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Musical Courier 1896-07-01: Vol 33 Iss 852, 1896
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1has established herself as such a favorite in the United States in Carmen.
3Mr. Frederick E. Bristol, the well-known teacher of voice production, of New York, gave a delightful lunch at the Café Margant here just before leaving for Paris. Among those present were Mr. and Mrs. Ben Davies, Mr. and Mrs. Louis H. Horst, Miss Buckingham, Miss Bristol and the writer. Mr. Bristol is very much pleased with London and Mr. Ben Davies with America, and altogether we had a most enjoyable time.
5Several valuable violins recently came under the hammer at the salerooms in Leicester square of Messrs. Puttick & Simpson. One by J. B. Guadagnini, with gold-mounted bow, brought £100; another by Antonius Stradivarius, three-quarter size, £81; and a violoncello by Januarius Gagliano, 1757, £90.
7Mme. Vanderveer-Green gave a musical on Monday in honor of Mr. Victor Harris, the well-known New York composer and conductor. The hostess charmed all present with her exquisite singing of several songs, and among others who contributed were Mr. Wheeler, a young Danish basso, who excited considerable comment; a tenor from the Opéra Comique, Paris; Miss Blanche Ruby, who made a successful operatic début in Dorothy recently, and many others. Among those present were Mlle. Joachim, Miss Rosa Green, Mr. Zay, Hugo Hintz, Mrs. D. W. Johnston, Miss Regina de Sales, the Misses Brunker, Mme. Clara Poole, Mr. A. J. King, M. Louis Schlesinger, M. Frrangcon-Davies, who has just returned from his first American tour, Mr. Marshall P. Wilder, and many others.
9CONCERTS.
11The appearance here of the Kneisel String Quartet was anticipated by much discussion.
13For the last thirty years or more the Popular Concerts have been educating the London public in the appreciation and understanding of chamber music. The standard of taste for this form of music is therefore, happily, very high in our city. For these visitors from Boston to have been recalled and enthusiastically applauded on one of the hottest afternoons of the season speaks in higher terms than it will be necessary for me to use of the excellence of this organization. The perfect balance of tone among the four instruments, the unanimity of the shading, the perfection of the ensemble, and the intelligence of the interpretation were not overlooked by the audience, which contained many of the first of London's musicians. On account of playing so much together, this quartet of visitors play with a better ensemble than the Popular quartet does. The absolute sympathy and unanimity of their work were remarked on all sides. The program was made up of Sgambati's C sharp minor quartet, Beethoven's early quartet in G major, and Schumann's in A major. The last two are too well known to call for any criticism, except that Beethoven's early work sounded very thin and old fashioned after the Sgambati quartet, which preceded it. This work contained many beauties—the first movement alone being a trifle long and without much melodic charm. Perhaps there is a little too much doubling of the notes of the chord in the lower octave, which makes some of the harmonies thick. This is a question of taste, however, not of musicianship. The performance of the scherzo of this work was the daintiest and most perfect bit of ensemble playing that I ever remember to have heard. The concert took place in St. James' Hall on Monday afternoon, June 15, and undoubtedly, considering the triumph that they achieved, their two remaining performances will draw crowded houses.
15Mr. Albert Lockwood, a pupil of Leschetizky, and, as far as we know, the first native American pianist to give a recital in London, played a varied and well-chosen program of piano music in St. James' Hall on Tuesday, June 16. The great heat did not prevent a numerous audience from enjoying the art of this player, who was repeatedly applauded and recalled, playing as encores Chopin's Fifteenth Prelude and a transcription of a gavot by Gluck. The principal items of the program were Beethoven's Sonata Appassionata, a Bach toccata and fugue, and Chopin's F minor fantasia. This is Mr. Lockwood's second recital only—our readers will remember the reports of the first that took place in Paris last January—and as time goes on he will naturally find himself more at ease on the platform. When experience shall have given him more confidence, I believe that his great talent will place him in the foremost rank of pianists. His technic is great and he plays all sorts of difficult passages with the utmost ease. Nor is his interpretative power less than his technical. Every piece he played showed thought, artistic instinct, and feeling. The rich, singing and sympathetic tones he produces show the inborn appreciation of beautiful sound, but in the matter of tone quality we must also add that he was greatly aided by the superb instrument on which he played.
17Miss B. Langley's concert in St. James' Hall was well attended on Wednesday afternoon, the 10th inst. The violin solos of the concert giver were well chosen, and showed her talent to advantage. We were particularly pleased with Einleitung (amoroso), Tema and Variationen, Paganini-Wilhelmj. Miss L'Amy was the vocalist. She sang songs by Bizet and Saint-Saëns, which were appreciated, and Mr. Frederic Dawson, the pianist, played among other interesting numbers, Rhapsodie in C minor, op. 79, particularly well.
19Considering the charitable purpose, and the artists who assisted at Mr. Daniel Mayer's grand concert in aid of the funds of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, St. James' Hall was not well filled on Thursday last. Mr. Mark Hambourg and M. Marix Loevensohn opened the program with an Introduction et Polonaise of Chopin, and gave afterward some solos. Mr. M. Hambourg played with irresistible grace the Capriccioso and Pastorale of Scarlatti, and also a very brilliant Etude de Concert, by F. d'Erlanger, who was to the fore with several very good compositions. The encore was Rubinstein's Staccato Etude. M. Loevensohn plays Bach most impressively, with remarkable breadth and quality of tone. Mlle. Landi's Habanera (Carmen) was charming and captivating. She sang also two songs by d'Erlanger with her usual artistic conception. Why does not Mr. Bispham, who also sang d'Erlanger, use Victor Hugo's words in the original language? He is a good enough linguist not to require translations. Miss Ada Crossley sang several songs and was much appreciated. Where Do They Sleep?, by Lady Euan Smith, is rather a weak composition. M. Lemmoné played the flute en artiste, and M. Johannes Wolff is so well known that no comment is needed. He played two numbers by d'Erlanger.
21Mlle. Camille Landi's first vocal recital on Friday afternoon attracted a large audience, the French element much en evidence. The cavatina and air from Le Prophète (Meyerbeer) is almost too big for Mlle. Landi, though she sang most artistically and full of entrain. To us the cavatina—one feels tempted in a French concert to use French slang—is "rasoir." All else that Mlle. Landi sang was charming, but Mattinata, a new and lovely composition by Tosti, and accompanied by him, brought the house down. Mr. Theodore Byard sang Chaminade's and Massenet's compositions, and also a duet with Mlle. Landi. La Crise est Douce (Mireille), Gounod, where again her highly intelligent and graceful singing delighted every one. Mlle. Landi was further assisted by M. Johannes Wolff and Mlle. Chaminade.
23Sarasate's concert filled St. James' Hall well on Saturday afternoon. He played Bach's second sonata in A major, and Goldmark's first suite in A, op. 11, for violin and piano. The Allegro Andante sostenuto and, particularly Allegro ma non troppo, are lovely, but the Allegro moderato and Presto are not of equal merit. The rest of the program were Sarasate's own compositions, Sérénade Andalouse and the well-known Zigeunerweisen, which were well received. As an encore M. Sarasate gave Raff's Cavatina, with a fulminant cadence of his own. Dr. Neitzel is a most intelligent and refined accompanist, and played as his solo Carneval, op. 9 (Schumann), with full comprehension of the composition, which cannot be said of every pianist who undertakes to play this work, which is of more interest to the musician than to the general public.
25In these days, when what may be called "average talent" is of a very high standard, we are often too apt to call every clever executant we hear a great artist. Praise must assuredly be given to cleverness whenever it is called for, but let us not exalt talent at the expense of an ideal. A great artist is as rare as a hero; it is frequently the case that only a far-seeing posterity can grant such titles when they are due. To every discerning critic, however, there can be no doubt that when Ysaye is playing they are listening to what is far away above the realms of that admirable "average talent," and it can be felt that here posterity will perhaps lay the crown of immortality. Individual opinion, biased by this unavoidable influence of comparisons, will find points in Ysaye's playing with which to take exception, but it is impossible that the genius of the artist shall not display itself even to the most prejudiced critic. Ysaye is emotional, but is strong with control, which enables him to refrain from all exaggeration. Therefore can he interpret classic music, which one might be led to doubt while listening to his excitable heart-on-the-sleeve rendering of modern quasi-sentimental composers. A sonata for violin and piano by Fauré, Saint-Saëns' third violin concerto, Bach's prelude and fugue in G minor, an adaptation of Parsifal music, and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody, No. 12, for violin and piano—this was the prescribed music in which Ysaye was heard on Saturday last. It is unnecessary to enter into detailed criticism of the interpretation which these pieces received. Mons. Théophile Ysaye, who also played a difficult and somewhat shapeless composition of Franck, performed the piano parts of the sonata and rhapsody, and Miss Isabel MacDougall gave pleasure in her rendering of some old Italian songs and the duet from Samson and Delilah, Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix, securing an encore. Chaminade's Si j'étais jardinier, after the latter. Mr. Henry Wood conducted the concert, taking the piano accompaniment to the Saint-Saëns concerto, truly arduous work on a hot June afternoon. Mons. Ysaye endured many recalls throughout the concert, and granted an encore at its conclusion.
27Mr. Gennaro Fabozzi, pianist to the Queen of Italy and conductor of the orchestra at the Institution for the Blind at Naples, gave an interesting concert on Monday afternoon in Steinway Hall. This artist in question has been blind from his birth, and yet he gave an accurate performance of the following exceedingly difficult compositions: Liszt's transcription of Bach's fugue in G minor, Beethoven's sonata in D minor, op. 31, No. 2; two transcriptions from Lulli's opera Proserpine, and a gavot from Piccinni's opera Orlando, by Martucci; a "presto agitato" movement by Lougo, a romance by Schumann and the fifth number from the Kreisleriana, an excerpt from Chopin, a movement by Alessandro Scarlatti, a scherzo by Martucci, a reverie, romance, and ballata of his own composition, and Liszt's second Hungarian Rhapsody. Besides being technically correct, the various works were played with much intelligence and a full realization of their many beauties. The Martucci number was a charming one, and the pieces of his own composition were worthy of high commendation. There was not so large an audience as the pianist deserved.
29The two youthful artists Louis Pecskai (violin) and Marix Loevensohn (violoncello) gave a recital in St. James' Hall on the 15th inst. Louis Pecskai is an astonishingly gifted youth, whose grandeur of tone and comprehension at his age give great promise for the future. He played sonata, op. 47, Beethoven, and raised absolute enthusiasm with his playing of Ballade and Polonaise (Vieuxtemps). Mr. M. Loevensohn played a concerto by August Lindner, which he succeeded in making very interesting, and delighted everybody with his artistic rendering of Capriccio (Servais) and Tarentelle (Popper). The concert finished with Mendelssohn's trio in D. Signor Carlo Ducci was at the piano. It was highly appreciated.
31OPERA AT COVENT GARDEN.
33The performance on Saturday last of Die Walküre proved more satisfactory than was generally anticipated. Somehow an impression had got about that the text would be delivered in languages more diverse than consistent. As a matter of fact, however, the opera was given entirely in French for the first time in Covent Garden. Wagner's music drama sung in French may be compared to the composer arrayed in a costume of the reign of Louis Quatorze and it does not fit him. But there was much to compensate for this in the manner in which the hero and heroine were embodied. M. Alvarez may be said to be an ideal exponent of Siegmund. His stalwart and robust presence and the remarkably full quality, for a tenor, of his lower notes all go to make his impersonation in the highest degree effective. He, moreover, sings the music with remarkable dramatic intensity, the force of which doubtless caused him to take the love duet in the first act much faster than the usual tempo. He had a most inspiring Sieglinde in Madame Lola Beeth, who made a most successful first appearance at Covent Garden on this occasion. Madame Beeth's voice is in certain portions of the Walküre scarcely powerful enough for so large a house, but her dramatic ability goes far to atone for the occasional want of vocal power. The most striking part of her impersonation was the dignified grace and suggestiveness of her gestures, her movements indicating an intimate knowledge of, and keen sympathy with, the score. Mlle. Mantelli's histrionic abilities also stood her in good stead as Brünnhilde, and Mlle. Brazzi, as Fricka, lectured the unfortunate Wotan with wifely vigor and determination of utterance. M. Albers' voice is not heavy enough for the sapient speeches of Wotan, but otherwise he did well, as also did M. Castelmary as Hunding. Mlle. Olitzka headed the flying brigade of Walküre, in which appeared the Mlles. Meisslinger, Bauermeister, Russell, Addison and Kirby Lunn. The scenic effects were excellent, the fight between Siegmund and Hunding "up aloft," under the superintendence of Wotan, being made especially effective by means of colored lights; but in the last act the substitution of smoky fires for the usual illuminated steam clouds was not an improvement. To invert an old proverb, doubtless, there can be no fire without smoke, but although it may be realistic, there is nothing poetical in smoke, save, perhaps, the delicate rings which emanate from refined tobacco, while the clouds which roll forth so generously from Sir Augustus' new boilers ascend in a far more graceful and suggestive manner. Decidedly, the boilers are the best means at present available where with to put Brünnhilde to sleep.
35Madame Beeth was again the heroine in the only other opera which calls for notice, that of Tannhäuser, which was mounted on Tuesday. The talented artist found less scope in this work for the display of her Wagnerian training, but a more charming Elizabeth in appearance it would be difficult to imagine, and her impersonation was delightfully girlish and fresh. One felt quite sorry for Tannhäuser having to pay so heavy a penalty for his former naughty ways, and lose so sweet a bride. Madame Beeth's conception of the character was admirably illustrated by the artless manner of her singing, which in the second act especially was calculated to make Tannhäuser "feel wild" on his subsequent bootless pilgrimage. The title rôle, as on a former occasion, already noticed in these
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