Scan 6
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 7. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE MUSICAL COURIER.
3GERMAN HEADQUARTERS OF THE MUSICAL COURIER.
4BERLIN, W., LINKSTRASSE 17, April 20, 1897.
6WELL, our concert is over, a thing of the past, and the long looked for event, by all of us anticipated with almost as much fear and anxiety as pleasure, proved to be an unqualified success in every direction.
8This much I think I can state according to truth, without appearing to be unduly immodest. I owe it also to my colleagues on the program, and above all to our grand teacher, friend and guide, Otis B. Boise, and to Royal Court Conductor Dr. Carl Muck, who so generously placed his eminent services at the disposal of five aspiring young composers unknown to fame. Under his trusty baton the Philharmonic artists were able to cope with the manuscript parts so well that with only two rehearsals (lack of time and too many other engagements forbade further rehearsals) this excellent and well trained orchestra was able to give us an adequate reproduction of the following program:
10Concert overture………………………………….Charles Hulton
11Scherzo, for orchestra………………………………Edmund Hertz
12Andante, from F major suite……………………….Ernest Carter
13Suite, Lorna Doone…………………………………Arthur Nevin one of two readings
14Suite, Lorna Doone………………………………..Arthur Nevin one of two readings
15Daybreak.
16At the Brook.
17Love Song.
18The Passing of the Doones.
19Suite miniature, A Love Novel……………………..Otto Floersheim
20Prélèmble à la Sérénade.
21Idyll.
22Ball Scene (Valse Gracieuse).
23A vow.
24Love's Rapture.
25Bridal Procession.
26Sonata, for violin and piano……………………….Edmund Hertz
27Performed by Herr Franz Fink with the composer.
28Symphony in C minor (first movement)…………..Charles Hulton
30It is of course out of the question that I could pass judgment upon the works of my colleagues on the program, even if, as is actually the case, this judgment be very strongly in their favor. I must therefore content myself with translating for you the opinions of my Berlin confrères of the press, who are singularly unanimous and quite extraordinarily generous in their expressions of praise and recognition.
32The Berlin Tageblatt says: "This was no pupils' concert in the ordinary sense of the term. All the compositions show diligent study and admirable teaching. No tone of the composers is without talent, but all of them have in common an advantage which is evidently the result of the Boise musical education—they have all learned that (as Goethe says) 'in limitation a master asserts himself.' They all avoid, most happily, the danger of loquacity, with which otherwise the young composers of the modern school so frequently bore us. The five gentlemen who gave the concert know, all of them, how to treat the form. It is most easily handled by Mr. Charles Hulton, who in a symphony movement evinces a most surprising sureness in the technic of composition and an extraordinary gift of combination. A suite, Lorna Doone by Arthur Nevin, is distinguished through characteristic orchestration; especially The Passing of the Doones, sounds very original. A sonata for violin and piano by Edmund Hertz awakens the most favorable hopes for the further development of the young composer. All the works, which were excellently performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra under Dr. Muck's practiced guidance, attracted the listeners and brought applause to the authors."
34The Lokal Anzeiger says: "All the works showed a very strongly developed feeling for form, and above all a beneficial melodic invention, two qualities which in our modern times belong among the rarities. The public knew how to appreciate this, and would have liked to have heard several of the movements da capo. A concert overture in G minor, by Hulton, which formed the introduction to the rich program, pleased through its clear exposition, fresh thematic workmanship and effective instrumentation. The scherzo of Hertz is short, but well worked out. Nevin's Lorna Doone suite pleased, especially through its flourishing colors, pretty invention and piquant orchestration. The last movement, the Passing of the Doones, is very characteristic, effective and original, and the whole suite will probably soon be found on many programs."
36The Berlin Boersen Courier praises the modern orchestration and the powerful development in Hulton's symphony, Satz; Hertz's fetching (flott) but very simple scherzo, and is especially pleased with Ernest Carter's andante, which the critic says belongs among the best of the offerings of the evening. "There were some places full of temperament in this very melodious movement, which made it very sympathetic. The Lorna Doone suite of Nevin is on the whole very graceful (anmerthig), but the prettiest was the Passing of the Doones, a very delicate (zartlich) little piece, which contains some elfin spook music, and which, in order to gain the highest effect, might even have been a little longer." one of two readings
37The Berlin Boersen Courier praises the modern orchestration and the powerful development in Hulton's symphony, Satz; Hertz's fetching (flott) but very simple scherzo, and is especially pleased with Ernest Carter's andante, which the critic says belongs among the best of the offerings of the evening. "There were some places full of temperament in this very melodious movement, which made it very sympathetic. The Lorna Doone suite of Nevin is on the whole very graceful (anmerthig), but the prettiest was the Passing of the Doones, a very delicate (zeflich) little piece, which contains some elfin spook music, and which, in order to gain the highest effect, might even have been a little longer." one of two readings
39The Berlin Herold also mentions the beautiful workmanship in the movement from Carter's suite, and of the Hertz sonata. The Taegliche Rundschau praises the tone painting orchestration in Nevin's suite, and the Staatsburger Zeitung discourses upon the melodic gift and sense of form of the American composer.
41It would carry me too far and surely would weary you if I were to quote all of the papers. They all of them make this mistake, however, of calling us five Americans. In reality only Carter and Nevin are Americans. Mr. Hulton is an Englishman and Mr. Hertz a Pole, while I have the honor to be a German-American. It is out of the question that I should state anything about the success of my own little suite, nor shall I quote the opinions of the Berlin press on the same, for I consider that both the public and my confrères of the quill have been far too kind to me and have praised the work entirely beyond its very modest merits.
43Simultaneously with the above described concert at the Philharmonic took place the tenth and last symphony evening of the Royal Orchestra under Weingartner's direction at the Royal Opera House. As I knew beforehand that I could not attend the concert proper, I went to the public rehearsal, which for once was given in the evening, Thursday, no other concert taking place that same night of Holy Week. This public rehearsal was likewise entirely sold out.
45The program underwent a change in so far as Brahms' Tragic overture was very appropriately substituted for the originally announced Faust overture by Spohr, which twice postponed work will now have to be held over until next season.
47Regarding the Brahms overture I have always had the feeling that its title is a misnomer. The work seems to me more of an elegiac than of a tragic character. Tragic element must be based upon dramatic action, while this Brahms overture bears the tinge of melancholy mood portrayal. Augmented was this feeling through Weingartner's reading. I am told that in Vienna, when this overture was placed on the program of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Weingartner, after the death of Brahms, the committee of the orchestra felt it incumbent upon itself to wait upon the Berlin Court Opera conductor and inform him that they could not and would not play the overture under his baton unless he would conform the tempi so as to agree at least approximately with those taken by Brahms himself and by the late Hans von Bülow, under whose conductorship the Philharmonic Orchestra had repeatedly performed this overture. Weingartner gracefully enough yielded the point, and thus we had also last Thursday night a conceptionally fair reading of the work, albeit the opening phrases were still taken somewhat too rapidly.
49Haydn's Oxford symphony in G major was charmingly and most gracefully interpreted, and above all I can praise without even the slightest reserve the performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with which Weingartner is wont to close his cycle of symphony evenings. He seems to have grown into the work completely, and he gave it the most powerful and at times intense reading that I have heard for many years. The closing choral portions, sung by the Royal Opera chorus, also went well this time, and a special providence watched over the solo quartet (Mmes. Herzog and Goetz and Messrs. Gudehus and Staudigl), who at this rehearsal brought out the difficult and by no means very grateful ensemble in a nearly flawless style.
51There was no lack of enthusiasm at the rehearsal, and after the concert proper Weingartner is reported to have received a great many ovations.
53***
55The Philharmonic Orchestra gave us also in Berlin a Brahms commemoration concert, which under Professor Mannstaedt's direction took place at the Philharmonie a week ago to-day, and was attended by a very large and evidently much impressed audience.
57The program, which opened with the Bach chorale Wenn ich Einmal soll Scheiden, from the St. Matthew Passion Music, pathetically performed on the organ by Georg Hoffmann, brought of orchestral works the funeral march from Beethoven's Eroica symphony, Brahms' Tragic overture and his C minor symphony, all very earnestly and for the greater part very adequately performed by the orchestra under its soon departing conductor, Mannstaedt.
59As vocal soloist at this concert Herr Prof. Felix Schmidt sang the four Serious Songs by Brahms, in the contents and mood of which the composer shows us that he realized and anticipated that his end was near at hand. Professor Schmidt, whose bass voice is not one of the most sonorous or most vibrant quality, delivered the Lieder with so much nobility and tenderness of expression and such consummate art of phrasing and diction that he touched everybody in the audience and was most enthusiastically applauded. The gem of the four songs, O Death, How Bitter Art Thou (Jesus Sirach, Chap. 41), was, as usual, redemanded.
61***
63The program of the Wednesday Philharmonic regular popular concert was also a very interesting one, and contained as novelty some pretty, characteristic and quite effective miniature pictures for orchestra by Eduard Hartog. They are collectively entitled Wood Scenes, and are still in manuscript. I liked best the two little movements described as a Night in Autumn and Spring's Awakening.
65The program further contained the three first movements from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the Good Friday Spell from Parsifal, and the Euryanthe and Flying Dutchman overtures.
67***
69Otherwise Holy Week, as usual, brought very few concerts. The Singakademie chorus, however, gave on Good Friday, under Prof. Martin Blummer's direction, its customary performance of Bach's immortal St. Matthew Passion Music. It was the sixty-sixth time that the most colossal work of sacred music contained in the literature of all times was performed since Mendelssohn brought it to the cognizance of the musical world of his day in 1829. The Singakademie thus can boast of a real tradition, and through
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