Scan 4
Musical Courier 1898-01-05: Vol 36 Iss 931, 1898
74 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 5. See the scan on archive.org.
1BRITISH OFFICES THE MUSICAL COURIER,
221 PRINCES STREET, CAVENISH SQUARE,
3LONDON, W., December 17, 1897.
5MORIZ ROSENTHAL has now decided on some of his London appearances in the spring. He will make his re-entree here March 1, with the Philharmonic Society, and his three recitals in St. James' Hall, with interesting programs have already been arranged. He will, in addition, make a number of provincial appearances.
7Miss Ella Russell, who has always made herself very popular in Edinburgh, having been the recipient of many special favors from the students there, was selected to open the new McEwan Concert Hall, which she did on Wednesday, carrying away with her as a souvenir a gold medal and heart pendant, bearing the Edinburgh arms. To illustrate how busy this eminent prima donna is, she had to appear at the Crystal Palace rehearsal Thursday, and in Birmingham Friday evening. Miss Russell's popularity is so great, and efficient singers are so few—that is really great artists—that she has as much to do as she can possibly manage.
9Anton Wilhelmj, son of the famous violinist, has been appointed professor of the violin at the Belfast Conservatory of Music.
11It is rumored that Mme. Patti contemplates giving in February a series of concerts in Scandinavia.
13Herr Popper, who has made us quite a visit, and whose violoncello playing is as popular here as ever, returns to the Continent next week.
15Signor Busoni, having given his last piano recital, has returned to the Continent, where he has engagements in Vienna.
17It is stated that Colonel Henry Mapleson intends to produce "Andrea Chenier," by Giordano, at the Olympic Theatre soon after the first of the year. At any rate the theatre is undergoing alterations and redecoration, so it looks as if the rumor had some foundation. I shall be able to give more authoritative information on this in the course of a week or so.
19Miss Susan Strong sang the principal aria from this work with much success Saturday afternoon at Queen's Hall.
21A curious anomaly exists here with regard to musical copyright. It has been found that a man can sell in the streets non-copyright editions of any work, and the only redress the publisher who owns the copyright has, is that he can take away from the man whatever copies he finds in his possession, but cannot give him in charge for violating the act. This has led to much agitation, and a bill is now in preparation to be laid before Parliament, for the purpose of correcting this anomaly.
23Messager's "L'Petit Michu," which was successfully brought out at the Bouffes Parisiens, Paris, the 17th ult, will be eventually produced in London, probably as a successor to "The Geisha" at Daly's.
25"Mlle. Pygmalion," Thorne's play without words, will shortly be produced in Paris, and will, after a run there, be given in London. Miss Ethel Ross Selwicke will take the title role.
27Madame Nordica has contributed an article to the Golden Penny, entitled "Advice to Young Singers." It contains some excellent hints, and as it is written by a singer of great experience and success, it should be valuable to all aspiring vocalists.
29At the Crystal Palace to-morrow afternoon, there will be a stage performance, under August Manns, of the second act of the "Flying Dutchman;" the two principal parts being taken by Miss Ella Russell and Mr. Ludwig. Other numbers on the program will be the Prelude from "Lohengrin" and selections from the third act of "Die Meistersinger."
31This has been a week of students' concerts. The pupils of the Guildhall School of Music closed their term with a very good performance indeed of Sullivan's "Golden Legend," under the conductorship of W. H. Cummings. In Queen's Hall the students of the Royal Academy of Music held their winter concert, under Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the chief item of the program being Dr. Stanford's Requiem, which I dealt with at length in my report of the Birmingham Festival. This composition will be performed in the spring by the Bach Choir, under the composer's direction.
33Robert Newman is going to try a new departure in Queen's Hall, Xmas week, by providing an entertainment principally for children, under the title of "Merry Afternoons with Young and Old." These entertainments open the 27th inst., and will be held every afternoon at 3 o'clock until the 31st. Among the items on the bill are animated photography, Punch and Judy show, performing dogs, ventriloquism, conjuring, musical clowns, jugglery, acrobatic feats, &c.
35Alberto Visetti, the well-known vocal teacher, has been seriously ill the past week, though we understand he is now on the road to recovery.
37Edvard Grieg, who has this season attracted so much attention in musical circles, will leave England next Thursday for the Continent, after a visit to some friends in Manchester. During the next few months he and his wife will go to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Leipsic and other German towns, not returning to their home, near Bergen, until April.
39Clark Russell, in the "Wreck of the Grosvenor," speaks of the jingling of a concertina or fiddle. Fancy a fiddle jingling, and in conjuction with a concertina, too!
41Edgar F. Jacques has been appointed to the Queen Victoria lectureship at Trinity College, and the subject of his first series of lectures will be "The Psychology of Musical Appreciation."
43Signorina Emma Boccardo will make her first appearance at St. James' Hall this evening, when she will be assisted by Signor Guetary and Mr. Aramis.
45The King of Sweden has conferred upon Lady Hallé, in personal audience, the gold medal of arts, set in diamonds. The gifted violinist, with Leonard Borwick, gave three crowded concerts at the Royal Academy of Music, Stockholm.
47Our Manchester correspondent writes that a bust of Sir Charles Hallé was unveiled on Thursday last at the City Art Gallery. Lady Halleé was present and pronounced the bust an excellent likeness. The work is by Onslo Ford. The balance of the subscriptions will be used to establish a scholarship, value £30 per annum, for piano playing.
49Although Max Bruch, the composer of the "Glocke," "Achilles" and "Odysseus," and a number of choral works, as well as the famous G minor violin concerto, is in need of financial assistance, his English contemporaries do not seem to have made any move towards meeting the emergency. I believe he conducted a season of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society's concerts and has been more or less in England during his career.
51Messrs. Thibouville-Lamy are introducing to London their new five-stringed violin tenor Altermann. It is the same size as the violin, and it is intended that the fifth string shall be used as a bass, so that the instrument can serve either as a violin or as a tenor.
53On the 2d inst. Berlioz's "Trojans" was given for the first time in Manchester by the Hallé orchestra, and our correspondent from there writes: "The reception of this truly great work by the general public can only be described as disappointing in the highest degree. The music is melodious and for the most part as easy to follow as Händel or Mozart; all the elements of pomp, dignity, sublimity, simplicity and pathos are duly represented. The solo vocalists—Mme. Marie Duma, Mrs. Katharine Fisk, Miss Lizzie Burgess, Messrs. Edward Lloyd, Hirwen Jones and Douglas Powell—sang each and all with enthusiasm and evident enjoyment of the beautiful music allotted to them; yet, with the exception of Mr. Lloyd's magnificent declamation in the scene before the entry of the spectres—which was loudly applauded—and Hirwen Jones' sympathetic rendering of Lopas' lovely song of home, their efforts won only the most perfunctory approval. Nor was the orchestra more successful in the purely instrumental numbers, though Mr. Cowen's masterly handling of his forces has rarely been more conspicuously exhibited. Every point was seized and effectively expressed; indeed, with the trifling exception of a slight misunderstanding between conductor and chorus in the final scene, nothing like a hitch was anywhere apparent throughout the entire work. The coldness of the audience may be partly due to the blase feeling induced by the emotional demands of the two recent Wagner performances and partly to the marked absence in the 'Trojans' of the bizarre and sensational elements which Berlioz employs so freely in his 'Faust.' Whatever the cause, the apathetic reception of so fine a masterpiece, so finely performed, must be sincerely deplored by all music lovers, some of whom will still continue to cherish the hope that Manchester may have an early opportunity of reconsidering its judgment."
55Sir Arthur Sullivan has given permission to the Royal Carl Rosa Company to perform on the stage as an opera his cantata "The Martyr of Antioch." The book, by the late Dean Millman, readily lends itself to dramatic treatment, and the details of the production will be in the experienced hands of T. H. Friend. New scenery and dresses are being prepared for the first performance, which will take place early in the new year.
57Expressions of sincere regret are heard here at the sudden death of Alphonse Daudet, who had many readers in London.
59One of the most dastardly outrages that has ever been perpetrated in London was the assassination, Thursday evening, of William Terriss, the popular English actor, who was taking the leading part in the American drama, "Secret Service." As all my readers will know, long before this reaches them, he was fatally stabbed by a half crazy, jealous super. The dramatic world has lost one of its most able and at the same time amiable actors.
61Mr. and Mrs. Georg Liebling left London yesterday for a five or six weeks' trip to Algiers, where Mr. Liebling goes to fulfill professional engagements.
63The first meeting of the general committee of the Leeds Festival was held on the 14th inst. at the Town Hall, Leeds, when T. R. Spark was re-elected honorary secretary, this being the eighth time he has filled this position. Sir Arthur Sullivan was also appointed conductor, and the usual committees were regularly elected, the necessary formalities for the commencement of the work being gone through. During the meeting the question of the pitch to be used at the festival was discussed, and it was unanimously decided that the diapason normal should be used. This victory, after such a long discussion, will be pleasing to all who have taken an interest in the cause of art, in having the compositions given in the same pitch as that for which they were composed.
65CONCERTS.
67Perhaps the large attendance at the Albert Hall last Thursday for Berlioz's "Faust" may induce the Royal Choral Society to give us more secular works than they have done in the past. Sacred oratorio is undoubtedly more popular in England than anywhere else in the world, but a leaven of worldliness is by no means despised, and comes as a welcome relief to both choir and audience. And in the realm of sacred music surely our famous old society might venture a little more from the beaten track. We have had "Elijah," and we are promised the "Messiah" twice, "Creation," "Redemption," and "Golden Legend," but in the way of novelty only Franco Leoni's "Gate of Life," a revival of Beethoven's "Ruins of Athens," and a repetition of Sir J. F. Bridges "Flag of England." Liverpool is far ahead of London in the way of choral novelties.
69To return to Thursday night's performance. The chorus sang extremely well, as regards precision and accuracy, but left something to be desired in the more delicate passages, while the rollicking spirit was not fully brought out in the students' songs. The great size of the Albert Hall is, of course, against delicacy of treatment, but Sir J. F. Bridge would have done better had he relaxed his inexorable beat occasionally, and given us a touch of abandon, a quality most essential to a good rendering of the French composer's work. The solos were intrusted to Miss Ella Russell, who sang with much grace and sweetness; Ben Davies, a satisfactory Faust; Andrew Black, Mephistopheles, and Dan Price in the small part of Brander.
71There was a time not far distant when the announcement of the "Kreutzer Sonata" at a Saturday Popular Concert was sufficient to fill St. James' Hall from floor to roof, but front places in the-balcony might still have been had last Saturday when Mlle. Kleeberg and Mr. Kruse began the favorite piece. I do not think the reason of the sparse attendance is due to any diminution of musical zeal among amateurs; it is rather the other way. There are now so many who can play the "Kreutzer Sonata" for themselves, and its comparative failure to draw the public need not be wondered at nor lamented. But the continued indifference shown toward new works of the highest class is much to be deplored, and may be taken as a sign that we are not, in truth, a musical people. There are hundreds of amateurs ready to cry shame, as they read of the great composers hardly able to obtain a hearing for some of their best works, but they are equally unready to go to hear the productions of modern masters.
73D'Albert's quartet, which was given for the second time last Saturday, ought to have been welcomed with enthusiastic interest and delight, whereas the event has passed almost unnoticed. Study of the score and a second hearing have convinced me that in this quartet we have a work which must be admitted into the inner circle of fine chamber music. It is not one of those clever performances which lead one to say of the composer that he may one day do great things; it is already a masterpiece. The scherzo, so daring and original, with its rushing quavers and irregular 5-4 rhythms, was the most striking movement at the first hearing. Further acquaintance leads me to consider the first movement as perhaps the best; its constructive skill is equaled by its beauty and dignity, the only suggestion I can make being that in places it may be too orchestral. The adagio might be placed side by side with the finest utterances of Beethoven or Brahms,
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.