Scan 19
Musical Courier 1896-12-02: Vol 33 Iss 874, 1896
77 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 14. See the scan on archive.org.
1suggestion. His technic was ample. His phrasing was classically—or shall I say academically—elegant. His manner was manly and sincere. But as he played last night at the Symphony concert I shall speak of him again in the course of this letter.
3Miss Gertrude May Stein sang Gounod's Repentir, Brahms' Serenade, Dvorák's Klage and Tschaikowsky's Through the Still Night. She sang with great warmth of expression and was applauded heartily.
5The club sang with its accustomed, gentlemanlike ease. The phrasing was in reality a continuous see-saw of crescendo and diminuendo. There was the amateurish accentuation of first beats, and the bars were regarded often as punctuation marks in the musical sentences. Even in supposedly impassioned moments the singers did not raise their voices above well-bred conversational tones. Mr. Lang was the conductor.
7* * *
8The program book of the Apollo concert paid this tribute to one of its original members:
9"Members of the club will kindly forbear comparing this program book with those of former years, owing to the resignation, last June, of the efficient secretary, Mr. Arthur Reed, who is now our vice-president, and whose good taste has always made our program books so uniformly attractive."
11Quotations from Timon of Athens, Othello and Henry VIII. told of the character and labors of Mr. Reed. Thus the audience was reminded that Mr. Reed was "lofty and sour to them that loved him not," which, I confess, seems to me a very accurate description of the late and efficient secretary.
13"He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one." And, pray, how did Mr. Reed show his ripe scholarship in compiling the program books? Why, he consulted a Complete Concordance to Shakespeare, and he used quotations under the heads "Sing," "Singeth," "Singing," "Song," "Song-men," "Music," "Musicians," &c. As Mrs. Cowden Clark gives nearly 150 quotations under the head "Sing," it is evident that Mr. Reed's task was not a herculean one.
15* * *
16The Boston String Quartet, assisted by Mr. Carl Stasny, pianist, gave the first of three chamber concerts Tuesday evening, the 24th, in Association Hall. I am told that string quartets by Haydn and Klughardt and a piano quartet by Brahms were well played. As the manager neglected to send tickets to the daily newspapers, my colleagues and I did not have the pleasure or the pain of hearing them.
18The program of the sixth Symphony concert, given last evening in Music Hall, was as follows:
19Overture, Manfred………………………………………Schumann
20Concerto for violin………………………………………Beethoven
21Fourth Symphony………………………………………Tschaikowsky
23Mr. Nikisch, conductor of the Symphony Orchestra in Boston in the season 1890-1, introduced two movements from Tschaikowsky's Fourth Symphony (andantino and scherzo) and two movements from Godard's Symphonie Orientale. After a symphony has been heard selections may with reason be made; but when a work is unknown a selection from it may do injury to composer or audience. Surely last night, when Tschaikowsky's Fourth Symphony was played here as a whole for the first time, the two movements heard in 1890 assumed larger proportions, and their fitness in the composer's scheme seemed at last indisputable.
25These two movements named were, I believe, the first that gave to a Boston audience any idea of Tschaikowsky as a symphonist.
27Mr. Danurosh brought out the Second Symphony here December 9, 1891; the Fifth was produced at a Symphony Concert October 22, 1892; the Sixth was produced by Mr. Paur December 29, 1894.
29* * *
30Indeed, Tschaikowsky's orchestral music has been late in coming to Boston, where audiences are inclined to shy at novelties.
32In New York you heard his Romeo and Juliet fantaisie overture in April, 1876. It was not played in Boston until February, 1890.
34In New York you heard his Francesca da Rimini in December, 1878. It was not played in Boston until December, 1891 (Philharmonic), and November, 1895 (Symphony).
36His Third Symphony was played in New York in February, 1879. I find no record of its performance in Boston.
38His Manfred (op. 58) was played in New York in December, 1886. I find no record of its performance in Boston.
40* * *
41I admit that this symphony is called so for the sake of politeness; the work is more properly a suite, but I am still too much under the influence of the music to quarrel about terms.
43The first movement is very long; but with its now elusive and now palpable rhythm, its Italian tunes sung by a Russian voice, its ingenious detail, its startling juxtaposition of the elegant and the barbaric, its varying panorama of tone, sketches, frescoes, miniatures and gallery as well as intimate paintings, who would wish it shorter? The andantino recalls the Russian gloom dear to Dostoevsky; as the atmosphere of the opening scene in Humiliated and Offended, or description after description in Bési. There is the suggestion of Death, playing at the squalid panel game with his accomplice, Mrs. Life, the plausible demrep. The scherzo is a wise instance of how a man of parts knows the necessity of avoiding monotony. I know of few things in modern music more effective than the interruptions of the colossal pizzicato. Is the finale the development and apotheosis of a folk song, Vopoli Berosa Sto'ala? I have read so, but the writer is an incorrigible jester and the alleged Russian title may contain ideas of startling impropriety, for all I know. What a vodka-inspired defiant musical whoop! The motto of this finale might well be the sentiment of Hâji Abdû el-Yezdi:
44Cease, man, to mourn, to weep, to wail; enjoy the shining hour of sun;
45We dance along Death's icy brink, but is the dance less full of fun?
47* * *
48Mr. Halir was applauded loudly for his performance of the Beethoven concerto. The performance was calm, serene, scholarly, eminently academic. There was the nobility that is taught, and is traditional with Joachim, whose outward manner of playing is copied, perhaps unconsciously, by Mr. Halir. His tone was authoritative. His technic was adequate to all demands. He has been taught thoroughly in a sober, composer-fearing school. I often admired, I often said to myself, "This is excellent playing, Mr. Halir;" but I was not moved, nor was I conscious of the insidious musical fluid, which, emitted sometimes by less sane and securely grounded violinists, reaches the heart of the hearer and looses him from time, space, reality. I knew that a well-equipped man was soberly and honestly at work. I did not feel the presence of an o'er-mastering individuality, possessed with a demoniacal spirit.
50* * *
51The playing of the orchestra throughout the evening was of a high order of excellence. PHILIP HALE.
53Boston Music Notes.
54BOSTON, Mass., November 28, 1896.
56THE MUSICAL COURIER is for sale at all news stands, hotels, railroad stations, &c., in this city. Persons who cannot find it at a news stand will confer a favor by sending a postal card to the Boston office of THE MUSICAL COURIER, 17 Beacon street, stating the location of the stand.
58It is expected that Steinert Hall will be finished by the middle of December, when a concert will be given by some local talent. It is possible that Martinus Sieveking will give a recital there, although the matter is still undecided.
60Mr. Everett W. Truette will give the inaugural recital of the new organ at Grace Episcopal Church, Lawrence, on Monday evening, November 30. This organ was built by James E. Treat & Co., of Methuen, and is a large three manual.
62On Thursday evening, December 3, Mr. Truette gives a recital at the First Parish Church, Watertown.
64At a recital given by the students of the advanced classes of the New England Conservatory of Music, on Wednesday evening, the ensemble class was conducted by Mr. E. Gruenberg, who has made several innovations in the manner of teaching ensemble work. The concert proved most interesting as showing the work accomplished.
66Miss Edith Castle, contralto, sang at the Charlestown Club on ladies' night last week.
68Miss Georgie Pray, the violincellist, will play at the vesper service of the Roxbury Universalist Church tomorrow (Sunday) evening.
70The program for the Star course concert next Monday night will include Miss Emma Juch, prima donna soprano, and the Germania Orchestra, conducted by Mr. Emil Mollenhauer.
72Special musical services are being held at Christ Church, Quincy, during November, at which the following works have been given for the first time in America: Psalm 102, verses 23 to 27, set to music by John Wrigley, F. R. A. M., and a harvest festival cantata, The Bountiful Giver, by W. H. Maxfield. F. Wrigley, organist of the church, presided at the organ.
74A charity concert in aid of the Educational and Industrial Institute for Colored Children at Mayesville, S. C., will be given next Tuesday evening at the Every-Day Church. Among the singers to appear is Miss Van Vleck.
76A musicale will be given in the ballroom of the Hotel Vendome Thursday evening, December 3, at 8, for the reduction of the debt of the Church of the Messiah. Mrs. John L. Currie will sing, Baron E. de Vicq de Cumplice,
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