Scan 11
Musical Courier 1896-12-02: Vol 33 Iss 874, 1896
84 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 6. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1at the Emperor William Memorial Church. Of course I could not attend, a fact which I did not even deplore to any great extent, as the evening brought only a repetition of the all too frequently heard Mendelssohn oratorio Elijah.
3The performance is described to me by a competent witness as having been quite satisfactory as far as the choral work was concerned, and excellent with regard to the offerings of the soloists. Of the latter the new bass-baritone, Anton von Rooy, is praised very highly on account of his noble, sonorous voice and his artistic delivery. Of him Professor Gernsheim, the conductor of the Stern Singing Society, said to me that he had not heard his like "since the best days of Stockhausen." This is high praise, indeed, and especially valuable because coming from such an authority.
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7On Saturday night I was present first in Bechstein Hall, at the opening portion of the joint concert of Misses Elisabeth Behnsen and Celeste Groenevelt. The former young lady is a singer of so mediocre abilities, and even lower quality of voice, that it is not worth while speaking about her.
9Miss Groenevelt, from New Orleans, however, is a young performer about whose great and pronounced, but specifically pianistic, talents I have had occasion to make some mention heretofore. She has also been able to secure the sympathies of the American colony here, which was out in full force on the evening in question. Like myself, however, even the most charitably inclined of its members cannot have failed to have felt some disappointment in Miss Groenevelt's rather careless performances. I don't care to go into details about her playing of the Bach-Tausig D minor toccata and fugue, for the girl has evidently not the slightest conception of Bach. But also in the op. 53, C major sonata, of Beethoven, her conception was anything but ripe, despite the fact that this very sonata is of all of Beethoven's piano sonatas perhaps the one best suited to virtuosos. In the first movement her fingers ran away with her, and the adagio was played with hard force of touch and tone, something all the more reprehensible as Miss Groenevelt is naturally endowed with an excellent piano touch. The last movement, especially, but also the rest of her work, was listless and generally unsatisfactory. I don't know whether Miss Groenevelt's slovenly, may almost slatternly and devil-may-care-style of playing is the result of Leschetizky's schooling or of the natural indifference and laziness of the young lady herself, but one thing I do know, and that is that the sooner she mends her ways the better it will be for her.
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13A pianist of far different make-up and qualities, but one who is also not really first-class and absolutely satisfactory in every direction is Albert Eibenschütz, who gave a concert with the assistance of the Philharmonic orchestra at the Singakademie that same evening.
15Mr. Eibenschütz comes from Cologne, and now belongs to the teaching force of the Stern Conservatory of Music. Aside from some mannerisms à la Pachmann, his playing is technically surprisingly good and brilliant, but his style generally lacks that earnestness and breadth which might be expected from a musician of his pretensions. Of the Brahms B flat concerto, with which he opened his program, I did but hear the andante and that most graceful of all of Brahms' piano music, the finale with the Hungarian flavor. These two movements, however, sufficed to give me the said impressions.
17The quasi novelty on the program, Mlle. Chaminade's Concertstück for piano and orchestra, did not go very far toward dispelling my preconceived notions about the lack of creative powers in women as composers. Nevertheless, I did not find the work quite as trashy as it has been dubbed by most of my Berlin confrères, nor can I deny the fact that I was forced to listen with more than my usual amount of interest. Mlle. Chaminade starts off boldly enough with a clean steal from the opening bars from the Flying Dutchman overture and ballad, which she transposes into C sharp minor and then goes at it in a sweeping but quite rhapsodic and almost planless manner. Many of her pianistic as well as orchestral effects, however, were exceedingly interesting, and I may even say fascinating, to me, and I am eager to hear the much condemned work once more as soon as opportunity offers. This sort of music also suits Mr. Eibenschütz's pianism better than Brahms, and with it he seemed to startle more than delight the audience.
19His own arrangement for piano and orchestra of Tausig's Hungarian Gypsy Airs I did not stay to listen to, for that piece of Tausig's is apt to give me "a pain in the stomach," a risk which I did not care to incur.
21A not particularly interesting singer, Miss Anna Weiss-hahn, gave in a not particularly interesting manner a not particularly interesting aria from Eckert's opera Wilhelm von Oranien, and Lieder by the concert giver. She, as well as Herr Eibenschütz, was successful with the audience.
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25The best concert of the musical season so far was that of last night, the third of the Philharmonic concerts, under Nikisch's direction.
27The vast hall of the Philharmonie was absolutely sold out at the Sunday forenoon public rehearsal, and also last evening there were very few, if any, vacant seats. In the audience I was particularly pleased to notice my old Boston friends, the Hechts, from Commonwealth avenue, one of the most musical families of the Hub, or any other city in the wide world. It can and will not be denied that quite a good deal of the drawing powers displayed at just this concert must be attributed to the appearance as soloist of Marcella Sembrich, but it is likewise gratifying to be able to state that these concerts are now on the way of regaining the prestige and the large attendance which they had in the palmiest days of their founder, the late Hans von Bülow.
29The enthusiasm which Mme. Sembrich evoked in her numerous admirers was an almost indescribable one and culminated in the here somewhat unusual exhibition of floral offerings of far more than average costliness and beauty. Let me hasten to say that all this applause, recalls, flowers and encore was richly deserved, for, contrary to her recent operatic guesting experiences, the diva was in splendid voice, and the charm of her superb vocal organ, as well as the consummate art of her delivery, was bound to captivate even those who are not crazy admirers of the coloratura style of singing.
31In her first aria, Donna Anna's Non mi dir, from Mozart's Don Giovanni, the lady was not yet in her element. She seemed to be nervous beyond reason, and the force of Mozart's music in this aria, in which the coloratura plays only the part of an embellishment to the strong dramatic contents of the music, was anyhow too much for her. But later on, in the long recitative and the Casta diva aria from Norma (what a strange sight it was to see Bellini's name on a modern symphony concert program!) Mme. Sembrich was her own self, and she sang as I have not heard her sing for more than a decade. Of course the audience rose to her, and the applause roared like a cyclone. There was no denying the demands for an encore, and Nikisch, who was decorated by the sweet singer with a huge bouquet of violets, must have been prepared for it, as the orchestral parts for Susanna's garden aria from Mozart's Nozze di Figaro were on the stands. How delightfully and artistically the band accompanied under Nikisch I cannot describe. It almost as much fascinated me as Sembrich's singing of the coy chambermaid's warbling measures. This is a different Mozart music from the one allotted to the sorrowful Donna Anna, and it is better suited to Marcella Sembrich's temperament. It was highly finished, artistic and enjoyable, nevertheless.
33The orchestral selections made up a more than usually interesting program, and consisted of Cherubini's Anacreon overture, Schumann's D minor symphony, Mahler's movement, "What the flowers of the meadow have to say to me," and Dvorák's sprightly scherzo capriccioso. Wonderful to relate, this latter work, one of Thomas' former battle horses, which he played quite frequently at Steinway Hall in the '80's, was new to Berlin, and was performed for the first time at these concerts. Of course it could not fail to create a most pleasing impression. A still greater and deeper one, however, was produced by the genuine novelty of the evening, the movement from Gustav Mahler's third and latest symphony in F major and collectively entitled A Summer Morning's Dream. The work consists of no less than six movements, the first opening with an introduction entitled The Awakening of Pan, and followed by an allegro, Summer Marches (Cortège de Bacchus). The second movement in minuet form (A major) is the above mentioned one. The third one is a rondo yclept What the animals of the woods have to say to me. The fourth Satz is named What mankind has to say to me, and is written for alto solo. The fifth movement describes What the Angels are Telling, and they utter themselves to a female chorus with alto solo. The sixth and last movement is an adagio in which the composer tries musically to depict What Love is Telling him.
35You see this is a program symphony on a most comprehensive scale. Comprehensive and also comprehensible was the minuet which we heard last night, for one could really fancy in the graceful and sensitively scored minuet measures the soft whisperings and the gentle bell tones of the children of the meadows, and even their complaints and their longing for revenge. Everything sounded fresh and beautiful as a May morn, and I think that this movement, which is free from many of the former extravagances of Mahler, will do much toward bringing that singularly talented and highly aiming, ever striving composer nearer to public recognition than his two former symphonies have done. That they were of considerable musical importance I have not hesitated to state in these columns in the face of a then almost unanimous opposition. Mahler's day, however, seems to be coming at last, and he was yesterday called for by the audience in no half hearted manner to receive their spontaneous and sincere applause. The Berlin press this morning is also full of admiration and praise, to which I say better late than never.
37The performance of this difficult work by the Philharmonic Orchestra, under Nikisch's sympathetic and loving guidance, was admirable, and so was that of the attacca played Schumann symphony, which though I have heard it several hundred times in my life, I have never yet heard more finely shaded, more romantically conceived and more plastically worked out than last night under Nikisch's baton. It aroused a storm of applause for the genial conductor.
39The program for the next concert contains the Beethoven E flat concerto, to be played by Sofie Menter, and as novelty Richard Strauss' latest symphonic poem, Thus Spake Zarathustra. Jos. Aibl, Successor, the great Munich music publishing firm, has just sent me the orchestral score of this work, but I prefer to defer putting down in cold type my impressions upon this Nietzsche philosophy music until I have heard instead of merely having read the stupendous score.
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43Hofrath Pollini, of Hamburg, lost his wife last week. She died at Frankfort-on-the-Main.
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47The number of callers at the Berlin headquarters of THE MUSICAL COURIER last week embraced Court Pianist Georg Liebling, Mrs. and Master Zadora, who came to tell me that young Michael had passed the Hochschule examinations before Professors Joachim, Barth and Rudorff so satisfactorily that he had been accepted despite the fact that he is still under the regulation age; Miss Laura Haas, an opera and concert contralto; Miss Henny Ruben, a pianist and pupil of Rummel; Hutcheson, the Australian pianist; Willy Burnmeter, the great violin virtuoso; Mrs. S. Cottlow, Miss Kimball, and Mrs. N. P. Lovering, from Boston, who brought me greetings from my friends Philip Hale and E. A. MacDowell. one of two readings
48The number of callers at the Berlin headquarters of THE MUSICAL COURIER last week embraced Court Pianist Georg Liebling, Mrs. and Master Zadora, who came to tell me that young Michael had passed the Hochschule examinations before Professors Joachim, Barth and Rudorff so satisfactorily that he had been accepted despite the fact that he is still under the regulation age; Miss Laura Haas, an opera and concert contralto; Miss Henny Ruben, a pianist and pupil of Rummel; Hutcheson, the Australian pianist; Willy Burmester, the great violin virtuoso; Mrs. S. Cottlow, Miss Kimball, and Mrs. N. P. Lovering, from Boston, who brought me greetings from my friends Philip Hale and E. A. MacDowell. one of two readings
50O. F.
52CONCERT NOTES.
54The Halir Quartet, without Halir, gave its first concert of the season. Professor Kruse, the founder of the organization, substituted for the great violinist. The program contained only Beethoven compositions, viz., the great C
56FANNY LOSEY,
57VIOLINIST.
58Broad Style,
59Fine Technic.
60ADDRESS
61care of THE MUSICAL COURIER Office,
62226 Wabash Avenue,
63CHICAGO, ILL.
65HIGH-CLASS ARTISTS.
66THE
67HENRY WOLFSOHN
68MUSICAL BUREAU,
69131 East 17th Street,
70NEW YORK.
72Marie Parcello
73CONTRALTO,
74CONCERT and ORATORIO
75"Mlle. Parcello sang magnificently."—GALIGNANI'S MESSENGER (Paris).
76"A voice of pure, rich, vibrant contralto quality—of unusually wide range; an accomplished, intelligent and artistic young artist."—THE MUSICAL COURIER.
77"A voice of unusual power and sweetness. Her style is distinctly dramatic."—BOSTON TIMES.
78"Mlle. Parcello possesses a rare contralto."—BOSTON TIMES.
79"A contralto of wide range and delightful fulness."—AMERICAN REGISTER (Paris). one of two readings
80"A contralto of wide range and delightfulness."—AMERICAN REGISTER (Paris). one of two readings
81"Mlle. Parcello singing with such fervor and breadth of style that she created a profound impression."—LONDON TIMES.
82Address: Studio 1302
83CARNEGIE HALL, NEW YORK.
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