Scan 24
Musical Courier 1898-10-17: Vol 37 Iss 971, 1898
46 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 25. See the scan on archive.org.
1CINCINNATI, October 15, 1898.
3THERE is a little stir in musical circles at present, and things are crystallizing into shape to determine what the present season is to offer Cincinnatians. Of course the nucleus of enjoyment will centre about the Symphony Orchestra. It is supposed to be a permanent institution, and so it may be considered for the next three years at least.
5This is the period covered by Mr. Van der Stucken's contract, which divides his responsibilities between the orchestra and College of Music. What the orchestra will be after the expiration of this time, whether it will be continued and genuinely become permanent, remains to be seen. The permanency of an orchestra after all depends upon the existence of a permanent fund for the support of an orchestra. That was the reason of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's success, and but for the Higginson fund it might have been a memory of the past long ago. The cultivation of its patronage required several years, but disappointments came easy and were lightly borne, when the interest of a permanent fund covered the annual deficits. The situation is quite different in Cincinnati. The support of the orchestra is entirely owing to the individual efforts of the ladies of the Orchestra Association.
7They organize among themselves a subscription committee who are apportioned to the several districts and suburbs of the city, and make the canvass among the citizens and business houses most thorough. In this way a sufficient amount is raised to pay for the concerts for one season. But is not this a very precarious mode of subsistence? It is an orchestra living from hand to mouth. Last year, in spite of all the noble efforts of these ladies, there was a deficit of over $3,000. About one-half of this was covered by the late Fred H. Alms and the balance by private contributions. This year the ladies of the Orchestra Association are redoubling their efforts in behalf of subscriptions to keep the orchestra a-going. Their devotion, enthusiasm and labor of love are indomitable, admirable. But even on the supposition that it will be continued indefinitely, will the regular contributors not finally tire of giving? How permanent will the orchestra be after the expiration of three years? Not a bit more so than it was in the beginning three years ago. The permanency of the orchestra is simply covered by Mr. Van der Stucken's contract—no less and no more. There seems to be an imperative call for some Higginson in Cincinnati, and perhaps when the emergency comes he may appear on the scene. Meanwhile let the patrons of the Symphony concerts wait and hope.
9The subscription committee of ladies who have undertaken to provide the necessary support for the orchestra this season are as follows:
11Mrs. R. A. Koehler, chairman; Mrs. L. N. Stix and Mrs. O. W. Beck, for Walnut Hills; Mrs. C. R. Holmes, Mrs. J. Walter Freiberg, Mrs. G. W. Dittman and Miss Herzog, for Avondale; Mrs. F. D. Jamieson and Mrs. Joseph Wilby, for Mt. Auburn; Mrs. Frank Wiborg, Miss Winifred Evans and Mrs. Charles Duhme, for Clifton; Mrs. William Hanna, for Brier Hill; Miss Sara Hearne and Miss Kennedy, Covington; Miss Woolley, Mrs. Charles P. Taft and Mrs. Eckstein, for the East End; Miss Roeder and Miss Frank, for the West End; Mrs. W. Cooper Proctor, for Glendale; Mrs. John C. Hoyt, for Delhi; Mrs. Mary L. White, for Madisonville; Miss Elizabeth Jeffries, for Terrace Park; Mrs. Theo. Lengotak, for Loveland.
13There will be ten afternoon and ten evening concerts, which will be given in Music Hall beginning November 25. Following are the dates of the concerts: November 25 and 26, December 2 and 3, December 10 and 17, December 30 and 31, January 13 and 14, January 27 and 28, February 10 and 11, February 24 and 25, March 10 and 11, March 24 and 25. The soloists engaged so far are Madame Schumann-Heink, Evan Williams, Mme. Teresa Carreño, Mrs. Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler, Victor Herbert, Willy Burmester.
15Programs have been partially arranged for the first two concerts. For the first concert the numbers will be as follows:
17Symphony in E flat, No. 3. Schumann
18Concerto in C minor, No. 4. Saint-Saëns
19Mrs. Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler.
20Scene on the Steppes of Middle Asia. Borodin
21Overture, A Dream on the Volga. Arensky
22Entrance of the Gods into Walhalla, from Rheingold. Wagner
23Mrs. Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler.
25The second concert will present the following:
27Symphony in C minor. Haydn
28Aria, Aida. Verdi
29Symphonic Variations. Dvorák
30Lohengrin's Narrative. Wagner
31Evan Williams.
32Prelude, Fervaal. V. d'Indy
33March Heroique. Saint-Saëns
35There will be an auction sale of choice of seats for subscribers at College Hall on November 18 and 19.
37The festival chorus has begun its rehearsals preparatory for the festival to be given in May, 1900. That, of course, means two years of drudgery on the part of the chorus. The choral works which set the pace for the next festival are Mendelssohn's "St. Paul" and the Brahms Requiem. The rehearsals, which for many years were held in the old Melodeon Hall, will be given in Gas Hall, over the gas company's offices. At the first rehearsal, on last Monday night, some three hundred of the old chorus were present. This is supposed to be the nucleus of the chorus—the old guard of honor, the faithful three hundred. In that phalanx are found veterans who fought the choral battles under Thomas twenty years and a quarter of a century ago. They are faithful, even if their voices are worn out in the service.
39The old plan of a permanent chorus—that is, a chorus that will be drilled week after week for two long years, until the text becomes hackneyed and the singers themselves become weary of it and drag it along, will be pursued once more. It is a scheme for the perpetuation of Mr. Thomas, whatever the artistic result may be. The local conductor has his own ideas, unless he is a machine, and enforces them upon the chorus. He has an interpretative individuality and imparts it to his chorus. He has his own ideas about the tempo and drills his chorus accordingly. Mr. Thomas, who lives in Chicago, comes along a few times each year for the express purpose, it would seem, to demonstrate to the local conductor that he has been all wrong—that his tempo is either too fast or too slow, and that his conception has not reached the ideal.
41Mr. Thomas uses his iconoclastic prerogative and all the chorus join in the verdict, that he is a great disciplinarian, a great conductor and is exactly right. Of course he is a great conductor and a rigid disciplinarian and he is right. But the system—the Cincinnati system of conducting the May Festival chorus preparation is radically and eternally wrong. There can be no unanimity of purpose and no homogeneity in the result with such a combination. The system is radically wrong unless the local conductor makes himself an automaton, under the absolute control of the musical director. The remedy for this incongruity was long ago at hand, but owing to a factional spirit, which always opposes the real musical good of this city, it was never used by the festival board of directors.
43The solution of the entire difficulty came with the advent of Mr. Van der Stucken. Think of the possibilities of a festival chorus under a director with the experience of Mr. Van der Stucken! He would be right here—on the premises—in continual touch with the chorus. There would be no discrepancies of opinion between two conductors on the line of "Quot sensus, tot capita," and the result would be something eminently creditable. If the chorus work at the last festival was far better than it had been two years previous it was in spite of the defects of the system, and because the Apollo Club, with its 150 voices, augmented the regular chorus. It now appears that the Apollo Club will be dropped out of the scheme and that the old nucleus will have to do the work unaided and alone. E. W. Glover is a young, energetic conductor, but he is not an automaton, and whether he will chime in with Mr. Thomas' ideas, or Mr. Thomas will condescend to chime in with his, remains to be seen.
45The work of the Jubilee Saengerfest board of directors is now on in earnest. The board is composed of prominent citizens, and they are determined to make the fest a magnificent success. The late Fred H. Alms gave $1,000 for a prize choral composition to be sung at one of the concerts. The prize judges selected were Frank Van der Stucken, E. A. MacDowell and Heinrich Zoellner. Twenty-eight compositions were sent in and the work
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