Scan 8
Musical Courier 1898-10-17: Vol 37 Iss 971, 1898
88 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 9. See the scan on archive.org.
1structor), Miss Helen Watkins, Peter C. Kennedy and many others.
3Heinrich Klingenfeld (violinist), formerly of Toronto, now of New York, has recently been highly honored with a letter from Joseph Weber, Imperial Bavarian concertmaster, who praises in unqualified terms Mr. Klingenfeld's "Viola School." Regarding the book, Joseph Weber writes: "I have long been looking for such a work, because the viola parts in my own chamber music compositions are of a concerted nature and require a viola player who is a perfect violin virtuoso. Through the publication of your most fascinating and inspiring work, which has been written with evident interest and devotion, you have rendered us composers a great service. Many a violinist will be induced thereby to pay greater and more attention than heretofore to the viola, which, being the 'stepmother' among stringed instruments, has been sadly neglected."
5A promising and popular young violinist who has lately been studying with Mr. Klingenfeld is Miss Hilda Davis, of Toronto. This young lady has been well received wherever she has appeared, and frequently audiences have compelled her to give double encores. She has often taken part in musical vespers in various churches in this city and in obligato playing she is as successful as in solo work. It is probable that she will have numerous concert engagements during the coming season.
7Paul Hahn (cellist) is a talented performer, who could be touring the country to-day in company with other artists were it not that the connections which he has formed in this city are of so excellent a nature that nothing would induce him to leave for any length of time. He is kept busy with local concert engagements (for he has done much to increase the popularity of the 'cello in this vicinity, and he also is a teacher at the conservatory. He is an experienced orchestral and ensemble player, and he delights in obligatos. There was one night last spring when Paul Hahn listened and was supremely happy, and that was the night Gérardy played in Massey Hall.
9In Association Hall on October 10 Miss Margaret Houston and J. D. A. Tripp, two artists who have lately returned from Europe, gave the following splendid program:
11Toccatta and Fugue in D minor,………….Bach-Tausig one of two readings
12Toccata and Fugue in D minor,………….Bach-Tausig one of two readings
13Rect. et Aria de l'Opera Sigurd…………….Reyer
14Andante in F………………………………….Beethoven
15Moonlight………………………………………Schumann
16She is Thine…………………………………..Schumann
17The Soldier's Bride……………………………Schumann
18Les Larmes…………………………………….Massenet
19Barcarolle in G minor…………………………Rubinstein
20Etude in F minor……………………………..Chopin
21Berceuse, op. 57………………………………Chopin
22Nur fur Natur…………………………………Strauss-Schutt
23Aria, Mon cœur s'ouvre a ta voix………….Saint-Saëns
24Hungarian Fantasia…………………………..Liszt
25(With orchestral accompaniment on second piano, played by Miss Hart).
27Miss Houston was a credit to her teacher, Signor Delasco, before she went abroad. She is an attractive singer, with a beautiful voice, and the general verdict is that there lies before her a bright career. Her first Saint-Saëns number was exquisite.
29Miss Houston has recently sung in Buffalo, where she was well received, and with the reception tendered her at the Tripp-Houston concert—where flowers and applause were both abundant—she has reason to feel gratified.
31Mr. Tripp is an experienced and brilliant piano virtuoso, who is intensely devoted to his art. For years he was a pupil of Edward Fisher. Since that time he has twice been in Europe, and now he returns to Canada with fresh laurels and glowing prospects.
33Miss Ada E. S. Hart, who played the orchestral accompaniment to the Liszt Fantasia, is another enthusiastic pianist, who studied with J. W. F. Harrison, and later with Krause and Leschetizky. When Paderewski visited Toronto Miss Hart played for him, and won his favorable comment. Miss Hart, Miss Houston and Mr. Tripp will each appear many times on the concert stage during the present season. Their artistic performances should not, and doubtless will not, be confined to Canada.
35Miss Hart has a large class of piano students, consisting of Misses Jessie Hill, Springer, Violet Gooderham, Blanch Wellington, Daisy Jones and many others.
37The chamber music concert in the Pavilion on October 6 was an important social and musical event. The Dannreuther Quartet was the attraction, and the vocalists were Madame Seminario and Senor Gonzales. As has already been stated in these columns, the Chamber Music Association deserves praise and encouragement for endeavoring to increase the love and appreciation of ensemble music in this city. It is to be hoped that the concerts which will be given in the future under its auspices will each and all be crowded to the doors.
39A number of patriotic Canadian songs, written by H. H. Godfrey, have found their way to this department. In another letter a full account of these songs, including "The Land of the Maple," will shortly be found. Mr. Godfrey, by the way, is the secretary of the long established firm of Mason & Risch. It has well been said that in addressing a member or representative of this firm upon even the most trivial matters satisfactory and considerate treatment is assured. Among the chief treasures preserved by Messrs. Mason & Risch is a lifelike and imposing portrait of the great Liszt, which he ordered to be painted and conveyed to them as a token of his appreciation and approval of the Mason & Risch piano. And to-day, to the name of Liszt could be added scores of other artists who likewise have borne testimony to the superior artistic qualities of the same instrument.
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43That Miss Norma Reynolds' success as a vocal instructor is remarkable is evident from the long list of singers whom she has brought before the public. Among these are Misses Theresa Tymon, Agnes Forbes, Annie Hallworth, Gertrude Black, Maude Richards and Elda Idle. Miss Reynolds is a hard working and enthusiastic teacher, who studied vocal culture for years under Elliott Haslem.
45Mrs. J. W. Bradley is another painstaking singing teacher, the result of whose labor is the best criterion of her ability. Miss Wright, a pupil of Mrs. Bradley, is the head resident vocal instructor at the Ontario Ladies' College, Whitby, where pupils of the same teacher have held similar positions during the past ten years.
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49The firm of A. & S. Nordheimer has become a joint stock company, of which Samuel Nordheimer is president and Albert Nordheimer vice-president and managing director. This company, which has long imported the Steinway piano into Canada, continues to be in a most prosperous condition. The success of this firm proves conclusively—if proof be necessary—that the sphere of music in this Dominion, in whatever light it may be regarded, is in no wise limited.
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53The news that Eleanor Dallas Peter, of Winnipeg, will hereafter send correspondence from that city to THE MUSICAL COURIER has been heard with pleasure by that musician's friends in Ontario.
55The Festival Chorus, under direction of Mr. Torrington, has begun to rehearse for "The Messiah," at the College of Music.
57Owing to the number of communications received this week it is necessary to postpone some important items till next week.
59As has previously been stated, programs and notices sent to this department from any place in Canada will always receive immediate attention.
61MAY HAMILTON.
63J. Armour Galloway.
65J. Armour Galloway, the well-known singing teacher, has removed. His studio is now at 318 West Fifty-seventh street.
67Deaths.
69William Sichel, once capellmeister of the Hamburg City Theatre, died lately at Hanover, aged thirty years. The Neapolitan composer, Niccolo van Westerhout, died in Naples, aged thirty-six. He was first known as a pianist, but gained renown for his operas, "Tilda," "Cymbeline" and "Fortunio" (given at La Scala, 1895). He also wrote symphonies, &c. At Venice, Césare Trombini. Since 1879 he had been opera director at Warsaw. His musical memory was remarkable, and enabled him to conduct without score.
71From Italy.
73SIENA, Italy, September 29, 1898.
75ALTHOUGH there is but little going on in the way of music during the present month in Italy, I may yet be able to find some few items of interest to fill the lines of my usual monthly letter, items which may not be entirely devoid of interest to those of your readers who have any interest in musical matters over here in Italy.
77Before leaving Venice I attended a performance of Rossini's ever fresh and charming masterpiece, the "Barbiere de Seviglia," at the old Teatro Malibran.
79The chief attraction to me, outside of the music itself, was Sofia Aifos, of whom I have spoken in some of my past letters. Although her voice seems to have lost in softness and is even showing an unfortunate tendency toward a metallic quality, her coloratura singing is as surprisingly faultless and true as ever. As to her acting, it has lost in no way. Her playing of the part of Rosina was a piece of acting one would go far to find bettered—charming and naive throughout. By the side of all this it pained me to notice the threatened change of quality in her voice. However, in spite of it, Sofia Aifos, modest and comparatively unknown, remains one of the most pleasing members of the Italian operatic stage and one of the very few real representatives of the "old school" of Italian singers.
81On the way down from Venice I spent some time in Bologna, and had occasion to attend one of the performances of Stefano Gobatti's opera "I Goti," which, after having been forgotten for twenty years, has been once more put upon the stage at Bologna, greeted by a repetition of the stormy applause and ovations which it met with years ago, when the composer, then a young and poverty-stricken student from a quiet little country village in North Italy, arrived at Bologna with the manuscript score, almost his only worldly possession. From the very first performance the work met with an instant success which was astonishing, and then, a year or two after, sank into an oblivion as sudden as its triumph. How a work which had enjoyed the wide popularity of "I Goti," sung and whistled as it was on every street and played by every vagrant hand-organ, could have fallen as suddenly as it did into utter darkness, as it were, will ever be an unexplained mystery. The composer seems to have shared the fate of his child, until a few faithful friends and admirers succeeded in securing promises from one of the Bolognese impresarios for a resurrection of the work. The result, as I said before, has been a popular success, and everyone seems to have suddenly remembered the old airs that were whistled and hummed and sung and strummed to death twenty years ago.
83The book of the opera is taken in a very free manner from the historical records of the Gothic occupation of North Italy, during the reign of their queen Amalasmeta, who, in the plain, every-day pages of historical fact, was imprisoned and strangled on one of the islands of the wild and lonely Lake of Bolsena, after having too good-naturedly raised a brother of hers to share her kingdom with her. The librettist has treated these happenings in so free a manner as to preserve little more than the historic names, and even here he could not be content until a Roman official had been introduced as a lover of the queen. Around these two figures the action centres, until the Roman is killed at a castle on the shores of Lake Trasimene, instead of the Lake of Bolsena, and the unhappy queen kills herself over his dead body.
85All in all the action drags, with some exceptions, and the fact of there being but one female character in the whole play, outside of the chorus, does not add to its interest.
87As to the music, it is more interesting than the libretto, at times dramatic and even beautiful. Unfortunately one meets with much that comes too near to the banal melody and lack of harmony peculiar to Verdi's early period, and I found this, strange to say, precisely the case with what seemed to be the most popular parts of the whole work. Although Bologna has been so highly praised by Richard Wagner, and still holds its place as the most musical of Italian cities, I cannot say that the audience on this especial evening showed any very great amount of discrimination in its applause. This struck me as peculiar, for I have always found the Bolognese a superior class in their appreciation for good music; but then it was a summer theatre, a summer audience and a summer performance.
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