Scan 32
Musical Courier 1901-01-23: Vol 42 Iss 1087, 1901
68 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 33. See the scan on archive.org.
1Boston Symphony Concerts.
3The third concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra took place in Carnegie Hall last Thursday evening. The weather was unpromising, and the audience not as large as it should have been. This was the program.
5Overture, Scherzo and Finale, op. 52…………………Schumann Concerto for Violoncello in D……………………………Haydn Symphonic Fantaisie, In Italy, op. 16…………………Richard Strauss
7Mr. Gericke, despite certain temperamental deficiencies, knows how to build a program. Above all, he believes in brevity. Now brevity is said to be the soul of wit, and while this third concert was at times dry enough to be witty, its wit was not always apparent. Schumann's "Unfinished" Symphony—as the op. 52 might be easily dubbed—does not wear well with the years. Clear as it is in treatment compared with the earlier and often muddier Schumann, there is little of the rich, romantic feeling that floats through the bars of his C major and B flat major symphonies. Not that it is devoid of interest. There is a Mendelssohnian lightness and gayety in the scherzo, while the thematic kernel of the overture bears a resemblance to the Allegretto of Beethoven's Eighth Symphony. The finale is wholly uninspired and monotonous.
9It was a pleasure to again hear the "Italia" Fantaisie of Richard Strauss. It was played here twelve years ago, and, despite its thinness in the matter of melodic invention, the richness of color, the poetic atmosphere, and masterly handling of the orchestra almost atone for some serious defects. An op. 16, there is little to suggest the inarticulate utterances of a young composer who struggles to express himself. Strauss was already master of his technical material. His training was the severest in the world; at the beginning he was not the anarchist that his critics fondly imagine. He had written two full fledged symphonies, a piano sonata and much chamber music. Master of the sonata form he passed by a series of painless transitions over into the free country of Brahms, Wagner, Liszt and Berlioz. He knew all styles, played with all historical forms before he found his own. And then he astonished the world of music.
11"In Italy" is the result of Strauss' Italian journey, which, as in Goethe's case, was so prolific of spiritual results. He went away the composer of the "Wind Serenade," beloved by Von Bülow, an adept in orchestration, a possible revolutionist, and returned a dangerous anarchist—in the eyes of the old coterie of both Weimar and Munich—but with his path fairly in view. Henceforth Strauss must part with his musical past. No longer for him were the blandishments and euphonies of absolute music. He adored Brahms, but he knew that Brahms had said all that was to be said in the classically romantic sphere; he worshipped Wagner, and discovered later (in op. 25, "Guntrum") that the music drama was denied him. The symphonic poem, the poem with a motto—there were unexplored musical continents. "Italia" was the first effort of Strauss in this genre, and while it shows traces of Liszt, Berlioz and Wagner, in it are all the potentialities of the later Strauss. Composed in 1886, it is therefore twelve years older than "A Hero's Life." But in those dozen years the impossible has been accomplished by him.
13Mr. Gericke's reading was analytic rather than sympathetic. He did better with the Schumann number. Hugo Becker, who played the Haydn 'Cello Concerto, is a son of Jean Becker, the leader of the Florentine Quartet. He is a violoncellist of the first rank. His tone is pure, round, resonant, though not sensuous; and his mechanism all that might be expected from an artist of his Continental reputation. In the interesting Haydn Concerto, played here a month or so ago by Jean Gerardy, there is not much that makes extreme technical demands on the executant. Its two cadenzas are by Gevaert, who also edited the entire work with such reverence that no passage offends by its modern color or construction. In the first cadenza Mr. Becker displayed almost faultless fingers, bowing, intonation. It is composed chiefly of double thirds, sixths and full chords, with few rolling arpeggios. The performer won instant recognition, and, aided by his superb Stradivarius instrument, made an unqualified success.
15Saturday afternoon the audience was larger, the program more interesting as a whole. Here it is:
17Symphony No. 5, in E minor, op. 64…………………Tschaikowsky Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra…………….Franck Symphonic Poem, No. 3, The Preludes…………………Liszt Courtlandt Palmer.
19The Franck Variations were first played here in a Thomas concert given at Carnegie Hall March, 1898, and devoted to modern French composers. Raoul Pugno took the piano part, and treated it more brilliantly than Courtlandt Palmer. There was so little vigor in Mr. Palmer's attack that we may easily surmise he was suffering from a severe attack of nervousness. Yet he accomplished much that was refined, even poetic in the earlier portions of this strange, interesting composition. His touch is musical, his technic highly polished—consider that beautiful free trill—and his sense of dynamic values excellently developed. The first half of these variations lie on the borderland of nebulous fancy. The pianist indicated the shifting moods with precision. When from this melancholy mystery the composer emerges into major-land, then Mr. Palmer was like a man brought too suddenly from the dark into sunshine. Perhaps he is, to employ a sporting term, overtrained. We know him for a hard student. He should burn his technical ships behind him, throw study to the dogs and play as much in public as possible. This will give to his style the spontaneity, the freshness and virility it lacks. Mr. Palmer was well received.
21The symphony and symphonic poem were played in the academic manner we have learned to expect from Mr. Gericke. The individual essence of both composers escape during the arduous chemical analysis to which this conductor puts them. Mehr Licht is not so much needed as mehr Luft—to sadly paraphrase Goethe. More air, more blood, more muscle, more brutality—but will we ever get them?
23Manuscript Society Concert.
25The first public concert of the Manuscript Society's eleventh season was given in Mendelssohn Hall on the evening of January 19. An essentially musical audience attended the event. Overpowering in effect was the orchestra of fifty-five musicians, whose playing was well adapted to a hall of larger dimensions. Orchestral numbers included "Melpomene, Dramatic Overture," by George W. Chadwick, of Boston; Paul Th. Miersch's "Elegy for String Orchestra"; "Engels Konzert"; H. Hans Wetzler: "Scenes from Luxembourg," Charles Becker, and "Concert Overture, In Bohemia," Henry K. Hadley. Frank Damrosch conducted.
27The soloist of the occasion was Miss Jessie Shay, whose interpretation of Moszkowski's Concerto, op. 59, was a brilliant achievement. Miss Shay displayed remarkable pianistic ability, her performance of the four exacting movements of this comprehensive concerto arousing genuine and well deserved enthusiasm.
29Boston Opera Company Snow Bound.
31OLLARAMINI and the Boston Lyric Operatic Company will have cause to remember their California engagement on account of their thrilling experience with a Western snow blizzard, which completely blockaded their train. The railroad officials immediately set out to rescue the stars from their perilous position, and succeeded in getting them to Portland, Ore., in time for their engagement, January 7.
33Two Cablegrams.
35Zeldenrust's Success.
37The Musical Courier, New York:
38Paris, January 19, 1901.
39The recital of Eduard Zeldenrust, the pianist, in Paris yesterday proved to be an enormous success.
40Robert Strakosch.
42Godowsky.
44Berlin Office The Musical Courier,
45January 16, 1901.
46The success of Godowsky's second Berlin concert surpasses all precedent.
47Floersheim.
49Herbert Wilber Greene's Lecture.
51HERBERT WILBER GREENE, of New York, who has been secured by Director Gilbert Raynolds Combs, of the Broad Street Conservatory of Music, of Philadelphia, as the head of the vocal department, delivered an interesting lecture before an audience composed of some of the best vocalists of Philadelphia last Saturday. The subject was "A Ladder for the Vocal Artist." He said while a voice may properly be called an accident of birth, a singer who has reached the acme of a dramatic career would tell you that her appearance on the pinnacle of the temple was anything but an accident; that her voice was only an incident among a number of even more potentious incidents, all of which combine to make success possible.
53"It is to emphasize the justice of her claim that I am going to attempt in a primitive though practical fashion to indicate the steps by which she has gained her heights."
55Mr. Greene then began by stating that the first thing would be a selection of good material, as much if not all depended on that. The uprights of the ladder he called "Strength and Physique." These, he stated, must be equally secure, as it would not do to trust ambition to a ladder, either upright of which may be weak, the whole ladder being like a cable, as strong as it is in its weakest part.
57The ladder was then built of many rounds, to each of which Mr. Greene gave a name, these names being of themselves so full of suggestive thought that the aspiring mind formed an ideal which would be life lasting.
59"Those who would dwell in the garden of the gods must earn the right. To be sure, there are some who are so fortunate as to have been born there, but never doubt that they have had to work as hard to justify their inheritance as those who enter to its privileges through their own efforts.
61"It is no less sad than true that the exceptionally gifted are usually to be found on the outskirts of this select abode, sitting with a drawn bow, aiming shafts of criticism at the workers who have eclipsed them by sheer stress of accomplishment."
63Becker Lecture-Musicales.
65Gustav L. Becker will open the sixth season of his lecture-musicales on Saturday morning, January 26, at 10 o'clock, at his home, 1 West 104th street. The lecturer of the day will be Mrs. Stella Prince Stocker, who will give an illustrated talk on Chippewa Indian music. There will be a brief program by several of Mr. Becker's piano pupils.
67In response to numerous inquiries Mr. Becker wishes to explain that these are not subscription affairs, nor is there an admission fee.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.