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Musical Courier 1897-07-14: Vol 35 Iss 906, 1897
40 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 8. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE Diamond Jubilee, with all its pomp and glory, is now a matter of history. Months have been consumed in extensive preparations for the celebration of the sixtieth year of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's reign, and no pains were spared to make each event in the long list of ceremonies full worthy of the occasion.
3Interest naturally centred in the grand pageant on Tuesday, when the royal procession (which took an hour to pass a given point) wended its way through some of our leading thoroughfares, and Her Majesty held a brief service in front of St. Paul's Cathedral. The choir of the cathedral, under the newly made knight, Sir George Martin, evidently needed a reinforcement for this occasion, and the choice of recruits did not reflect the greatest credit upon this distinguished musician, for some of his new members would hardly excel as choristers.
5Imagine Sir A. C. Mackenzie, Dr. J. F. Bridge, or Dr. Hubert Parry joining heartily in one of the grand choruses in this Te Deum! It would probably be largely a feat of the imagination, for no one, not even their near neighbors was conscious of their adding an iota to the grand volume of tone so impressive on this occasion. These were not the only ones, however, who were thus diplomatically asked to get as near and clear a view of the all important ceremony, for the distinguished appearance of Mr. Joseph Bennett was at once perceptible in the front ranks of the choir. His confrère, Mr. Fuller Maitland, was not far away, and among other music critics who were thus able to be present were Mr. Blackburn, Mr. Klein, and Mr. Barclay Squire. Other musicians similarly favored were Dr. Hopkins, Dr. Creser, Mr. W. H. Cummings, Mr. Randegger, Mr. Albert Visetti and Mr. W. S. Hoyte.
7His inconsiderate numbers, however, cut very little figure in the grand chorus of 550 voices and the band of over 200 instrumentalists, who all joined in a remarkably impressive rendering of Sir George's work, which was highly appropriate to the occasion. The rest of the musical service does not call for mention, and as the gorgeous spectacle has been so fully described in the daily press of the world a description here would be superfluous.
9The state performance at the opera was the most brilliant ever given here, not from the standpoint of the musicians, but on account of the importance of the occasion, the decorations of the house, costumes and general spectacular effect.
11The company of Guards outside of the gates bespoke something exceptional, an impression more than confirmed by the appearance of Beefeaters on duty within; and when the theatre was once gained a truly superb sight struck the eyes. Covent Garden had become a huge bower of roses, together with innumerable orchids, all springing from a mass of deliciously cool and restful green which covered the entire house. The fronts of the boxes and the pillars were entirely covered with flowers, dark crimson roses on the lower tiers, red ones above, a still lighter red over these and white at the top of all. These were relieved, or rather they were set off and had their rich beauty emphasized, by bouquets of the rarer exotics; and everywhere were greens of various shades, rose leaves, feathery ferns and combinations, tasteful in the extreme.
13The house, indeed, made a most suitable setting for the company, the ladies in their richest dresses and with their most brilliant collections of jewels; the men for the most part in uniforms of so varied a character that one almost wondered what regiment could have been omitted. Levee dress was common, and by the side of the black velvet the colors of the officers' coats appeared the brighter by contrast; ordinary evening dress was the exception.
15JUBILEE HONORS.
17It is gratifying to see that the art of music has not been forgotten in the distribution of jubilee honors, and that the Order of Knighthood is to be conferred on our two principal London organists, Dr. Martin, of St. Paul's Cathedral, and Dr. J. F. Bridge, of Westminster Abbey. In addition to these Her Majesty has appointed Sir Arthur Sullivan Member of the Fourth Class, and Signor Paolo Tosti Honorary Member of the Fourth Class of the Royal Victorian Order. All of these four musicians are so well known that their claims to distinction will be at once recognized, and any details about them would be superfluous.
19CONCERTS.
21The Philharmonic concert on the 17th was naturally devoted to a celebration of the record reign, and opened appropriately with the society's old favorite, Weber's Jubilee overture, under the baton of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, and closed with the conductor's Britannia overture. The number round which most interest centred was Mr. Edward German's In Commemoration fantasia, a composition which shows good workmanship in the skillful treatment of themes, but which scarcely ranks above other occasional music. It was expected that the national airs would be drawn upon, but Mr. German has given original themes and decidedly noisy orchestration. The audience was, of course, inclined to receive anything with such a title with enthusiasm, and Mr. German, who conducted, was recalled twice at the close.
23Of far more value is Mr. F. H. Cowen's Dream of Endymion, a perfectly exquisite setting for tenor of a portion of Keat's beautiful poem. Nothing Mr. Cowen has written for a long time is its equal in grace, imagination and subtle power, and sung as it was by Mr. Ben Davies, who was in splendid voice; it was not at all surprising to hear the applause which followed. Both singer and composer were obliged to return to the platform several times. It was rather a pity that Mr. Leo Stern should have made his re-appearance in London with so dull a work as the Tschaikowsky variations for 'cello and orchestra, which sound more like exercises for the instrument than a concert number. Mr. Stern, however, did all that was possible with his hopeless task, and played with his usual taste and technical proficiency. Miss Aus der Ohe was also very satisfactory in Schumann's piano concerto, which brought out the higher qualities of the playing, refinement, artistic conception and exquisite degree of light and shade. Mendelssohn's Scotch symphony and, of course, the National Anthem concluded a program which, as regards length, might well be called Early Victorian.
25Last Thursday M. Gabrilowitsch, the Viennese pianist, confirmed the good impression made at his first recital, for every item on the program was given an exceedingly fine rendering. Beethoven's rondo in G was played with exquisite delicacy, Chopin's D flat prelude with much romance, and the B minor scherzo with brilliance and clearness. Brahms' Capriccio in B minor, the Schumann Fantaisie, Paderewski's variations, Tschaikowsky's Chant sans Paroles, Mendelssohn's E minor fugue, some pieces by Schütt and Rubinstein, and a dainty serenade by the pianist himself made up a very interesting program.
27Mlle. Chaminade's concert on the 10th inst. attracted a large number of her admirers to St. James' Hall, and some had to be turned away. The compositions of this lady are so well known that many of the songs were greeted like old friends, but Madame Marchesi and Signor Ancona introduced some novelties from her fertile pen, which though beautifully sung hardly surpassed the older compositions. Miss Clara Butt had chosen for her second song Rêve d'un Soir, which deserves particular notice. It has the usual melodious flow peculiar to this composer, but at the same time a dreamy depth appropriate to the words, and is beautifully harmonized. Contraltos should add it to their repertory: it is so vocal that one might suppose that Mlle. Chaminade was a professor of singing as well. M. Johannes Wolff was heard also, and Mlle. Ten Have joined Mlle. Chaminade in several duets for two pianos.
29On June 12, in spite of a tropical heat, a large audience assembled in St. James' Hall to greet their old favorite, Sarasate, and his clever associate, Dr. Otto Neitzel, of Cologne, who quite recently met with a very serious accident to his left foot, but who, rather than disappoint his brother artist and the public, came on to the platform limping and supported by a stick to take his wonted seat at the piano. Needless to say, Sarasate once more fully asserted his magnetic influence over his enthusiastic admirers. Clear and sweet were the notes which the master-fiddler drew from his fine instrument, but we had now and again occasion to notice a thinness of tone, especially in some passages from Emile Bernard's concerto for violin and piano. An evidently musically untrained listener thought the shortcoming must lie with the pianist, and he expressed himself to this effect, but his outburst was at once energetically suppressed by the audience. Besides the aforementioned concerto Sarasate played in masterly style Bach's sonata No. 3, for violin and piano, and two soli from his own pen, Muñifera and Le Chant du Rossignol. As a matter of fact Sarasate's program is never long enough for his audience, and he was vociferously asked for two extras, which he good naturedly gave. Dr. Otto Neitzel elicited genuine applause by rendering in a musicianly manner and with artistic feeling three pieces by Beethoven, namely, Bagatelle, For Elise (Albumblatt) and The Rage Over a Lost Penny.
31THE STATE PERFORMANCE.
33To accommodate the royal guests, in whose honor the performance was given, eight boxes on the grand tier facing the stage had been converted into one huge box.
35God Save the Queen greeted the entrance of their Royal Highnesses, and no sooner had the orchestra finished the strains than the curtain rose, displaying a bust of the Queen rising from a superb cascade of flowers. The prime donne on one side, the contralti and several of the leading members of the opera company on the other, then sang the National Anthem, Mesdames Melba, Eames, and MacIntyre singing the first verse; and how it was received by such an audience, on such an occasion, need not be described. Programs on white satin with silver fringe were distributed, containing portraits of Her Majesty as she was in 1837 and is now, together with likenesses of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of York and their son. The State Performance, it was announced, was "to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of Her Majesty's accession to the throne," and included the second act of Tannhäuser, the third act of Romeo et Juliette, and fourth act of Les Huguenots. No feature in this performance calls for special comment.
37OPERA AT COVENT GARDEN.
39A performance of Lohengrin in German on Thursday night introduced to London Herr Dippel, a German tenor, fairly well known on the Continent. His voice is rather light but pleasing, and he uses it with commendable discretion. His acquaintance with Wagnerian traditions was evident, and his acting heightened the effect of his singing. This is as it should be, and he will undoubtedly prove useful to the management. Miss MacIntyre was the Elsa, and the cast further included Mr. Schumann Heink, Mr. Edouard de Reszké, Mr. Pringle and Herr Brucks. The latter, whose style was too exaggerated to please a refined audience,
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