Scan 5
Musical Courier 1897-05-12: Vol 34 Iss 897, 1897
70 lines. Read by computer on 24 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 6. See the scan on archive.org.
1pression of mingled pain and joy which Miss McChesney has so truly caught in her immortal painting of The Violinist—the chaconne was played as prayers.
3At the Trocadéro concerts the very next afternoon, in the very centre of the program lay the masterpiece, with the Schumann accompaniment for organ. The violin was played by an Italian—Corsican rather—M. Geloso, one of the most ardent and tuneful of the operatic force, who in fact is daily gaining ground as soloist. He played the old chef d'œuvre as a love history. One knowing Guilmant's organ habits can imagine with what exquisite delicacy he painted in the background.
5That evening it was played on apiano at the Salle Pleyel by Joseph Wieniawski, brother of the great violinist, who played it en schoolmaster, as though he were there to throw up the lines and forms of musical literature before a class of students and thus came across the chaconne. It was clear cut, distinct, defined.
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9The Trocadéro concert was one of the most brilliantly classic programs ever given. A concerto in D minor, by W. F. Bach; the fifth concerto in F, by Händel, and the chaconne, with Schumann accompaniment, were the heaviest numbers. There was also a fugue in B minor on a Corelli theme, by S. Bach; an adoration and allegro, by Guilmant, and a beautiful prayer and meditation, by M. Dubois, for organ and orchestra, which was made very much of.
11In the Händel concerto the qualities of M. Guilmant as organist shone more brightly than ever. He has such brilliant qualities as an organist that it is to be regretted he confines himself so severely to the purely classical—for the most part the ecclesiastical classical school. There is so much beautiful music outside and he is such a consummate master! A trace more of the mondain, at least of the more illuminated organ work, cher maitre, and more of your own beautiful improvisation also.
13The following week being Holy Thursday, a grand spiritual concert was given with organ, orchestra and singing. Bach, Händel, Corelli, Mozart, Rameau, d'Hervelois, and Guilmant's Lamentation and Marche Eléagiac were on the program. These concerts grow in importance each season, and the immense palace is filled at every concert. There are 600 names as artist founders.
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17This Richard Hammer, the violinist mentioned above, is one of the best loved, most interesting and single-hearted artists in the city. A favorite pupil of Habanek and Damké, he was for years first violinist at the Italian Theatre, and first violin soloist of the Théâtre Lyrique, both positions had by competition. As second chef d'orchestre of the Pasdeloup concerts, he directed the orchestra at the fêtes given in honor of the Grand Duke Constantine, and again in concerts given by Rubinstein. He founded here a quartet society, which was so valuable by its purity of style and truth to tradition that it was subventioned by the Government. Among his regiments of pupils number Benjamin Godard, who studied with him for fifteen years; Magdeleine Godard, his sister, for eight years; the Miles. Re-maury, afterward Mme. Ambroise Thomas and Mme. Montigny de Serres; Chabrier, Broustet, Schneider, of London, and St. Quentin, a composer here. He has published a number of volumes and been decorated.
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21Holy Week was marked in Paris this year by a predominance of Wagner music in the so called Concerts Spirituels, which form a large part of the entertainment of that picturesque epoch.
23M. Colonne gave the first and fourth tableaux of the Rheingold, the final scene of the Walküre, the third act of Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods—an enormous undertaking. Kutscherra was the Brünnhilde. Mr. Lamoureux gave the overture to The Flying Dutchman, Rêves, Tannhäuser overture, Prelude of Parsifal, prelude of Tristan, a fragment of the Valkyrie, sung by Mr. Van Rooy, of the Bayreuth theatre, the Forest Murmurs, the Twilight of the Gods, and overture to The Meistersingers, a no less serious performance.
25The Conservatoire gave the Mozart Requiem, a Max Bruch concerto for violin, the Léonore overture and a sacred fragment by M. Sam. Rousseau. At the Odéon was given the Parsifal prelude, aria in G minor, Händel, and the Largo, Wagner's Enchantment of Holy Friday, and César Franck's Redemption. At the Theatre of the Porte-Saint Martin was a representation of the Passion Music in five acts and six tableaux by M. Harancourt, music by Bach, orchestrated by Hellemacher, and interpreted by various city actors. All the above on Good Friday evening.
27On Easter Sunday Gounod's Sainte Cecile mass was heard in ten churches and a mass by M. Sam. Rousseau in seven. Others were by Haydn, Cherubini, Hummel, Mozart, Pelot and Leprevost.
29Biblical adaptations are coming to be the order of the day in the city theatres here, and with marital badness of all sorts seem to comprise the sum of French dramatic inspiration. The Passion, The Child Jesus, The Mother of Judas, The Aunt of the Leper, The Road to the Cross, The Samarataine Woman, Joseph of Aremathæa were among recent ventures, in which the Saviour, the Virgin, the Apostles and good Magdalens promenade the footlights in paint and powder, wigs, false whiskers, mustaches, beards and sanctity, dramatizing freely the sacred word and thought which have cost the world oceans of blood shed in the interest of preservation.
31The voice of brass, solid and well kept, of the living trumpet Tamagno, the formidable volume, the savage cries, the bewildering climb up ladders of tone without the least effort, and the gestures of a barbarous chief on the warpath are stirring conventional operatic echoes to their depths. The abonnées were stricken aghast by the audacious flinging to the winds of their gilt-edged creeds at the first appearance, and by pure force applauded to the echo while waiting to decide what was to be done about it. The ovations were frenetic, and the four and five recalls, which, in comparison with our fifteen and twenty would be considered moderate, were signs of "intoxication" in the somewhat glacial nature of the National Academy. Tamagno made an Otello to be afraid of. The representation being for an occasion of benevolence, "Legue fraternelle of the children of France," added to the effort, the republic and monarchy being together represented, and nothing being lacking to produce a first-class sensation.
33Paderewski's appearance at the Gaité Théâtre on the afternoon of the 29th, also for a benevolent object, will be the next. At this concert will probably be played Le Dernier Jour and Roi Lear by the composer, Litloff, the latter a posthumous work. A marble bust is being made, to the purchase and inauguration of which part of the profits of the concert will go.
35The reappearance of La Dame Blanche has been an event at the Opéra Comique. Dainty, delicate little gem, typical of its day and generation, and differing from the cyclonic "Cromwellians" of our day as the dainty and delicate Watteau lady does from the howling and striding new woman of 1897. Don Juan and it hang among the year's productions of the second opera like two sweet miniatures on the walls of a modern boudoir, fraught with associations we love to picture, but no longer care to adopt. The gentle Boieldieu was shocked at the tendencies of Berlioz, saying that music must rock him to please him. His own music rocked, but it rocked well. Everything that is good of its kind is good. That is what makes La Dame Blanche a chef d'œuvre!
37Concerts still continue. There are three words in musical use that should be well weeded out as to meaning—the words "success," "artist" and "concert." They have so degenerated in signification that they are scarcely longer useful. There are altogether too many concerts everywhere and too little music.
39Among the exceptions as to sterling value were those of Mr. Henri Falcke, played to a select public which the Salle Erard could not quite contain. He surpassed himself in Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Grieg, Chopin, Liszt, Saint-Saëns, &c.; the closing Philharmonic, which reflected honor and credit upon the pluck and perseverance of M. Breitner, who, undaunted by first difficulties, sees his efforts crowned with success and the society close in good condition; a grand concert given by M. Léon Delafosse, whose virtuosity and talent as pianist have often been signaled; a grand charity concert by the Vicountess Tredern, who sang among the numbers a scene from César Frank's Hulda; three concerts by MM. Marsick and Bauer, with the assistance of the 'cellist Salmon; three concerts by Joseph Wieniawski, brother of the great violinist, whose first concert, a very interesting one, comprised the Bach-Raff chaconne, spoken of above; Schumann's Scheherazade and Agitato, Händel's Air Varie, Beethoven's sonata, op. 30, and Haydn's variations in F minor; a series of five concerts, comprising the thirty-two sonatas of Beethoven, played by the Conservatoire pupils of M. Raoul Pugno, an initiative that cannot fail of excellent results; two concerts given by the talented Miss Clotilde Kleeberg; auditions by the pupils of Mme. Hortense Parent and Lucien Bourgeois; a concert, with chorus, of works of the French composers Chabrier, Saint-Saëns, Dubois, Franck, d'Indy, Fauré, Rousseau, &c., given by M. Paul Brand, the much sought after Madame Bolska among the interpreters; Society of Ancient Musics, by M. Diemer & Co., from seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, among them fragments of Lulli's L'Amour Peinte, transcribed by Saint-Saëns. The concerts of M. Risler were superior musical events, and M. Botticelli played admirably an andantino by Grieg, and in selections from Peer Gynt, at a musical given by the Countess de Saussine.* M. Delafosse also lent his valuable talent to the exposition given in the Figaro salons, to such enthusiasm that the paper has decided to inaugurate a series of musicals to be so given periodically. Quintelle de Fleurs, by this young pianist, who is also composer, forms the musical page of the Figaro this week. The poem is by the Count de Montesquieu.
41Works of Paladilhe and Th. Puget at M. Panl Seguy's this week. M. Marcel's interesting Sunday séance was devoted to compositions of M. Joncières, accompanied by the author, sung by the pupils of the school. Many notable people were present, among them the sculptors Fagel and Theunisson, the painters Guillemet, Roussin and Métivet, and M. and Mme. Jean Richepin. Matinée musicales at the homes of M. Maurel, Madame Krauss and Mme. la General Bataille, and an interesting audition of the pupils of Mlle. Klara Gürtler, of 169 Boulevard Haussmann, associate in the school of Madame Krauss.
43Nikisch is coming to town to give a series of concerts. A salon is to be erected in the Garden of the Palais Royal. Bernhardt is playing La Samarataine and is expected to appear as the Virgin Mary before she stops. A chime is to be resurrected in the tower of the beautiful Church Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, near the Louvre. A monument is to be erected to the memory of Vieuxtemps, the great violinist. M. Marsick, one of his pupils, is busy arranging for a grand concert to be given at the Conservatoire in May for this object. A fête in London, the occasion of the inauguration of the new salons of Pleyel, Wolff and Cie, of Paris, of which M. Gustave Lyon is head. A feature of it, twin expositions of twin inventions due to the genius of M. Lyon, double piano and double harp. More anon.
45FANNIE EDGAR THOMAS.
47E. C. Towne.—The popular tenor, Mr. E. C. Towne, sang with such success in the performance of Samson and Delilah in Bridgeport, April 29, that he has been engaged for Goring Thomas' Sun Worshippers, to be given in the same city on May 11. In speaking of this concert the Bridgeport Union of April 30 said:
49Mr. E. C. Towne, as Samson, is an excellent tenor, although hardly of that robust character expected of Samson. He was perfectly able to handle the music, however, and acquitted himself very creditably.
51IMPORTANT TO MUSICAL DIRECTORS AND ARTISTS.
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59Complete Library of Concert Music for Orchestral use, including all the latest Suites and Novelties.
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