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Musical Courier 1896-12-23: Vol 33 Iss 877, 1896
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1the vocal department at the American Conservatory she is therefore debarrd from singing, according to those in command of the orchestra's affairs.
3Mme. Linné sang recently in St. Paul and Minneapolis, and this is what the papers said of her:
4It is a privilege to be prized to hold a membership in the Ladies' Thursday Musicales, for it not only presents a continual feast of good things in its regular meetings, but occasionally provides an especially rare treat for its members. The Linné song recital this morning was one of the most delightful of these treats. The Unitarian Church, where it was held, was filled. * * * Madame Linné's appearance was enthusiastically greeted by her audience, which was a sympathetic one, that encouraged the best work of the singer. Her program offered great variety and showed her superb talents in a strong way. Her execution is so faultless as to have lost all affectation of art, and her eminently musical qualities appealed irresistibly to her critical and delighted audience. Her voice is powerful, sweet in quality and remarkable in range. Her easy, graceful manner is also captivating. Several little explanatory remarks were thrown in a happy and interesting way.
6The first group of songs included I Love Thee, Grieg; a Swedish folk song; None but a Lonely Heart, Tchaikowsky; Lille gule Grete, Gade, and the Erl King, Schubert. In the simple songs her sympathetic expression and splendid enunciation were manifested, and in the Schubert number the dramatic qualities found full and satisfactory exposition. The second group included Twickenham Ferry, gracefully sung; Bonne Nuit, a delicate little song by Massenet, treated with charming lightness; La Folletta, a spirited, rollicky melody, and A Night Song, by Victor Harris. In response to an encore after these songs she sang a beautiful Norwegian folk song. The program closed with an aria from Massenet's Herodiade, which showed her abilities in more difficult compositions. This was a brilliant and effective piece of work, which received the warm appreciation which it merited.—Minneapolis Journal.
8There is destiny in a name. Ragna Linné. Do you not think of something queenly in bearing, something superior in achievement? The soprano whom the Schubert Club introduced to us yesterday afternoon has not had an equal in our concert halls. She is not better, but she merits that fascinating word, different. Fair-haired, of the blonde Norse loveliness, tall and stately, Madame Linné makes a commanding figure on the concert stage. Her voice is a soprano whose depth in chest tones and warmth in the middle register would lead one to class it as mezzo. The tones above were so skillfully taken as to cover up a possible limit. But it is not range one thinks of in listening to this voice. It is the dramatic instinct vibrating in every phrase, altering intensity, color, tint and personality until the perfection of varied power is reached, and this without altering the poise of the voice. Perhaps one or two white notes in the middle of a slight break in leaving a tone taken with great force, but these were the result of emotion not inherent. And then that wonderful quality the Italians call dolce mezzo voce, the tone held piano but as palpable as the clearest echo, this was the unusual element in the voice, but so varied that no passage seemed the counterpart of its fellow.
10The opening aria, from Massenet's Herodiade, was beautifully sung, and the French was delicious. Doubtless Madame Linné has been urged to try the operatic stage, and while her success there would not be mediocre it is surely in the recital that her unique talents emphasize themselves. The nine songs were chosen all from different European folk, and the characteristic interpretation, the familiarity with national traits and various languages, reveal her a student of people, and surely an admirable linguist.
12It would be difficult, impossible, to choose best where each was so complete in itself. Perhaps Gade's Danish song was most enjoyed, for the charming Dane, in her quaint, broken English, gave the story before singing of the farewell to Lille Grete. Here the varied tones were particularly effective, the flippant goldsmith's commercial proclivities and the lovelorn swain's heartbroken adieu. The same group contained a Swedish folk song of the sort Nilsson has sung us, and closed with the weird Erl König. The three voices, the luring tone of the Erl King's daughter, the pleading one of the Kind, and the deep, authoritative speech of the father, were dramatically and yet melodiously contrasted.
14Twickenham Ferry, the dear old English ballad, found itself in the second group, and the recital closed with two good night songs, one from the French, dainty and starlit, the other Victor Harris' composition, the only American number included. It suited admirably the power of increase in sostenuto which Mme. Linné controls so well, but was certainly not as characteristic as the Massenet song.—St. Paul Dispatch.
16Mme. Ragna Linné, of Chicago, who gives the first artist's recital for the Ladies' Thursday Musicales this year, will also appear before the Schubert Club, of St. Paul, on Wednesday afternoon. The same program will be given on both occasions. Members of the musicales will open the program with the Egmont overture, by Beethoven, and Miss Shryock will play the Mephisto Waltz, by Liszt. Mrs. H. W. Gleason will accompany Mme. Linné. This eminent soloist has been compared with Nordica, and a competent critic of the city declared she would rather hear her any day.—Minneapolis Journal.
18* * *
19Such a woman as Mme. Linné has to go out of the city to obtain the recognition due her. And the cry is "the home people won't draw." Anyhow, they will draw as much as Mr. Bruening and the auxiliary chorus drew yesterday.
21* * *
22One prominent in American music writes in the Times-Herald of Monday last: "Theodore Thomas is a fossil of a bygone era. He overlooks the fact that times change and men with them, even if he does not."
23This is exemplified at every performance given by his orchestra. We want a man of broader views, a man who will take an interest in the musical people and musical doings of this city and who is not entirely wrapped up in the narrow world of his own creation. Suppose we had the right man in Chicago who would arouse music here and give it a stimulus for years to come, talent, and there is much here, would come to the front and the rush off to Europe would be less known. With a profound sense of the greatness of Mr. Theodore Thomas, still it is impossible not to be painfully alive to the fact that while he has done an extraordinary amount for music in America, he has done quite as much for the benefit of Mr. Thomas, and consequently that it is about time that he gave some one else a chance. After all, it is not only a survival of the fittest but of the toughest.
25* * *
26Recitation and Comment was the name given to Mrs. Laura Tisdale's evening entertainment on Tuesday last in Apollo Hall. This gifted dramatic teacher had the assistance of Dr. Louis Falk and Signor Tomaso. I heard the affair was most successful, Mrs. Tisdale being enthusiastically applauded.
28* * *
29No notification was sent me of the Chicago Conservatory entertainment Monday last, and my first intimation of any such event was given after it had taken place.
31* * *
32There is a considerable amount of touting going on for the Chicago String Quartet. This peculiarly assorted company and their nurse or teacher, or whatever else one can call him, Theodore Thomas (who ever heard of a conductor or director for an experienced quartet?), make a first appearance next Tuesday. I have not been favored with an invitation and do not anticipate receiving one, as THE MUSICAL COURIER, according to several statements recently made, is the only newspaper which dare speak plainly on music matters. However, a friend of mine was beseeched to take tickets by an outsider whom I should have thought incapable of lending himself to any such business. Said he to my friend, at the same time showing a stack of tickets for the Chicago String Quartet: "This is the thing you should patronize," and when refusal was made, he exclaimed: "Oh, you're plugging for the Spiering Quartet, I guess." Certainly those who appreciate good music, fine rehearsal and the honest endeavors of men who are known for their musical worth, as well as doing infinite credit to musical Chicago, will never patronize the one against the other.
34* * *
35From the first notes of the Brahms quartet to the final measures of the Schumann quintet the concert given by the Spiering Quartet at the third of the chamber concert series was of interest. The best concert of its kind I have heard for months past and the best music in Chicago at the present time; there is nothing in the musical way to be compared with it. Very noticeable is the improvement in the work done by this quartet, especially in the 'cello player. At one time Herman Diestel was scarcely equal to the other players Theodore Spiering, Otto Roehborn and Adolph Weidig, but he has kept steadily on until now the good result is accomplished and he is a help artistically and actually. They all rehearse and believe in the value of practice, so that after four years' incessant work, despite many adverse circumstances, they make the second quartet in America. I know of no other that is in such demand, and already for next season a number of dates have been made. Their aims and aspirations are high and mark an era in Chicago's musical history.
37William H. Sherwood was at the piano in the Schumann quintet and played with fire and energy. He made the first public appearance here for years and was most cordially welcomed. Mrs. Genevieve Clark Wilson sang two Brahms songs and two Schumann songs with her accustomed purity of tone and refinement. Mrs. Hess-Butt accompanied.
39The concert was the best attended of the series so far, and I hope to see the time when people will be turned away, as assuredly there is no more refining nor delightful musical evening given than at these chamber concerts.
41The morning musical at the Woman's Club, Fort Wayne, Ind., given by the Spiering Quartet Wednesday last was immensely successful. The program given was as follows:
42Quartet, op. 59, No. 2, ……………………………………… Bethoven
43Spiering Quartet.
44The Swan ………………………………………………… Saint-Saëns
45Spanish Dance ………………………………………….. Popper
46Mr. Diestel.
47Intermezzo from quartet in A major ………………… Weidig
48Walter's Priestess ……………………………………… Wagner-Wilhelmj
49Farfalla ……………………………………………………. Sauret
50Mr. Spiering.
51Quartet in F major ……………………………………… Dvorák
52Spiering Quartet.
54* * *
55It must be that the people of the Eastern part of the country want to hear Brooke our clever conductor of popular music, and the famous Chicago Marine Band, as Manager Howard Pew has sold fourteen dates in New England for the month of March by correspondence, something he was never able to do with any of the New York organizations with which he was connected for years.
57The concerts now being given at the Columbia Theatre Sunday afternoons are deserving of the highest praise. The programs are good, exceptionally well played, one or two good soloists can always be heard, and little wonder is it that big crowds assemble. Last week Fanny Losey, the violinist, had a good reception and well merited the applause given. She has a fine tone and has improved greatly. That she was a pupil of Bernard Listemann is a fact which in itself should be sufficient to command attention.
59Emil Liebling has been busy this week, despite the holiday season. Friday, December 11, he played at Lake Forest, Ill.; Monday, December 14, at the People's Church, Aurora, Ill., and Thursday, December 17, at a complimentary concert given to Mr. Adolph Brune, in Kimball Hall.
61* * *
62Sara Sayles Gilpin, who made her first public appearance on Monday in Steinway Hall, is as a pianist really gifted. She studied with Mme. Bloomfield Zeisler for five years and has acquired a considerable amount of that artist's technic and manner. I heard Mrs. Gilpin informally recently and experienced much genuine satisfaction from her performance. She is reposeful in manner (in this respect not like her famous teacher), perfect as to technicality and, above all, plays with a very thorough comprehension of musical requirements. Her interpretations are all marked with fine intelligence, and whether in Grieg, Liszt or Saint-Saëns are equally acceptable. Of our new local people who have appeared recently, with one excep-
64Miss BIRDICE BLYE,
65CONCERT PIANIST.
66Concerts and Musicales.
67138 East 16th Street,
68NEW YORK CITY.
70THE NATIONAL CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC OF AMERICA.
71126 and 128 East 17th Street, New York.
72ELEVENTH SEASON.
73Semi-Annual Entrance Examinations.
74CHILDREN'S DAY—January 2 (Saturday), PIANO AND VIOLIN, 10 to 12 M.
75SINGING—January 4 (Monday), 10 to 12 M., 2 to 4 P.M., and 8 to 10 P.M. CHORUS 8 to 10 P.M.
76PIANO AND ORGAN—January 5 (Tuesday), 10 to 12 M., 2 to 4 P.M.
77VIOLIN, VIOLA, CELLO, CONTRABASS, HARP—January 6 (Wednesday), 10 to 12 M., 2 to 4 P.M.
78ORCHESTRA AND ALL WIND INSTRUMENTS—January 6 (Wednesday), 2 to 4 P.M.
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