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Musical Courier 1897-05-12: Vol 34 Iss 897, 1897
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1PAUR REVIEWED.
3Comments on the Season.
5THE Boston Symphony Orchestra has closed its sixteenth season, the schedule of works and performances and other interesting data having been furnished by our Boston correspondent and published in the issue preceding this.
7We reproduce herewith extracts and articles from Boston papers, giving additional estimates of the character of the season and also surveying the capabilities of Mr. Paur, the conductor.
9In the opinion of this paper there is no orchestral body in the United States that can compare with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in any of the essential forces necessary to make such a body useful. In precision, attack, esprit du corps, volume of tone and particularly tone quality this orchestra has simply distanced any and every orchestral organization in America, and is on an equal footing with the two or three important European orchestras. With Mr. Paur, the present conductor, this perfection has been attained, and it is therefore with pleasure that we give space to the reports of some of the Boston papers:
11Boston Herald, May 2.
13The sixteenth season of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, just ended, and the fourth season of Mr. Paur's control of the orchestra, calls for a brief review. Of the orchestra it may justly be said that it has never been on a higher and more brilliant plane of efficiency than the close of last night's performance left it. Mr. Paur has steadily grown in favor as the conductor of this splendid organization, and the results show that, all things considered, he is the best equipped conductor that has as yet directed the orchestra. Mr. Gericke had many admirable qualifications for the position, and by his skill in disciplining it, and the constant care he exercised in bringing it to a state of technical perfection, first made it notable among the great orchestras of the world, but something of fire and largeness was sacrificed to his fondness for extreme finish in execution, and to his singular prejudice against letting the brass assert itself even when such assertion was a crucial element in a performance.
15Mr. Nikisch was not without merit of a certain kind, and was abundant enough in artistic spirit, but he had little sympathy with the classic composers, whom he modernized remorselessly, and into whose music he injected overmuch of his own superstitious individuality. In addition, he was a very poor disciplinarian, and the orchestra degenerated under his lead until it had lost nearly all of the finer qualities that had been imparted to it by Mr. Gericke. Mr. Paur, on the other hand, is broader and more eclectic in style, is a thorough disciplinarian, and it was not long after he took control that the orchestra began to recover rapidly what it had lost under his predecessor, and it now stands recognized beyond cavil as an organization unsurpassed in its kind.
17The programs of the season presented a larger proportion of works not heard here before than has been usual. Among them were Bourgault-Ducoudray's Burial of Ophelia, Bizet's Jeux d'Enfants, Chabrier's overture to Gwendoline, Dittersdorf's Symphony No. 3 in C major, Duparc's symphonic poem, Lenore, Dvorak's Slavonic Rhapsody No. 3, the same composer's overture to Othello, and rondo for 'cello and orchestra, op. 94; selections from the ballet of Gluck's Don Juan, Goldmark's prelude to part 3 of The Cricket on the Hearth, Händel's overture No. 1, in D major; Schütz's concerto for piano, No. 2, in F minor; selections from Humperdinck's Königskinder, Rimsky-Korsakoff's Scheherazade, Saint-Saëns' suite for orchestra in D major, Schillings' prelude to Act III, of Ingwelde, Smetana's symphonic poem, Valdystnur Tabor; Richard Strauss' tone poem, Death and Redemption; Tchaikowsky's symphony No. 4, in F minor; Weingartner's arrangement of Weber's Invitation to the Dance, Mrs. Beach's Gaelic Symphony, which had its first performance anywhere, and Mr. Arthur B. Whiting's fantasia for piano and orchestra in B flat minor. Twenty-three works in all, or a trifle over one-fifth of all the works presented.
19Of the composers represented in the season's programs Wagner heads the list with ten works, Beethoven follows with nine, Brahms with seven, Mozart, Schumann and Dvorak with five each; Weber with four, Haydn, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Liszt with three each; Berlioz, Bizet, Gluck, Goldmark, Händel and Massenet with two each; and Bargiel, Mrs. Beach, Ducoudray, Chabrier, Cherubini, Chopin, Cornelius, Cowen, Dittersdorf, Duparc, Getz, Grieg, Humperdinck, Lalo, Leoncavallo, Loeffler, Korsakoff, Saint-Saëns, Schillings, Schütz, Smetana, Richard Strauss, Volkman and A. B. Whiting with one each. As will be seen, the selections were fairly distributed among composers of different nationalities. One hundred compositions were performed. one of two readings
20Of the composers represented in the season's programs Wagner heads the list with ten works, Beethoven follows with nine, Brahms with seven, Mozart, Schumann and Dvorak with five each; Weber with four, Haydn, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Liszt with three each; Berlioz, Bizet, Gluck, Goldmark, Händel and Massenet with two each; and Bargiel, Mrs. Beach, Ducoudray, Chabrier, Cherubini, Chopin, Cornelius, Cowen, Dittersdorf, Duparc, Getz, Grieg, Humperdinck, Lalo, Leoncavallo, Loefler, Korsakoff, Saint-Saëns, Schillings, Schütz, Smetana, Richard Strauss, Volkman and A. B. Whiting with one each. As will be seen, the selections were fairly distributed among composers of different nationalities. One hundred compositions were performed. one of two readings
22The soloists were Messrs. T. Adamowski, Richard Burmeister, G. Campanari, Ben Davies, Carl Halir, Max Heinrich, Rafael Joseffy, Franz Kneisel, C. M. Loeffler, Pol Plançon, G. W. Proctor, Alwin Schroeder, Leo Schulz, Martinus Sieveking, A. B. Whiting, Mme. Teresa Carreño, Mme. Melba, Miss Lena Little, Miss Adele Aus der Ohe.
24There were seven piano soloists, four violin soloists, five vocalists and two 'cello soloists.
26The first concert of the seventeenth season will take place Saturday evening, Oct. 16.
28Boston Advertiser, May 3.
30The symphonic season came to an end in a blaze of glory on Saturday, with a Wagner program. It was a magnificent climax, and although it was entirely orchestral, the absence of solo numbers did not seem to diminish the ardor of the public, for a very large audience was present, and the applause was constant and unstinted. Mr. Paur received a very marked welcome as he took the stand.
32It was a catholic program, not bounding itself by Wagner's later hobbies, but presenting all phases of the music of this genius. The list ranged from Rienzi to Parsifal. The prelude to the latter opera began the concert and received a commendable reading. We have heard Mottl sentimentalize the beginning of this Vorspiel even in the sacred precincts of Bayreuth, but there was no mawkishness in the interpretation of this occasion.
34Those who imagine that Wagner is always restless in modulation should study the treatment of the Communion theme in this prelude; it is as diatonic and almost as fixed in tonality as if it were written by one of the old Flemish masters.
36Now followed the Faust overture. It is a Faust almost without a Marguerite, the opposite of Gounod's conception, which gave to us a Marguerite with a very slight dash of Faust. It is a sorrowful, pessimistic Faust, who carries on his struggle through this number, and the sombre subject produces rather indigestible music, yet Wagner loved the work, for he rewrote it long after he had made his first draft of the composition. The performance was a superb one, and the work seemed to have more meaning than ever before, because of the beauty of the interpretation.
38But with the two Lohengrin preludes the more comprehensible Wagner appears upon the program. Here one finds theories rather than hobby-horses; there is judicious proportion, and Melos does not yet thrust out Melody. The violins have plenty of difficult work in the treatment of the Holy Grail motive, which forms almost every part of the first prelude. Musicians made a furious protest when Beethoven, in his Egmont overture, sent his violins up to C, but here we have Wagner using still higher passages for the violins in harmonics, and also upsetting the old-fashioned notion that heaven and celestial ecstasy must needs be represented by harp and harp alone. Our first violins are so well equipped that they could have furnished fourteen solo violins instead of the four demanded at the end, and the shading of the delicate passages was all that a Wagner would have desired.
40The prelude to the third act of Lohengrin also gives opportunities to the violins as well as to the trombones, and both instruments were most effective in the popular climax. This number was the first part of the opera to become popular, and long before the whole work had attained to regular representation this prelude was a standard work in the concert repertory.
42The Siegfried Idyl, which followed, was a comparatively easy work for our orchestra. The work proves (if such proof were at all necessary) the absolute sincerity of Wagner's latest theories. Here is a composition which was not intended to go beyond his own family circle, yet in it the composer uses every device displayed in his public works: leitmotiven, continuity of melody, freedom of modulation, all are there in full measure, and the reiteration of guiding figures is as conspicuous as in any of his latest operas.
44There are two principal figures in this work, the Melody of Peace and the Siegfried, the World's Treasure motive, and these are repeated and repeated in a manner that, were anybody else the composer, would have led to great monotony, but here seems never to pall. These two themes are interwoven in a manner that breaks the contrapuntal slate, yet is undeniably beautiful in spite of its transgressions. The final interweaving in augmentation is ineffably tender, and was charmingly shaded.
46And now came the "crime of his youth," as Wagner used to call it, the overture to Rienzi. We cannot ride this hobby-horse with Wagner; the overture has some noble points that ought to keep it from any chance of that oblivion to which its composer wished to consign it. The Prayer is as lofty as the prayer in Dvorak's Spectre's Bride, to which it has some affinity, and the short development is dramatic and fitting, but the closing theme is undeniably vulgar, more vulgar than anything in the Huguenots. The trumpet calls were finely shaded and deserve especial mention, as, by the way, does the horn playing in the Idyl.
48Waldweben, from Siegfried, was again a great triumph for the violins, which are divided into myriad-voiced harmony in this number. When one compares the puny effect of this number as recently given in Mechanics' Hall with its ineffable beauty on this occasion, comment is unnecessary, yet we must add that the weakness of the former performance was by no means the fault of the conductor.
50The Ride of the Valkyries made a fine ending to a memorable concert. This is one of the finest horse shows in all music; beside these tonal bronchos, Berlioz's trotters on the road to Hades, Raff's Leonore team, Saint-Saëns' Phaeton span, all seem like horse car animals. What a whinneying and rearing! What wild animal spirits! One such number might be a man's passport to the company of the great masters. And it lost nothing in the performance. The musicians seemed all aglow with enthusiasm, and it was natural that this excitement should extend to the audience. Great applause followed the number, but this applause meant something more than an appreciation of the Walküren-ritt; it finally culminated (after the conductor had been recalled four times) in enthusiastic cheering, and it meant that Boston is sensible of what Mr. Paur and the men have done this season.
52They have brought the orchestra far beyond any organization that America has ever possessed; they have made our band the peer of the greatest European orchestras. There has been no previous season when the technic of the orchestra has been as high as at present.
54Every musician must needs acknowledge this truth, without in the least endeavoring to detract from the merit of those who have gone before; we have had an enterprising conductor, and a most refined conductor (who weeded our orchestral garden for us and planted the seeds of our present harvest), and a poetic conductor, too; but the results of the present are beyond anything that has been in America's music before.—Louis C. Elson.
56Saturday Evening Gazette, May 1.
58Last night in Music Hall the Symphony Orchestra gave its last concert of the season. The program was devoted to Wagner, and the following were the selections: Parsifal prelude, a Faust overture, Prelude to Acts I. and II., Lohengrin: a Siegfried Idyl, Rienzi overture, Siegfried Forest Sounds, Ride of the Valkyries.
60It is a rare pleasure to hear Wagner interpreted under Mr. Paur's baton, for the spirit of the works is brought out with the utmost perfection, and with the largeness of style and finish of detail that mark all the work of this peerless orchestra and its masterful conductor. The Siegfried Forest Sounds was given with the rarest poetic charm and delicacy, and the Ride of the Valkyries with a spirit, dash and brilliancy that were irresistible.
62Of the season's work of Mr. Paur and his orchestra it is hardly necessary to write, for it is well known, and to praise it would be a twice-told tale. It is late in the day to repeat the trite truth that in Mr. Paur Boston has found its ideal conductor the educated, experienced musician of wide sympathies and faultless taste, who knows how to command as well as interpret. Under his care the orchestra has reached a degree of excellence never before attained, an excellence that closely approaches the point of perfection. The concerts literally merit the descriptive epithet classic, and they have proved a source of unalloyed delight to every educated lover of music. Mr. Paur and his orchestra of talented musicians are to be congratulated on the fine and enduring work they have done during the season.
64Boston Evening Transcript, May 3.
66The program of the twenty-fourth and last Symphony concert of the season, given in the Music Hall on Saturday evening, was made up wholly of works by Richard Wagner. The list was as follows:
68Prelude to Parsifal.
69Eine Faust Ouvertüre.
70Prelude to Act I. of Lohengrin.
71Ein Siegfried Idyl.
72Overture to Rienzi.
73Waldweben, from Siegfried, Act II.
74Walküren-ritt, from Die Walküre, Act III.
76The selections, as well as the order in which they came, were singularly felicitous. It is no easy matter to make out a good Wagner program of purely orchestral pieces, and we heartily congratulate Mr. Paur on his "bonne inspiration" on this occasion. The overture to Rienzi cut the program in two, as it were, just in the right place and in the right way. Its rather glaring brilliancy well relieved the strain upon the attention of the Siegfried Idyl, and left one fresh for the more poetic atmosphere of the Waldweben. The Ride of the Valkyries wound up the evening with all due brilliancy.
78The performance was, for the most part, admirable in the extreme; the Faust overture and the Siegfried Idyl were given with especial splendor and artistic perfection.
80Mr. Paur was very warmly greeted by the audience as he first stepped up to the flower-hung conductor's desk; but this little complimentary allusion to its being the last concert of the season gave no idea of what came afterward. The shouts and hand-clapping when the concert was over knew no bounds; if Mr. Paur has not broken the record of popularity with the audience, he has certainly fairly tied it. A heartier farewell and au revoir could hardly be imagined.
82Boston Herald, May 2.
84The last concert of this season's series by the Boston Symphony Orchestra took place in Music Hall last evening. The program was devoted wholly to Wagner, and was:
86Prelude to Parsifal.
87A Faust overture.
88Prelude to Act I. of Lohengrin.
89Introduction to Act III. of Lohengrin.
90A Siegfried Idyl.
91Overture to Rienzi.
92Forest Sounds, from Siegfried, Act II.
93The Ride of the Valkyries, from Die Walküre, Act III.
95The audience was a very large one, and its enthusiasm was exceeding, as is always the case with a Wagner program for a symphony concert attraction. The selections were skillfully made and contrasted, and presented the composer in his most lucid and pleasing vein. The noble Parsifal prelude stands apart as one of the loftiest of Wagner's inspirations. After this the range was all the way from the Faust overture, with its symphonic proportions, down to the vulgar, but inspiriting and always exciting, circus overture to Rienzi.
97The orchestra has been heard in all these works again and again, and there is nothing new to be said of them, and little more of the manner in which they were read and performed, except that they were never so completely well rendered before. The Faust overture was interpreted with perfect clearness and powerful effect. The really wonderful beauty of tone of the string orchestra has rarely been made so convincingly apparent as it was in the Parsifal
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