a series of banjo recitals in private salons after Lent.
73Madame Vanderveer-Green.—The Toronto papers are exceedingly flattering in their praise of the singing of Madame Vanderveer-Green, one of the members of the Alban Concert Company. She is highly esteemed in all sections where good, legitimate vocal work is understood. The Globe says:
75Madame Vanderveer-Green created a most favorable impression and established herself thoroughly as a favorite contralto in the minds of local concert goers. Her voice is rather of the mezzo character than the contralto, and beautifully placed throughout the registers. In Bemberg's Chant Arabe, Holmès' Serenade Printanière, Clay's Across the Sands, and Loch Lomond, this lady was most enjoyable. Her fourth number aroused such enthusiasm that a double encore was demanded and gracefully acquiesced in.
77The Toronto World says:
79Madame Vanderveer-Green is a lady of fine presence, whose voice is excellent in quality, though not great in range. Her singing was marked by the most perfect fidelity and expression, and her success was instant. A morceau by Bemberg and a serenade by Holmès were beautifully given, and brought forth as an encore a pretty English lullaby, which was even more taking than the principal selections, probably because of the English of it. Her second effort consisted of Sands o' Dee, by Clay, and the old Scotch song, Loch Lomond. The interpretation was faultless, and the inevitable encore followed. Then a pretty little ditty was given with admirable chic, and a second encore was demanded and responded to.
81ANNA LANKOW,
82Vocal Instruction,
83825 Park Avenue, New York.
85SCHARWENKA
86Conservatory of Music,
87Under the management of EMIL GRAMM,
88No. 37 EAST 68th STREET, NEW YORK.
90Prof. XAVER SCHARWENKA, Musical Director.
91Fall Term begins Monday, September 9.
92Examinations begin Monday, September 2.
93WRITE FOR CATALOGUE AND PARTICULARS.
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