Scan 34
Musical Courier 1901-04-24: Vol 42 Iss 1100, 1901
37 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 35. See the scan on archive.org.
1Berlin Branch Budget
3German Headquarters of The Musical Courier, Berlin, W., Linkstrasse 17. April 2, 1901.
5The foreign element keeps on progressively to pervade musical life in Berlin, so that during the entire past week, for instance, not a single night occurred on which foreigners, viz., not Germans, did not hold sway here musically in concert hall and opera house, and both in a reproductive and productive sense.
7The first to put in an appearance were two Englishmen, both very young, who gave a joint recital in Bechstein Hall. Both were formerly pupils of the London Royal Academy, but are receiving their finishing touches here in Berlin. They are far above the average of their countrymen in the way of musical endowment and, mirabile dictu, also of temperament, of which most Englishmen own but a modicum. Sam Grimson, the more important of the two artists, comes of a well-known musical family, and as a private pupil of Joachim has worked his way up into a position of prime favorite among the master's great number of disciples. E. Howard Jones, who is a pupil of Jedliczka, has the making of a good, thoroughly reliable, more than genius-like, high soaring pianist. Both these young men showed as distinguishing features of their playing an earnestness and intelligence of music making, which was apparent in their performance as it was in their program. They furthermore refrained from all showiness and trickery, and therefore their reading of Brahms D minor Sonata, op. 108, for piano and violin, was as intellectual and in its straightforward, honest style of reproduction as smooth and polished in ensemble, as one could well have wished for.
9Greater breadth and also more individuality was displayed, simply because it gave him a better chance to do so, by Mr. Jones in D'Albert's piano arrangement of the D major Organ Prelude and Fugue of Bach, and here he also gave proof of abundant but well controlled temperament. The serene humor of Bach, however, which hovers in and around this work to a considerable extent, was lost sight of by Mr. Jones, and in this respect, "in spite of all temptations to belong to other nations, he remained an Englishman," as Gilbert and Sullivan have it in their never quite to be forgotten, once so deservedly popular operetta, "H. M. S. Pinafore." Grimson gave samples of a well tried technic in Joachim's more difficult than musically interesting E minor Violin Variations, but he had put his best foot forward in the Brahms Sonata.
11About Sigismund Stojowski as a composer I wrote at length in a previous budget, but this young Polish pianist and pupil of Paderewski would not have needed to go to the expense and trouble of giving here four concerts, two with orchestra and two in the shape of recitals, to convince me and everybody that he is lacking in individuality as a pianist just as well as he refrains from reaching his aim as a composer, simply because he has no stamina to carry an idea to a successful end. Curiously enough he showed the least temperament and musical vitality in the reproduction of his own F sharp minor Piano Concerto, a work of which I spoke before, and which might be made more interesting under the fingers of a stronger pianist. In the latter capacity Mr. Stojowski shows traits of a certain amount of elegance and polished style, but his real or assumed listlessness and a lack of temperament, rare in a descendant of Poland, made his performance of his own work sound supercilious. Now imagine Rubinstein's brilliant, but at the same time somewhat hollow and phrase rich D minor Piano Concerto, performed in that same perfumed style, and you can well understand why Mr. Stojowski could not succeed here as a pianist, despite some noisy efforts of well meaning friends in the audience. He did his best playing, and was also comparatively most satisfactory from a musical as well as a pianistic viewpoint in the Saint-Saëns C minor Concerto, which, in its easy going, loquacious style, and the conversational contents of at least its first movements, was best suited to Stojowski's abilities.
13At a previous recital I heard Beethoven's last Sonata from Stojowski and left the hall in disgust, for poorer Beethoven playing I had not heard for many a day. The program for the last recital on Saturday night, which I would not attend, contained a sonata for 'cello and piano, op. 18; some Polish Idyls, op. 24, by Stojowski, and Paderewski's A minor Variations.
15After England and Poland on Monday we had some Holland on Tuesday, the Dutch vocalists, Johanna Domela, soprano, and Bertha van Ancum, alto, in a song and duet recital at the Singakademie showing that they had pleasant voices, had much to learn yet in the way of vocal concert delivery, and creating, on the whole, the impression of two better class amateurs, who had ventured out into the "cauld, cauld blast" of the platform and before the public's critical ears far too prematurely. one of two readings
16After England and Poland on Monday we had some Holland on Tuesday, the Dutch vocalists, Johanna Dommel, soprano, and Bertha van Ancum, alto, in a song and duet recital at the Singakademie showing that they had pleasant voices, had much to learn yet in the way of vocal concert delivery, and creating, on the whole, the impression of two better class amateurs, who had ventured out into the "cauld, cauld blast" of the platform and before the public's critical ears far too prematurely. one of two readings
18Another Hollander, but this time a consummate artist upon his chosen instrument, the first 'cellist of the Philharmonic Orchestra, was the soloist at the Wednesday "Pop." But it was not his often lauded performance as much as his selections which drew me to the crowded hall of the Philharmonie, for among these three solo pieces were two composed by Americans. Of these a Romanza in E minor by the facile princips among American composers, E. A. MacDowell, proved in contents as well as in facture a little masterpiece and a perfect gem. It is quite a while since I have heard a like charming and finely fashioned composition for 'cello, and although in the hands of a not very sure performer the frequent jumps upon high notes, and especially the close proximity to the bridge, demanded by the closing phrase of an almost ethereal beauty, might prove disastrous drawbacks, a first-class 'cellist is bound to make a hit and produce a strong impression with this romanza. The orchestral accompaniment to this work is equally masterly in color and effectiveness.
20A Serenade, also for 'cello and orchestra, by Ernest Lachmund, likewise a young American, suffered a bit through the immediate succession to so formidable a rival. In its unpretentiousness and gracefulness, however, Mr. Lachmund's piece, with its fetching waltz rhythm and its lively middle section in the sub-dominant, pleased the audience immensely. If slightly altered and put down as a waltz-serenade this opuscule of our promising young countryman will prove a welcome addition to the scanty literature for the 'cello.
22The third piece of this group of novelties for the 'cello—the MacDowell work was also new to Berlin at least—was a Romanza in G, by the young Hollandish composer, G. Mann, which is quite melodious, and in a refined vein, but is lacking decidedly in originality.
24The Philharmonic Orchestra was in excellent trim on this occasion, and Rebicek had selected a first-class program, which contained, besides these soli, the Brahms "Choral St. Antoni Variations," Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, Richard Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel" and Mozart's "Nozze di Figaro" overture, all of which one can enjoy in first-class reproduction at these truly "popular" concerts for an admission fee of 60 pfennigs, viz., 14 cents of American coin of the realm.
26I did not, however, indulge in so much music for orchestra on the evening in question, for still another foreigner, Nellie Kauffmann-Kendall, from London, who gave a piano recital at the neighboring Bechstein Saal, claimed part of my time and attention. Of both, however, the lady received and deserved only a comparatively slight slice, for this dreamily, listlessly playing young lady is very amateurish, and, although she is reported to have concertized with success in England, she is hardly likely to achieve the same in this country. With a mild languor well befitting the reproduction of a Chopin Nocturne she played, for instance, the allegretto from Beethoven's C sharp minor Sonata, in an adagio tempo, and the F minor Prelude and Fugue from Bach's "Well Tempered Clavichord," she interpreted in the same dolce far niente style as Liszt's "Liebestraume." A nice, pleasing touch is one of the few favorable attributes of this young woman as a pianist.
28On Thursday the Royal Opera House Intendency at last vouchsafed us the long promised and frequently postponed première of Saint-Saëns' "Samson and Dalila." And even this first production could not have taken place as advertised, if Gruening had not come to the rescue and had, in short time and order, studied the part of Samson, originally in the hands of Kraus, who has not, however, recovered up to date his long lost and, as it would now seem, seriously injured vocal organ.
30The première was made the occasion of a festive event, their Majesties appearing at the Royal Opera House for the first time since the disgusting event of the Emperor having been wounded at Bremen. The audience of well-known first nighters and habitués, one of the most distinguished, representative and authoritative ones that could be gathered in Berlin, appeared in evening dress "by request," and thus everything was done to make the general mood a favorable one for a fine reception of the work of the greatest of living French composers. The presence of the French Ambassador and his suite, although it might be considered a matter of course, as well as the ostentatious applause of the Emperor at each curtain fall, gave evidence, as some say, of the fact that the première was also made the vehicle of an exchange of political courtesy.
32Be that as it may, the audience, as a whole, had no such motives and had come merely to enjoy the first lyricodramatic creation of a composer who, as an author of symphonic works, has long since become one of the most familiar foreigners in this country. As such he, like Berlioz, was perhaps earlier appreciated in Germany than he was in his native land, and his opera "Samson and Dalila" was likewise given here before it was presented anywhere else. The first performance took place at Weimar, under Lassen's direction, in 1877, while it made its entrance into the Paris Grand Opéra House only in 1892, and it took nearly a quarter of a century before Saint-Saëns' most important opera was heard for the first time in Berlin. This long interval and likewise the inherent weakness of lack of dramatic intensity may be the cause of some disillusionment, not to say actual disappointment, which some could not help feeling at this première of an opera the musically beautiful episodes of which have in the meantime become common property of most concertgoers, while in other respects, notably from the viewpoint of modern music-drama, "Samson and Dalila" sounds like good, old-fashioned grand opera.
34One does not need to belong to the ultra-Bayreuth party to feel and become convinced of the fact that Saint-Saëns is not a dramatic composer, and more poetic also than intensely dramatic is the libretto of Ferdinand Lemaire. He did not make out of the biblical personage a hero who carries everybody with and before him, men and women, soldiers and high priests. His Samson harangues the people in nice, convincing speeches, almost like an American election campaign speaker on the stump. His Dalila is not a tremendously agitated woman, influenced in her actions through genuine love for the man who conquered everything and everybody, including her own haughty self, and who hates herself for loving and yielding to the giant who conquered her nation. Wavering between these fiercely battling feelings of race, hatred and national love on the one side, and womanly love on the other side, a Goethe would have made a goddess out of this princess, who, in supreme agony and self-imolation, deprives this hero of his superhuman power.
36Lemaire makes of her only a stage villain, in female dress, who ensnares the enemy of her people by means of the display of her female charms and by lying love to him in the shameless baseness of a street walker. It is a curious fact, and speaks highly for the powers of the composer, that he succeeded in clothing the words of this theatrical princess with a music which is far more beautiful and genuine in sentiment than the words she utters. On
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