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Musical Courier 1898-06-22: Vol 36 Iss 955, 1898
27 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 5. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE MUSICAL COURIER.
3Berlin Branch Budget.
5THE SEVENTY-FIFTH NETHERRHENISH MUSIC FESTIVAL.
6PETERSBERG-ON-THE-RHINE, June 4, 1898.
8OF the great number of music festivals which of late years have sprung up almost like mushrooms in diverse parts of Germany none have been able to acquire an equally great importance or to evoke more general interest than the old established and now world renowned Netherrhinish festivals, which, annually at Whitsuntide, take place in one of the three biggest lower Rhine cities, Aix-la-Chapelle, Dusseldorf and Cologne. This year it was the turn of the cathedral and Eau de Cologne town, which called to the banks of the Rhine guests from all parts of Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, England and even the United States to participate in the performance of a program which, in consideration of the memorable fact of this being the seventy-fifth recurrence of these music festivals, had been selected with particular care and with a lavishness as to the plentitude and amplitude of the diverse numbers which, on all three evenings, offered four hours of music. This is a little too much on a hot and beautiful Whit Sunday, when the air and nature outside of the Guerzenich make this grand old gothic music hall, with its fine old oaken carvings and panels and its masterly historical fresco paintings, seem stuffy and stifling. But luckily, only the Sunday was so enticing as to the weather outside, while Whit Monday and also Whit Tuesday, usually observed as holidays by the gay Rhinelanders, were wet and cool, and thus the conditions more favorable to a prolonged stay and attentive listening in the not over well ventilated concert hall. I noticed, however, and not without some astonishment, that the general attendance was, in spite of the attractions offered and the favorable conditions of the atmosphere, not as large as in former years, and that even on the so-called celebrated "artists' day," the third day of the festival, the hall was not completely sold out. While the festival seems to have attracted an unusual amount of the foreign element, the home division, especially the Cologne people themselves, evidently have lost interest in the undertaking, and the fact would almost bear out the correctness of Rubinstein's saying, that music festivals have lost the charm and the necessity of their existence. Among the many visitors who, nevertheless, had been attracted to Cologne I noticed the following of more or less importance: Her Majesty, the Queen of Roumania, alias Carmen Sylva, the royal poetess and her pet composer, August Burgert; the other likewise Rhenish composers, Max Bruch, Frederick Gernsheim and Engelbert Humperdinck; Lefébvre, the French composer of the concert drama "Judith;" the composers Ingeborg von Bronsart, the poetess Johanna Baltz and Adelheid Wette, who wrote the libretto of her brother's fairy tale opera "Hänsel und Gretel." Of music directors and conductors I counted a great number, among them Krause, of Barmen; Kogel, of Frankfort; Lomba, of Trier; de Lange, of Stuttgart; Schwickerath, of Aachen; Langs, of Crefeld; Porges, of Munich; Buths, of Dusseldorf; Kleffel, of Cologne; Naszkowski, of Breslau; Vollbach and Steinbach, of Mayence, and a number of others. Among the music critics and musical litterateurs were Prof. Alberdink-Thijm, of Loewen, in Belgium; Privy Counsellor Deiters, of Coblenz; Prof. Martin Krause, of Leipsic; Otto Lessmann, H. Blank, of Berlin; Sittard and Chévalley, of Hamburg. Of pianists I noticed Dr. Jedliczka, who told me that d'Albert would have come also if he had not the mumps; Marie Krebs and Van Zandt. America was represented by Frank Van der Stucken and Henry Wolfsohn; the latter left, however, after the first evening, as he had to meet Moriz Rosenthal in Munich by appointment. Berlin management was most representatively represented in the person of Concertdirector Hermann Wolff, and of other interesting personages I met Messrs. Ibach, of Barmen, piano manufacturers; Arnold Mendelssohn, composer; Dr. Ludwig Wuellner, the tenor; Miss Johanna Hoecksen, Wally Schansill and Caecilia Kloppenburg, concert singers; Prince Reuss XXVIII., composer; Witte, Kes and a number of old musical friends that hardly interest you, among them some acquaintances whose names I could not remember, even at the time of meeting, let alone at the present moment of writing.
10As for the three programs of this festival, I can only call them comprehensive, interesting and well arranged according to chronological order. From my modern viewpoint, however, I find fault with them for not containing one single real novelty. Each and every work represented on the program has been heard before. It will be argued against this hypercritical and entirely personal exception which I take against the excellence of the program that these Netherrhinish festivals have always been of a more or less conservative calibre, and that it is not theirs as much as the Tonkünstler Verein's task to produce novelties; that these festivals are more intended to give works of acknowledged standard and merit, and especially those which require big orchestral and choral forces for an adequate reproduction, a hearing in as perfect performance as can be secured, to all of which I say yes and amen. Under this viewpoint the program as a whole was a well selected one. The first day was given over to works from the past and the beginning of the present century, beginning with Bach's superb B major double chorus "Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft," which, when it was performed at the music festival of 1889, was vociferously redeemed. Next came Beethoven's A major symphony, and this was followed by Händel's oratorio "Deborah," which in originality as well as power of conception is one of the master's best works, despite the fact that it is one of his earliest oratorios. "Deborah" was last year one of the principal attractions of the Händel performances which took place under Vollbach's genial conductorship at Mayence, and it was no less successfully revived at Cologne. The text from the fourth chapter of the Book of Judges was compiled for Händel by Samuel Humphreys. The composition was finished in 1733, and in the same year, according to the Cologne festival program book, the oratorio was produced for the first time at the London Haymarket Theatre. The present performance under Dr. Franz Wuellner made use of Frederick Chrysander's excellent revised edition of the Gervinus translation of the English text into German. Special attention is paid therein to a more correct and more sensible adaptation of the words to the music and a more compact compilation of the entire contents of the drama for the practical purposes of a performance. To this end many numbers which are irrelevant or impede the progress of the action have been excised and the quite unnecessary and not very sympathetic part of Jael has been entirely suppressed. The effect of the whole was thereby unquestionably benefited. The orchestration was similar to Siegfried Ochs at Berlin in his "Samson" performance, the original Händel one, with a clavicembolo (a modern Ibach concert grand took its place) and two 'celli to accompany the recitatives, and an orchestra containing no less than ten oboi, eight bassoons and eight trumpets. This proved an ample tone balance for the ninety-nine string instruments of this festival orchestra of over 150 performers, and the effect was as novel as it was satisfying and interesting. The chorus numbered nearly 600 singers, mostly from the Rhenish capital, but also from the adjoining cities, and thus the big ensemble numbers were given with a sonority and strength which at moments were almost overwhelming. Utmost rhythmical precision, not very finely shaded, but still sufficient, and above all equally distributed dynamic nuances, coupled with a rare clearness in the pronunciation of the text, distinguished these choral performances under Prof. Dr. Wuellner's energetic baton and long-armed, concise conductorship.
12Of the soloists Frau Wittich, from Dresden, was only fair in voice, and this operatic star did not satisfy my modest demands in the coloratura portions of the part. Dramatically, however, she sang with much expression, and she evidently also pleased the audience. Still more, and much more deservedly, however, was this the case with Court Opera singer Theodor Bertram, from Munich, whom I had never heard before. He is one of the best masters of delivery in dramatic as well as the florid style demanded by Händel, and his singing of the arioso "Behold Thine Aged Father" in the part of Abinoam was so pure, expressive and impressive that the audience insisted upon a repetition of the same. Of the other soloists the tenor Ernst Kraus is sufficiently well known to you through his recent appearances in the United States, and Frau Geller-Wolter, the alto, from Berlin, through my frequent description of her voluminous voice. Herr Heidkamp, a Cologne basso, who sang the part of the Herold, has a big but not a very responsive or flexible organ, but his vocal utterances were befitting the part he undertook to sing.
14The second day's program brought only works from the so-called romantic period, the "blue flower" music of the fifth decade of this century. The opening number was Mendelssohn's setting of the Ninety-eighth Psalm, which he wrote for the Berlin Cathedral Choir's New Year's Day celebration of the year of 1844. Strange to say the orchestral accompaniment created unfavorable comment at that time on the part of the higher Protestant clergy, despite the fact that the words of the psalm speak of the praise of the Lord with harps and psalters, with trumpets and trombones. Nowadays we would find it strange if in a setting of this psalm the said instruments would not be employed. Of Mendelssohn's religious music I prefer the Forty-second Psalm—"As the Hart panteth"—to his Ninety-eighth, for it shows considerably higher inspiration and genuine sentiment.
16Paul Du Mont, a Cologne amateur, sang the short opening solo phrase with a pleasing and quite sonorous baritone voice, then the chorus entered à capella and a fine climax is reached when the orchestra and organ join in with full force.
18Schumann's C Major Symphony was well conducted and from memory by Dr. Wuellner, who had also discarded the use of the score in the conducting of the Beethoven symphony. It was a carefully prepared, but not an inspired, reading which the Cologne master of the baton vouchsafed us. The adagio, which is one of Schumann's best and most exquisite symphonic movements, and is one of the flowers of the romantic school, was lacking in poetry as well as warmth of conception. Among the orchestral performers I enjoyed most the pure, charming tone of the first oboe, Prof. Jules Lebert, from Gand, in Belgium.
20The chief work of the evening was Berlioz's chef d'œuvre, "The Damnation of Faust." It has been analyzed and heard so often in the United States that it seems useless for me to say ought about its merits, which are all the more to be wondered at, however, when it is considered that Berlioz was only twenty-five years of age when he began the composition of this his grandest composition. It is true he only completed it fifteen years later, but the most inspired portions of "The Damnation of Faust"—the Easter Hymn, the Peasants' Dance, the chorus of the sylphs and the students' chorus; Mephisto's serenade, the ballad of the Flea and Marguerite's Spinning Song, which Berlioz designates as a "Gothic" song, he composed during the earliest period.
22I was not quite so much taken with the performance of this work as I had been on the previous evening with the reproduction of the Händel oratorio. After all, this style seems to be better suited to the conductor's and the general abilities than the Frenchman's subtle and ever so suggestive music. "The Rakoczy March" I have heard better even under Walter Damrosch, not to mention Nikisch, who always scores with it a perfectly rousing triumph. Of course it "took" also in Cologne, for the March itself is of an irresistible swing and is gorgeously orchestrated, but it was overhurried in tempo and the strong rhythms were not brought out as pointedly as Nikisch gives them. Splendidly performed, however, was the "Dance of the Sylphs," in which the four harps of the festival orchestra were of scintillating effectiveness. It is easily comprehended, therefore, that this brilliant orchestral gem was vociferously redeemed.
24The chorus was well trained, but not quite as sure in some of the more difficult episodes than they had been on the previous evening. On the other hand, I preferred the soloists in the "Damnation" to the same ones in the oratorio. Especially Ernst Kraus, though he did not seem quite at home in the part of Berlioz's Faust, sang better than he had done on the previous evening. Frau Wittich was delightful without becoming too sentimental, as German sopranos are apt to do in the interpretation of Berlioz's somewhat Frenchy Gretchen, and Herr Bertram was vocally as excellent as Mephisto as he had been as Abinoam, albeit I should have preferred him somewhat more demoniacal in expression in the former part, which in this respect Messchaert interprets much more suggestively and dramatically.
26Altogether, although this was a highly respectable reproduction of Berlioz's work I must confess that I have
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