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Musical Courier 1897-11-03: Vol 35 Iss 922, 1897
70 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1the mordent the same way in which we meet it most pronouncedly in "Rienzi." Altogether I was much interested in this early work of Wagner, which, as well as the immediately following "Meistersinger" Vorspiel, the ripest fruit of the master's productive powers, was most brilliantly performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra under Nikisch's direction. The great conductor was called out many times at the close of the concert.
3The second program will contain Mozart's E flat and the Beethoven B flat symphonies, and as a novelty a serenade for string orchestra by Suk. Mattia Battistini will be the soloist of the second concert, which is to take place on October 25.
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7About the other concerts of the week I can be brief, as there was really very little of general importance to them. Herr Martin Oberdoerffer, concert and oratorio singer, from Leipsic, was heard, or rather was hardly heard, in a song recital he gave in Bechstein Saal. He has a very small voice, both in compass and in volume, but he does not lack taste in the delivery of his songs and his pronunciation is very clear. In a parlor and before a circle of musical friends his singing might give pleasure; in a concert room, be it even as small in size and as favorable in acoustics as is Mr. Wolff's pretty hall, Mr. Oberdoerffer's tiny tenor voice is not heard to the best advantage.
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11Miss Margarethe Eussert gave her annual piano recital and showed that she has retrograded since last I heard her. The Appassionata Sonata, by Beethoven, performed in a perfectly childish manner, convinced me of this. Miss Eussert is a pupil of Prof. Karl Klindworth, if I mistake not, and his star pupil. To say more is unnecessary.
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15At the Singakademie that same evening I attended part of a concert given jointly by Miss Wally Schauseil, of Dusseldorf, soprano, and Herr Friedrich Gruetzmacher, of Cologne, violoncellist. He is the son of the once famous old Fritz Gruetzmacher of the stiff arm. The son does much better bowing and showed considerable technic in Locatelli's D major sonata, as well as nice tone in a perfectly innocuous nocturne for violoncello in F major composed by Gruetzmacher, senior.
17Miss Schauseil was the delight of my younger days, when, in the latter part of the sixties and the early seventies she used to be the solo soprano at nearly all of the Netherhemish music festivals I attended. Neither vocally nor physically did she exercise the old charm. The voice is thin and passée, and only through very careful handling is an occasional break skillfully averted. The artistic intentions and good musical ear are, however, the same as of yore, and thus I enjoyed a couple of Massenet songs and an aria by Jornelli.
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21Wednesday night was a novelty night and by careful division of time I managed to hear three works heretofore unknown to me. This was first a sonata for piano and violin in F minor, op. 4, by William Kes. Kes is a veteran Hollander, an excellent violinist, musician and conductor, who for many years was concertmaster and conductor in Amsterdam and now is conductor at Glasgow. The latter fact may have been circumstantial in bringing about the dedication of the sonata to Prof. Ad. Brodsky, who is concertmaster at Glasgow. The work itself is not worth much, as it is devoid of inspiration and only mediocrily interesting as a piece of technical writing.
23A work of higher calibre in every way proved Wilhelm Berger's sonata for piano and violin in F major, op. 29, dedicated to Joseph Joachim. The composer was born in Boston in 1861, but seems to be as yet almost unknown in his native city or in the United States at large. Nevertheless he is one of the most talented and technically best equipped of American composers, whose larger and smaller works have been performed here with much success. Of the sonatas the D major andante grazioso is very pretty and the final movement, although not very original in invention throughout, is capital written and decidedly effective.
25Both works were well performed by Messrs. Coenraad V. Bos, pianist, and Joseph M. van Veen, violinist, two young Hollanders who have made the performance of new sonatas a much to be praised specialty.
27Between these two novelties was placed the not entirely unknown sonata for piano and violin by César Franck, but as I have heard this work before and did not find it over interesting, I hurried from the Bechstein Saal to the Philharmonic, where on the same evening a new symphony had its first performance in Berlin.
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31This was the B minor symphony, op. 10, by J. Rebicék, the new conductor of the Philharmonic popular concerts, who took this early opportunity of acquainting the frequenters of these really popular musical entertainments with the fact that he is a composer as well as a conductor—as well, but not quite as good, for Rebicék is surely a better conductor than a composer.
33Nevertheless the symphony in question is a very pretty, amiable and thoroughly pleasing work. It is not over exciting in point of invention, which is of the smallest calibre, the ideas being barely large enough for symphonic treatment, but Rebicék manages to fill the form with them. The orchestration is not very modern, but it is by no means bad; above all, it sounds well. The whole work might well be classed among the Mendelssohn sort of symphony, from which composer Herr Rebicék kindly purloined the main theme of the last movement of his work. The conductor-composer interpreted his work with much animation, and had the gratification of its being received with much applause by his audience.
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37The Marquis de Souza, a very portly nobleman from Portugal, presented his portentous voice at a concert of his own at the Philharmonie. He had been heard and seen, very much heard and seen, before at a performance of "Pagliacci," at which he made his first and last appearance at the Royal Opera House. His figure would not do very well for the operatic stage except in the personation of Falstaff, for which part alone, however, he could not very well expect to be engaged. He sang the prologue to "Pagliacci" very well at the Opera House, and repeated the success he then achieved at his own concert. He has a baritone voice to match his burly frame, but he bellows out his high notes so tremendously that they sound un-noble and by no means pleasing to the educated ear, although their very powerfulness astounds and delights the groundlings. Besides the "Pagliacci" prologue Señor de Souza has one more battle horse, and this he likewise trotted out on this occasion. It was, you will all say, "of course" the toreador song from "Carmen." The rest of his program consisted of songs by such eminent and classical composers as Denza, Rotoli and Quaranta.
39Of superior interest at this concert was the "assistance" of Anton Hekking, who with Leonard Liebling's refined and musically accompaniment, performed some of his best "selections" for the 'cello. I particularly enjoyed a little melody in E minor by Massenet. Hekking's beautiful tone and flawless technic have not fallen off any during these last years of his absence from America.
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43Mr. S. Herzog, a pupil of Tausig and an old friend and fellow student of Rafael Joseffy, gave a r'entrée piano recital the same evening. He had lived for some years in Frankfort, but now has returned to the German capital for good. Mr. Herzog creates the impression of being a refined and very sensitive musician, but much too nervous to be able to do himself and his abilities as a pianist justice before an audience. Of the numbers on his program which I had a chance to listen to I liked best the Tschai-kowsky G minor barcarolle, a very pretty and rarely heard Brautlied in G major by Volkmann, and Liszt's "Gnomenreigen."
45Court 'cellist Heinrich Gruenfeld contributed to the evening's enjoyment an elegy in D minor composed by the concert-giver, Moszkowski's "Guitarré" and an encore, all played in Gruenfeld's finished and amiable style.
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49Last night I heard two violinists and two vocalists. Miss Frieda Crampe played Wieniawski's D minor violin concerto with big tone, sufficient technic and a musical surety which could not be shaken even when Otto Bake got badly mixed up in the accompaniment to the slow movement.
51At this concert Miss Vera Goldberg, a protégée of the Royal High School, sang some Lieder with considerable lack of expression, and in the case of Schumann's "Aufträge" with ludicrous misconception of the composition and the contents of the text. So far the Hochschule has not turned out many great singers.
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55At the Singakademie I was introduced to just one more Wunderkind. It is a boy of twelve years with the regulation long hair, knickerbockers and large-sized sailor collar. Nevertheless the kid with the unpronounceable name of Leopold Przemysler is a genuine talent. I heard the last movement of the Mendelssohn violin concerto and was astonished at the brilliancy of the performance and the cleanliness of the intonation. Greater breadth might have been employed in the gavot and minuet from Bach's unaccompanied E major sonata, but on the whole the performance was a remarkable one for a boy of twelve. The technic displayed in Ries' "Perpetuum Mobile" was likewise stunning in one of so tender years. If the boy keeps well and is not spoiled by premature praise he will achieve renown.
57At this concert Miss Julie Mueller-Hartung, from Weimar, a niece of Carl Schurz, and an alto well remembered in New York, pleased the audience with the careful singing of the "Deh per Questo" aria from Mozart's "Tito" and three of Schumann's Lieder. I wonder who took it upon himself to improve (?) that Mozart aria?
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61Mme. Anna Lankow, the eminent voice builder, leaves for New York via Rotterdam on next Wednesday by the Spaarndam.
63Concerning Madame Lankow's plan for removing her field of work for Americans to Berlin, I think both parties will be satisfied with the shape in which she intends it. Even a home will be opened for Americans by a well-known American lady. Especially since agents and musicians heard those splendid phonographical records of Mr. S. P. Hecht and Mr. Andrews Schneider, of which I have written before, everyone of them thinks that Americans have great chances on the German stage if they can sing good German.
65Madame Lankow has opened negotiations with most of the important music managers and theatre directors, and will in the coming two years of her remaining in New York select those pupils whom she deems worthy of transplanting to the future field of her labor and their presumable success.
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69Mr. A. K. Virgil, of clavier fame, who is now in Berlin, where he has opened classes for instruction in the use of
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