Scan 19
Musical Courier 1899-10-11: Vol 39 Iss 1021, 1899
46 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 20. See the scan on archive.org.
1force the principal ideas. For instance, in the Fantaisie, op. 13, the theme of Kurpinski moves and saddens us; but the composer does not give time for this impression to become durable; he suspends it by means of a long trill, and then suddenly by a few chords and with a brilliant prelude leads us to a popular dance, which makes us mingle with the peasant couples of Mazovia. Does the finale indicate by its minor key the gaiety of a man devoid of hope—as the Germans say?" Kleczynski then tells us that a Polish proverb, "A fig for misery," is the keynote of a nation that dances furiously to music in the minor key. "Elevated beauty, not sepulchral gaiety," is the character of Polish, of Chopin's music. This is a valuable hint. There are variations in the Fantaisie, which ends with a merry and vivacious Kujawiak.
3The F minor Fantaisie I shall consider later. Neither by its magnificent content, construction nor opus number (49) does it fall into this chapter.
5The Allegro de Concert in A, op. 46, was published in November, 1841, and dedicated to Mlle. Friederike Müller, a pupil of Chopin. It has all the characteristics of a concerto, and is indeed a truncated one—much more so than Schumann's F minor Sonata, called "Concert Sans Orchestre." There are tutti's in the Chopin work, the solo part not really beginning until the eighty-seventh bar. But it must not be supposed that these long introductory passages are ineffective for the player. The Allegro is one of Chopin's most difficult works. It was practically rediscovered by Vladimir De Pachmann, who introduced it to London in 1888, and a few years later to New York. He plays it poetically and brilliantly. It has since been given by Emil Sauer, whose style shines at its best in the embroideries and broad melodiousness of this singularly underrated composition. It abounds in risky skips, ambuscades of dangerous double notes, and the principal themes are bold and expressive. The color note is strikingly adapted for public performance, and perhaps Schumann was correct in believing that Chopin had originally sketched this for piano and orchestra. Niecks asks if it is not the fragment of the concerto for two pianos, which Chopin, in a letter written at Vienna, December 21, 1830, said he would play in public with his friend Nidecki, if he succeeded in writing it to his satisfaction. And is there any significance in the fact that Chopin, when—probably in the summer of 1841—sending this manuscript to Fontana, calls it a concerto?
7While it adds little to Chopin's reputation, it has the potentialities of a powerful and more manly composition than either of the two concertos. Jean Louis Nicodé has given it an orchestral garb, besides arranging it for two pianos. He has added a development section of seventy bars. This version was first played in New York a decade ago by Marie Geselschap, a Dutch pianist, under the direction of the late Anton Seidl. The original, it must be acknowledged, is preferable.
9The Bolero, op. 19, has a Polonaise flavor. There is but little Spanish in its ingredients. It is merely a memorandum of Chopin's early essays in dance forms. It was published in 1834, four years before Chopin's visit to Spain. Niecks thinks it an early work. That it can be made effective Emil Sauer proved. It is for fleet-fingered pianists, and the principal theme has the rhythmical ring of the Polonaise, although the most Iberian in character. It is dedicated to Comtesse E. de Flahault. In the key of A minor, its coda ends in A major. Willeby says it is in C major!
11The Tarantella is in A flat, and is numbered op. 43. It was published in 1841 (?). It bears no dedication. Composed at Nohant, it is as little Italian as is the Bolero Spanish. Chopin's visit to Italy was of too short a duration to affect him—at least in this style of dance. It is without the necessary Ophidian tang, and far inferior to Heller and Liszt's efforts in the constricted form. One finds little of the frenzy ascribed to it by Schumann in his review. It breathes of the North, not the South, and ranks far below the A flat Impromptu in geniality and grace.
13The C minor "Funeral March," composed—according to Fontana—in 1829, sounds like Mendelssohn. The trio has the processional quality of a Parisian funeral cortège. It is modest and in nowise remarkable. The three Ecossaises, published as op. 73, No. 3, are little dances—schottisches—nothing more. No. 2 in G is highly popular in ladies' boarding schools.
15The "Grand Duo Concertant" for 'cello and piano is jointly composed by Chopin and Franchomme on themes from "Robert le Diable." It begins in E and ends in A major, and is without opus number. Schumann thinks "Chopin sketched the whole of it, and that Franchomme said 'Yes' to everything." It is for the salon, but the salon of 1833, when it was published. It is empty, tiresome and only slightly superior to compositions of the same sort by De Beriot and Osborne. Full of rapid elegancies and shallow passage work, this duo is certainly a pièce d'occasion—the occasion probably being the need of ready money.
17The seventeen Polish songs composed between 1824 and 1844—but of the psychology of the lied Chopin was not cognizant. Karasowski writes that many of the songs were lost and some of them are still sung in Poland without their origin being absolutely known. "The Third of May" is cited as one of these. Chopin had a habit of playing songs for his friends, but neglected to put some of them on paper. The songs are collected under the opus head 74. The words are by his friends, Stephen Witwicki, Adam Mickiewicz, Bodan Zaleski and Sigismond Krasinski. The first in the key of A, the familiar "Maiden's Wish," has been brilliantly paraphrased by Liszt. This pretty mazurka was charmingly sung and played by Marcella Scmbrich in the singing lesson of "The Barber of Seville." There are several mazurkas in the list. But most of these songs are mediocre. "Poland's Dirge" is an exception, and so is "Horsemen Before the Battle." Simple in structure and sentiment, the Chopin lieder seem almost rudimentary compared to Schubert, Schumann, Franz and Brahms' essays in the form.
19A word of recommendation may not be amiss here regarding the technical study of Chopin, Kleczynski, in his two books, gives many valuable hints, and Isidor Philipp has published a set of "Exercises Quotidiens," made up of specimens in double notes and octaves taken from the works. Here skeletonized are the special technical problems. In his Daily Studies, and an edition of the Etudes, are numerous examples dealt with practically. For a study of his ornaments, Ed. Mertke has discussed at length the various editorial procedure in the matter of attacking the trill in single and double notes; also the easiest method of executing the flying scud and vapors of the floriture. This may be found in No. 179 of the Edition Steingräber. Philipp's collection is published in Paris by J. Hamelle, and is prefixed by some interesting remarks of Georges Mathias. Chopin's portrait in 1833, after Vigneron, is included.
21One more composition is to be considered. In 1837 Chopin contributed a variation—the sixth to the variations in the march from "I Puritani." These variations were published under the title: "Hexameron: Morceau de Concert. Grandes Variations de bravoure sur la marche des Puritans de Bellini, composées pour le concert de Madame la Princesse Belgiojoso au bénéfice des pauvres, par MM. Liszt, Thalberg, Pixis, H. Herz, Czerny et Chopin." Liszt wrote an orchestral accompaniment—never published. His pupil, Moriz Rosenthal, is the only modern virtuoso who plays the "Hexameron" in his concerts, and play it he does with overwhelming splendor. Chopin's contribution is in E major, and is in his sentimental, salon mood. Musically, it is the most impressive of this extraordinary mastadonic survival from the "pianistic" past.
23Vladimir de Pachmann tells me of a newly discovered fugue, the only specimen of the form by the Polish composer, which is to be published this winter by the Princess Czartoryska, to whom the manuscript belongs. The Russian virtuoso has seen it and says that it is a strict fugue and very difficult. The "Souvenir de Paganini," in the key of A, which Karasowski mentions as first appearing in the Warsaw Echo Muzyczne, M. De Pachmann has never seen. Who has?
25In these youthful works may be found the beginnings of the greater Chopin, but not his vast subjugation of the purely technical to the poetic and spiritual. That came later. To the devout Chopinist the first compositions are so many proofs of the joyful, victorious spirit of the man whose spleen and pessimism have been wrongly compared to Leopardi's and Baudelaire's. Chopin was gay, fairly healthy and bubbling over with a pretty malice. His first period shows this; it also shows how thorough and painful the processes through which he evolved his final style.
27University Hall, Chicago.
29UNIVERSITY HALL, Fine Arts Building, Chicago, is now the accepted theatre of most of the principal musical events of that city.
31University Hall, Chicago, has over seven hundred seats, quite as many as can be filled for most concerts without padding, which, as every manager knows, is fatal to the box office, as well as to the prestige of the artist.
33Moreover, University Hall is on the ground floor, is a gem in color, in acoustics and ventilation and has the most modern equipment extant. Also, it is in the Fine Arts Building, which has of itself become a colossal force in the musical system of Chicago. It must be considered not only by the manager of artists, but by the managers of pianos. Suppose one of these should bottle it up; that is not only a possibility, it might become an imminent probability or even an ascertained fact.
35A Von Klenner Pupil.
37Mrs. Richard Beard, a promising singer from Texas, who studied in New York with Madame Von Klenner, has been singing with success in her native State. The following appeared in the Waco Telephone:
39Mr. and Mrs. Richard Beard were the guests of Mrs. Hallie M. Dunklin last evening. It was an evening of song. Mrs. Beard is quite an acquisition to the musical circle of Waco. She has a clear soprano voice of great range and brilliancy, and sings with the greatest ease. To show her appreciation elsewhere, the following clipping from the Charlotte (N. C.) Daily Observer is appended:
41"Mrs. Richard Beard appeared in vocal concert for the first time. Her voice is a soprano of volume and power and finish. She sings high C easily. Last night she was heard with much pleasure."
43Not a Smuggled Fiddle.
45Edouard de Reszké is here. Timothée Adamowski and Otto Roth, first violinists of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, arrived from Europe last week. Herr Kramer, the concert master of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, arrived at the same time, and had considerable difficulty in getting his own instrument through, it being seized as smuggled goods. After interference from a well-known source, Kramer was permitted to get his violin. As there has been much violin smuggling by certain Chicago orchestral musicians, the custom house authorities exhibited sudden official alacrity, but in this case their zeal was misplaced, as Herr Kramer has been playing upon his violin for years.
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