Scan 7
Musical Courier 1901-12-11: Vol 43 Iss 1133, 1901
69 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 8. See the scan on archive.org.
1a letter to the Munich press, saying that not "Till Eulenspiegel," but Strauss' "Death and Apotheosis," was played at the concert in question! The feelings of Mr. Mauke, who probably had not attended the concert, would be interesting in print. It must have been a pleasant moment when he faced his editor.
3A few news items from the theatres: Gerhard Hauptmann's "The Red Rooster" is to receive its first production to-night. The piece plays in a Berlin tenement. "Miss Hobbs," by Jerome K. Jerome, translated into German, made a hit at the Dresden Royal Theatre last week. It is to be given here soon. Mme. Josefine Reinl, the excellent artist, will remain at the Berlin Royal Opera. Her contract has just been prolonged for five years. A baritone, Wilhelm Kruse, from Lübeck, will soon make some trial appearances here.
5The late Arnold Böcklin seems to have been more than a great painter. A song from his pen was published last week in the Berlin Welt-Spiegel. The modest lyric, set to a poem by Goethe, is extremely musical and most expressive.
7Paul Prill, the successor of Hermann Zumpe at the Schwerin Opera, has rapidly made himself popular with his new public. For his leading of "Tannhäuser" and Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" he received warmest praise from critics and audience. Prill's brother, Paul, is solo flutist of the Berlin Royal Opera. Another brother, Carl, is concertmaster at the Vienna Royal Opera.
9The American composer has actually figured on a European concert program. At a recent violin recital in London Sigmund Beel and Henry Bird played Mrs. H. H. A. Beach's Sonata for Violin and Piano, in A minor, op. 34.
11Mr. Eckhardt, of Cleveland, Ohio, who has been studying here for several years, recently published a very interesting book of bowing exercises for violin and violoncello. The work has won the indorsement of such artists as Joachim, Hekking, Wirth, Hilf, Marteau and Witek.
13Rubin Goldmark, of New York, an extremely talented composer, has arrived in Berlin, and expects to spend the winter here. Several of his compositions are to be heard in concert soon.
15The Tageblatt speaks feelingly of the penury of minor Berlin musicians. New York, Boston, Chicago and many smaller American cities have a similar tale to tell.
17M. Lhévin, winner of the latest Rubinstein competition in piano playing, will soon give a recital. Godowsky referred to the young Pole as the "king of octave playing."
19I don't know whether you have heard that Dvorák has been appointed director of the Prague Conservatory, succeeding Anton Bennewitz, who resigned on account of advanced age.
21A German statistician says that in a musicians' directory of the Borough of Manhattan there are listed more than 1,200 piano teachers, 700 vocal teachers, and 650 violin teachers. Some of our American students here, who are aiming for New York, would like to see a reliable directory of the pupils.
23The proposed production of "Der Ring des Nibelungen," at the Prince Regent Opera House, Munich, has been postponed till 1903, in order to give Bayreuth the monopoly next year. The Wagner operas chosen for Munich, therefore, are "Lohengrin," "Tannhäuser," "Tristan" and "Die Meistersinger," and there will be twenty-one model representations of those works between August 7 and September 11.
25Have you ever heard of Teplitz, in Bohemia? It is a town about the size of Troy, N. Y. It has a symphony orchestra, which gives six concerts each season. Among the works to be produced there this winter are: Bruckner's Symphony in E flat (!), Borodine's Symphony in B minor (!!), and Hausegger's "Barbarossa." (!!!). The soloists at the six concerts will be Teresa Carreño, Fritz Kreisler, Edouard Risler, Vittorio Arimondi, Hugo Becker and Eugene Ysaye. How do they do it? American papers in cities of about 30,000 inhabitants and over, please copy carefully.
27The prospectus of the Mannheim Conservatory (Mannheim is a city in South Germany) talks of the "encouraging progress" of the institution for the past year. I looked up the prospectus of 1900. Then there were 138 pupils. This year there are 139. Oh, the dear old patient, plodding Fatherland!
29I am authoritatively informed that the report current in German papers of Fräulein Ida Heidler's (Berlin Opera) engagement for next season's Wagner performances in London is entirely without foundation. Fräulein Heidler appears to have a press agent and a steady eye on America.
31There are more good things in Nuremberg than dolls, beer and Christmas cake. A philharmonic orchestra has just been started there with a large financial guarantee.
33Rimsky-Korsakoff's new opera, with the simple title of "Zarskaja Newjesta" ("Bride of the Czar"), is about to be produced in St. Petersburg.
35Geraldine Farrar, the New York girl who recently achieved success at the Royal Opera in "Faust," will sing Violetta, in "Traviata," end of this week.
37HARMONICA.
39Broad Street Conservatory.
41THERE are few recitals by students more entertaining than those given at the Broad Street Conservatory, 1331 South Broad street, Philadelphia, under the direction of Mr. Combs, and the program presented on Wednesday evening, December 4, was in every way up to the standard of the institution. The vocalists, Miss Louise De Ginther and Miss Luna Dickson, both pupils of Herbert W. Greene, were delightfully entertaining, while the pianists represented the work done with Mr. Combs, the director. A number deserving special mention is the harp solo "Au-bade," by Hasselman, which was played in a graceful manner by Miss Helen Ullom, a pupil of Mr. Cortesi. The program from the beginning to the concluding duet evidenced the quality of the work done at the conservatory. Every number was creditably prepared, and showed throughout earnest, sincere application to study.
43Gaston M. Dethier.—Gaston M. Dethier, organist of St. Francis Xavier Church, New York, whose remarkable command of his instrument is the wonder and admiration of all who have heard him play, recently gave two recitals, one at Bridgeport, Conn., and the other at Buffalo, N. Y. The criticisms which follow will serve to indicate his success:
45A most remarkable exhibition of organ playing was given last evening at the opening recital at St. Mary's Church by Gaston M. Dethier, organist of St. Francis Xavier's Church, New York city.
47It is difficult to attempt a description of the work of this modest appearing young man without using language that many people would regard as highly extravagant, if not rhapsodical. Yet superlatives are all that seem fitting as memory recalls the never-before-heard rapidity of finger movement, combined with so pure and perfect a legato, the kaleidoscopic changes in registration producing a marvelous variety of colored tone-pictures without pause or apparent effort; the smooth, expressive pedal work; the ease with which this master toyed and played with the greatest of all instruments, even as an artistic violinist would toy and play with his violin, and, equally like him, playing with a pathos and expression touching and sweeping every emotion of the human heart.
49Those who were present may congratulate themselves on having had the privilege of listening to one of the greatest masters of the organ the modern world has produced.—Bridgeport Standard.
51Three of the finest recitals heard in the Temple of Music during the entire series thus far were given last week by Gaston M. Dethier, organist of St. Francis Xavier's Church in New York. Mr. Dethier ranks among the very best organists in this country, and his reputation is by no means overrated. His technic is all sufficient, but the listener scarcely thinks of it, for it is but the means to the end. His beautiful coloring, his satisfying repose, his poetic interpretations, these are what especially characterize his playing and raise him to the high level of the master of the organ. Perhaps in nothing was his musical feeling more apparent than in the very beautiful accompaniments which he played for Miss Grace Carbone, who sang very sweetly the solo, "And God Shall Wipe Away All Tears from Their Eyes."—Buffalo Herald.
53Hamlin's Strauss Recital.—The recital which George Hamlin will give at Mendelssohn Hall promises to be one of the most interesting of the winter. As we have heretofore announced the program will consist entirely of lieder by Richard Strauss. The program was published in a previous number of THE MUSICAL COURIER.
55FROM PARIS.
56PARIS, NOVEMBER 21, 1901.
58"GRISELIDIS," libretto by Armand Silvestre and E. Morand, music composed by Massenet, was produced for the first time last night at the Opéra Comique. It is styled a conte lyrique. This is an age in which to characterize the diversity of forms and the craving for the new. Other nomenclature must be sought for, the old names no longer sufficing to characterize these tentative efforts. Instead of the old terms of grand opera, or opera buffa, we have drame lyrique, conte lyrique, &c. Sullivan and Gilbert invented the term comedy opera for their productions, and in France we have no longer opérette or opéra bouffe, but opérette à grand spectacle.
60The poem of this new work is taken from the "Decameron," and has already formed the subject of a play produced some time ago at the Comédie Française. The present version differs but little, so far as the form is concerned, from that produced some twelve years ago, a prologue being the only important addition.
62The music, of which I will speak more fully another time, is in the melodious, particular style of Massenet, and with all his well-known effects of flute and harp in the orchestration. The prologue made the greatest impression of any part of the work, although a passage sung by Dufranne in the first act is perhaps the most beautiful in the whole opera. It is an exquisite melody, with charming ideas given to the horns and cor anglais. The work scored another success for the prolific composer of "Manon," "Werther," "Eve," &c.
64Mlle. Bréval, as singer and actress, was at her best, being ably supported by Fugère, who as the Evil One, gave in appearance and bearing an entirely different presentation of the devil we are accustomed to in the works of Gounod, Boito or Berlioz. The stage setting, as is usual at this house, is singularly poetic and beautiful.
66That no one is a prophet in his own country is an aphorism so trite that I will not inflict it on the readers of THE COURIER. In looking over the entire world of music, one is struck by the fact that it was never so true as at the present day. In Germany, French composers and performers seem at present entirely in vogue. Colonne with his orchestra triumphs in Berlin. Nikisch, with his Philharmonic Orchestra from Berlin, achieves unheard of success in Paris. Bernhardt plays in a tongue unknown to the majority of her listeners in America, creates a furore, and reaps an abundant golden harvest. Duse plays in Paris to audiences equally unfamiliar with the language, and is acclaimed the greatest of all living actresses. At the Opéra we get "Tannhäuser" and "The Valkyrie" oftener than anything else, while Wagner excerpts form the largest portion of the symphonic concert programs. How much of this is snobbery in art, and the constant vaunting of what is foreign and exotic—or as an old English proverb has it, "dear bought and far fetched"—is not a question into which one cares to enter at present. It certainly seems at present as if the most certain passport to public favor is a foreign one. So, for instance, one is not now astonished to hear from Leipzig, that most conservative of musical cities, with a theatre, as one had thought, almost exclusively Wagnerian, that the "Samson and Delilia" of Saint-Saëns has met with great success on its first presentation there, and the name of the composer was cheered heartily at the end of the performance.
68Reyer, the composer, of whom I spoke at some length last week, deplores the influence of Wagner. Not that he does not recognize the genius of the master, but that he believes his influence to have been unhealthy and inimical to the individuality of French musical art, as instanced by the eccentric productions of the innumerable imitators of the German composer in France. In a recent interview Reyer says: "As for the repertory [at the Opéra] look for yourself. The public do not seem at present to care for the works of Gluck, Weber, Halévy, Meyerbeer, &c., and Berlioz even, who was thought during his lifetime to be a terrible revolutionary, now seems tame and tepid to your real Wagnerian. Only recently at a concert where a number from the 'Freischütz' was attempted to be given it was hissed. Worse still. Listen to this. Madame Gounod related it to me herself: Gounod was dying. A young musician presented himself, and insisted in the most earnest manner on speaking to the composer. It was explained that this was under the conditions utterly impossible. 'I regret exceedingly the inability of M. Gounod to see me,' said the young musician, 'because I wanted to say to him, before his death, that nothing he has written has any musical value whatever, and that when he is gone not one of his compositions will outlive him.'
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