Scan 16
Musical Courier 1898-05-25: Vol 36 Iss 951, 1898
52 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 17. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE MUSICAL COURIER.
3charged with their care. After the death of the dogs the property at Middletown is to be divided among the heirs of Mr. Seidl and his wife in equal shares.
5Mr. Seidl left little property. The will was executed April 21, 1897. The child of Mr. Seidl's brother, Carl, who lives in Budapest, Germany, receives $1,000. Mr. Seidl's magnificent collection of Wagner music, which he obtained during his long career as a musician, goes to the Richard Wagner Museum, at Weimar, Germany. The residue of the estate is bequeathed to Auguste E. Seidl, his widow, and she is named executrix.
7In the petition filed with the will the value of the personal property is placed at $3,800. There is no real estate. It is stated in the petition that it is impossible to place any value upon the musical library.
9The Richard Wagner Museum is in Eisenach, not in Weimar. If, as the Herald states, there is no real estate, how can the income of the real estate in Middletown be used toward supporting the pets? It is highly probable that the Middletown real estate is mortgaged to its full value; it is generally so understood. Mr. Seidl left a large library of orchestral music, but it is not the only available library of similar symphonic works and of overtures, arrangements, suites, symphonic poems, &c. There are at least three other libraries in this city from which to draw the same scores and orchestral parts, and several of these libraries are much more extensive than that of the Seidl estate.
11At the same time something should be done to prevent the disintegration of this library or the sale of its most valuable scores, for then the remnant would bring very little for the widow.
13The causes of this disappointing condition are not to be discussed at this time.
15SOME VISITING VIOLINISTS.
17AMERICA has been called a paradise for pianists. This is true, yet violin visitors from abroad have ever received great homage. Let the master of the four strings appear and even the great pianist will struggle for his laurels. As a nation we are keenly susceptible to music, and string music being the highest development of art, it makes a greater appeal than piano virtuosity. Indeed, before the advent of Anton Rubinstein piano music in the United States was a matter of passing capprice. Gottschalk's influence was tremendous, but it was his personality, not his music, while Thalberg and Leopold De Meyer left but an evanescent impression. Rubinstein in 1873, Von Bülow in 1875 and Rafael Joseffy in 1879 gave an impetus to piano playing that was incalculable.
19The case was much the same with violin playing, sensationalism and virtuosity preceding solid scholarship and classic ideals. Ole Bull was perhaps the first of the European celebrities who visited us and reaped dollars and glory. An emulator of Paganini, he came here in 1844, and during this time he made frequent appearances, and successful ones always. Bull was fantastic in his style, a master of technic—his double notes, arpeggios and flauto effects were astonishingly clear—but he often descended to trickery. His taste was not fine, yet he played our national melodies with such an effect that he remained the favorite of the public, although several masters had taught us the value and beauty of the violinist's art.
21Camille Sivori came to America in 1846—a miniature Paganini, indeed a genuine pupil of the great man. He does not seem to have made the same impression as his Belgian rival Henri Vieuxtemps, who visited us twice—the last time in the early seventies. Sivori's style was highly finished, but small, the writer remembering him as an old man in Paris in 1878, a timid, feeble old man, but with a matchless intonation. In Vieuxtemps, a distinct representative of the Belgian school, we got an artist bolder, freer and with quite as much finesse as the Italian. Who of us that remembers his purity of tone, infinite variety of shading, charming, graceful style and abundant technic, will ever forget it? His concertos, his Fantaisie Caprice, his ballade and polonaise are now stock pieces of every ambitious violinist. A half century ago they were startling in their novelty. Eduard Remenyi, the Hungarian, who died last week at San Francisco, first came to America in 1848, but it was not for many years afterward that he made a sensation. His strong point in the early days was his technical facility. Wayward, capricious as a gypsy, he interpreted with passionate intensity the music of Magyar land. In his early youth he was a friend of Liszt, of Brahms and had a dispute with the latter over the authorship of some Hungarian dances, but Remenyi never proved his claim. In his later years the virtuoso grew careless as to intonation, but the fire and originality of his play never quite deserted him.
23Of all the violinists who visited America none left so lasting an impression as Henri Wieniawski, the Pole, who came in Rubinstein's company in 1873. His talent was perhaps the greatest since Paganini's, and to a fire and breadth almost superhuman was added a repose and appreciation of the classics that placed him in the first ranks of the masters of the art. Even Wilhelmj in 1879 did not efface the memories of Wieniawski's dashing and magnetic performances. Wilhelmj, a pupil of David, therefore an artistic descendant of Spohr, stood for all that is objective and classic. His tone was big, broad, but not very warm, but in cantabile passages he made his instrument vocal beyond belief. Virile, scholarly and reposeful, Paolo Sarasate represented the opposite pole of an artistic ideal. Feminine, capricious and yet fascinating, his interpretation of the classics is far from satisfactory. In his own transcriptions of Spanish melodies he is unapproachable. His tone is small and sweet. He has paid America two visits, the last in company with Eugen d'Albert.
25We cannot find any record of a visit from Miska Hauser, the Hungarian virtuoso, yet we believe him to have visited America over a quarter of a century ago.
27Emil Sauret, a representative of the extreme Gallic school, is always a welcome apparition on our concert platform. Elegance rather than robustness and a faultless technic are his distinguishing characteristics. The same may be said of Marsick, except that the Parisian has not Sauret's breadth. Sauret has visited us two or three times, marrying Teresa Carreño when he first came here. Joseph White, a Cuban creole virtuoso, made a brief tour twenty-five years ago. He is also French in his school. A gifted lad of brilliant promise was Maurice Dengremont, who soon burnt himself up in the flame of fast living. He had a genius for violin playing that young Kreisler or Hubermann never possessed. Ovide Musin is another favorite of the American concert stage. A true exponent of the Belgian school, Musin never allowed mere technical brilliancy to obscure his reverence for the classics. It is good news to learn that he intends revisiting us and for pedagogic purposes.
29We have had Ondricek, the Bohemian virtuoso, a player of more power than delicacy; Carl Halir, an ultra-representative of the German school; Gregorowitsch, finished and graceful, a pupil of Joachim, and last, but by no means least, César Thomson and his wonderful pupil—a master pupil—Eugene Ysaye. Both these Belgians, so different in their styles, yet so masterly, are too fresh in the public's mind to require analysis. Thomson the more intellectual of the pair, Ysaye the more spontaneous, yet a pair not to be easily passed over.
31Of the violinists who settled here years ago we may mention Camilla Urso, who came here in 1852, and with Lady Hallé—known to the art world as Norman-Neruda—was considered the greatest female violinist alive. Then there was Theodore Thomas, who came to America in 1848; Leopold Damrosch, a pupil of Ries, who came here in 1871; Jacobsohn, of Chicago, who came here in 1872, and Bernhard Listenmann, who settled in Boston in 1870. With the exception of Madame Urso all these artists are either dead or teaching. A new generation has arisen and is as keen after artistic honors as the preceding one. Some day we shall write its history, but the above list of visiting violinists will suffice for the present.
33CHEAP ITALIAN OPERA.
35DESPITE its tawdriness, its wretched orchestra and the mediocrity of its principals, the scheme of Italian opera at reduced prices is a move in the right direction. There is much to criticise at the performances of the Milan Opera Company now at Wallack's, much that is offensive to musical taste, yet the work of these singers is never wholly without merit, and they possess the native gift of enthusiasm, which should cloak a multitude of sins. The weakest point is the orchestra, which is simply execrable. We wish to tell the management that its enterprise can expect no future with such a band. New York demands, first of all, a good orchestra, an orchestra that does not play out of tune, an orchestra that plays from the score and not by ear. The chorus, too, is poor, but efforts are being made to reinforce it with fresh American voices. If the plan is to have this organization play here all next winter, the above changes are imperative.
37The "Favorita" performance on Wednesday night was a failure because of the illness of Signora Fantoni. This singer was imprudently informed of the death of a child just as she was about to sing, and of course almost collapsed. The tenor Agostini was the one feature of a dreary evening. Friday the double bill of "Pagliacci" and "Cavalleria Rusticana" gave more satisfaction, for, despite all its drawbacks, the works were given with a vim that was catching. There are no great voices in the Milan opera, the men being the best. Francesconi, the baritone, sang the prologue to "Pagliacci" in a very forcible manner; indeed all these people are better actors than singers, and so their work suits the later Italian school. A good company of singing actors, giving the familiar Italian repertory with the novelties of young Italy and at reasonable prices of admission, is bound to succeed in New York. We commend the perusal of the above to the management of the Milan Opera Company.
39The novelty this week will be Puccini's "Manon Lescaut" next Friday evening.
41NO OPERA NEXT SEASON?
43(SPECIAL CABLE DISPATCH TO THE SUN.)
45LONDON, May 21.—Jean de Reszké has now intimated his determination to take part in the Wagner festival at Bayreuth next year, and, at the desire of Madame Wagner, will play "Parsifal." He will devote the autumn to studying "Parsifal" at his Polish home, but still proposes to go to the United States next winter, although his movements to a certain extent will depend upon the results of the war upon business. Edouard de Reszké, who has almost recovered from a rheumatic attack, will be Gurnemanz at Bayreuth.
47THIS is not the first intimation that the opera next season is not definitely decided upon. Two of Mr. Grau's New York representatives are now in Europe, having left here at different times during the past month, no doubt, for conference, and while there is no reason to feel particularly anxious on the subject of a Metropolitan opera season, yet, in view of the war and its possible complications, a postponement of one additional year may become compulsory.
49It cannot be expected that Mr. Grau should assume more than the natural risks which always surround grand opera in America under the prevailing system—a system which is affiliated historically with bankruptcy, and which must always fail financially so long as the profits are devoured by the tremendous salary lists superinduced by the star system. Mr. Grau cannot afford to take the risks that flow from the uncertainty a war always creates, and certainly M. Jean de Reszké could not be expected to repeat the experiences of 1896-97, when he was obliged to advance large sums of money to bring the company from out of the West back to New York to close its disastrous season.
51"The results of the war upon business" is the phrase
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