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Musical Courier 1902-01-01: Vol 44 Iss 1136, 1902
79 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 11. See the scan on archive.org.
1MUSIC IN BROOKLYN.
3ONE DOZEN NEW YEAR'S WISHES.
5THAT there will be more and better concerts in Brooklyn.
6That there will be better and shorter programs.
7That Institute audiences will learn to turn their programs noiselessly during the singing or playing of pianissimo measures.
8That a certain mean and miserly Brooklyn musician, with the fattest of bank accounts, will cease begging his way into concerts and hereafter pay his way in like a man.
9That vocal teachers of both sexes will speak well of each other's methods.
10That the United Singers of Brooklyn will stop wrangling or change the name of their society.
11That some modest millionaire will build a music hall in Brooklyn and decline to name it after himself.
12That all good choir singers will have their salaries raised.
13That singers and instrumentalists will refuse to appear gratuitously, save in the case of charity concerts.
14That the Brooklyn Oratorio Society will shelve "The Messiah" for a dozen years at least.
15That all Brooklynites will be as good Christians as the Chinese and begin the New Year by paying every honest debt.
16That all Brooklynites, particularly all Brooklyn musicians, will observe the Golden Rule in all transactions.
18SCHUMANN-HEINK AND FISCHER RECITAL.
20The Academy of Music was crowded to overflowing last Friday evening for the joint song recital given by Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink and Emil Fischer, under the auspices of the Institute. Both of these artists received a welcome. There is probably no member of Mr. Grau's company who is more popular in Brooklyn than the German contralto. Mr. Fischer's reappearance awakened many memories joyous and sad. The last time the celebrated basso sang in Brooklyn was on the stage of the same old Academy of Music at the Seidl memorial concert which the Seidl Society gave a few weeks after the death of the Wagnerian conductor. On that occasion Mr. Fischer sang one of his battle horses, "Wotan's Farewell," from "Die Walküre." The day after the concert Mr. Fischer sailed for Germany, and now he is back after three years and a half, in New York. Emil Fischer, greatest of Hans Sachs, is one of the few German singers who will be remembered as a beautiful exponent of lyric art. It was singers like Mr. Fischer who finally convinced the skeptics that Wagner music was music that could be sung. Although a veteran now Mr. Fischer is still a good singer, and no one would want a better proof of it than his singing of Schubert's "Wanderer" in Brooklyn last Friday night.
22When we take into consideration that Madame Schumann-Heink sang in Philadelphia on Thursday night and that she has not yet recovered from the fatigue of the Western tour, her singing last Friday night was very satisfactory. The recital was a postponed date and, therefore, could not very well be postponed again. This writer prefers to hear Madame Schumann-Heink in opera, where her skill as an actress may be seen to such great advantage. Her voice, too, is essentially a dramatic voice, and fortunately the program last Friday night included two of the contralto's best arias, the one from Wagner's "Rienzi" and "Che faro senza Eurydice," from Gluck's "Orfeo." She sang the Gluck as well as the Wagner one in German. Before singing the aria from "Orfeo" she sang other selections from the same opera. Madame Schumann-Heink's songs were "Ich Grolle Nicht," by Schumann; "Die Junge Nonne," by Schubert, that same composer's great sacred song, "Die Allmacht" (Omnipotent), and the familiar "Frühlingszeit," by Becker.
24Mr. Fischer sang as the opening number of the recital a recitative and aria from Händel's "Acis and Galatea," and sang it right merrily in good English. Besides Schubert's "Wanderer," Mr. Fischer's songs were "Nachtstück," by Schubert; the uncanny "Todtentanz," by Loewe, and Loewe's noble ballad, "Archibald Douglas," which Fischer has repeatedly sung at local concerts. Both Madame Schumann-Heink and Mr. Fischer were obliged to give one extra song. The contralto sang a quaint lullaby in delightful style, and Mr. Fischer gave another German lied. Isidore Luckstone, the accompanist of the evening, was as usual equal to all the demands made upon him.
26KUBELIK'S SECOND BROOKLYN NIGHT.
28A mother of five growing girls once said with a sigh to the writer: "If I ever have a son I shall name him John. The Johns are all mascots. If they get into trouble they somehow emerge without hurt to themselves. All Johns attract many friends, and you generally find them at the top of the ladder in all callings, and it matters not how you spell the name, the English John, the French Jean, the German Johann and the Bohemian Jan, it's all the same."
30Well, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ignace Jan Paderewski and Jean de Reszke lead the "Johns" in the realm of music, creative and interpretative, and to this list deserves to be added the name of Jan Kubelik, the youthful violin virtuoso. This marvelous young man is coming over to Brooklyn to give his second recital next Monday evening, January 6. This time Kubelik will give a Paganini program, and no one will be surprised to find the Academy of Music crowded for the event. There is the hottest kind of a controversy being waged between the critics and the violinists of Greater New York. The violinists to a man declare Kubelik's technic to be something phenomenal, and, indeed, phenomenal is a word hardly strong enough to describe how string players regard the playing of the wonderful young Bohemian. At the recital next Monday night the solo pianist will be Miss Maria Victoria Torrillhon, and Kubelik will again be accompanied by Herr Friml. Here is the program:
32Concerto for violin, D major………………………………….Paganini
33(Cadenza by Sauret.)
34Herr Kubelik.
36Piano soli—
37Etude de Concert (Automne)………………………………….Chaminade
38Marche Grotesque…………………………………………………Sinding
39Miss Maria Victoria Torrillhon.
41Violin soli—
42Andante………………………………………………………..Paganini
43Campanella…………………………………………………….Paganini
44Herr Kubelik.
46Piano solo, Rhapsodie Hongroise, No. 8…………………Liszt
47Miss Torrillhon.
49Violin solo, I Palpiti…………………………………………..Paganini
50Herr Kubelik.
52Henry Holden Huss will repeat this season the musical picture lectures which he gave at the school of the Misses Crawford, 89 Joralemon street, last winter. The dates for this year are, Saturday afternoons, January 18, February 8, March 22, April 19 and May 17.
54Wilbur A. Luyster will resume his sight singing classes next Monday evening, January 6, in the lecture room of the Central Baptist Church on Marcy avenue. These classes are held under the auspices of the Institute.
56The Brooklyn Institute has engaged the Academy of Music for the night of February 24, with Paderewski as the great attraction.
58THE BABY MAPLESON.
60WITH reference to Mapleson's first appearance on the stage, the Daily News, of London, writes that one of the play bills belonging to Nelson Lee mentions a performance of "Henry VIII," at Drury Lane, May 31, 1830, and bears a pencil note: "Mr. Mapleson's infant was carried on for the christening scene." Then our contemporary, to confirm this bold and inconclusive narrative, adds: "Perhaps, therefore, it may be of interest to reproduce Mapleson's own account of it, which he gave us in 1884."
62"One night our house caught fire shortly after I was born. The cradle, with myself in it, was hoisted out of a second story window to save me. I was carried into Drury Lane Theatre, into Stage Manager Harley's room. In a rehearsal of 'Henry VIII,' in which Edmund Kean and Mrs. Siddons were performing, a dummy baby had been prepared by Bradwell, the property man, for the grand scene of the baptism of the child of Elizabeth. It was so flattened and puffy that Kean could not keep serious, so Harley suggested 'Try a real baby.' I was brought behind the scenes for rehearsal and behaved so well that at the solicitation of Kean and Mrs. Siddons, my mother and Madame Anna Bishop (who was a sort of second mother to me) I was engaged for a regular performance. I received an honorarium of one guinea a night for my appearance. The piece ran twenty-one nights and I received 21 guineas, and these I have still, and shall always keep them."
64The trouble about this pretty account is that Mrs. Siddons retired from the stage June 29, 1812; that Anna Riviere did not become Mrs. Bishop till 1832; that Mapleson had kept 21 guineas for the space of fifty-four years and had that sum in 1884.
66Bromberg in Demand.
68BASSO EDWARD BROMBERG, soloist of the Brick Presbyterian Church (Fifth avenue) and of the West End Synagogue, seems to grow in popularity as a concert singer. His highly sympathetic voice, of rich quality and striking carrying power, accounts for this.
70End of October he sang at a concert in Brooklyn, where his artistic singing (so natural to him) of the difficult solo part in Max Bruch's "Fair Ellen" was enthusiastically praised by the audience and the local dailies. Two days later he sang at a concert given by Wm. C. Carl for the endowment fund of the First Presbyterian Church; the audience was delighted, and Mr. Carl said his singing "was a treat."
72Middle of November Mr. Bromberg was soloist at an important concert given by the Brooklyn Quartet at the Park Theatre, under the leadership of Carl Fiqué, when he had the support of an orchestra of about thirty-five men. He was rewarded with enthusiastic applause, and here is what the Staats-Zeitung said of his good work at this concert:
74"Mr. Bromberg, who possesses a beautiful voice, sang at the concert with great success. His singing of Schumann's 'Two Grenadiers' was masterly. The solo part in Fiqué's new cantata, 'The Turkish Lady,' and the part of the King in the prayer and finale of the first act of 'Lohengin' were rendered by Mr. Bromberg as only a real artist can do such parts."
76In January Mr. Bromberg is booked for "The Messiah" in the West, and two more concerts in New York and in New Jersey. He will also soon resume his interesting studio musicales.
78MRS. ELIZABETH LEONARD AT HOME.—Mrs. Leonard has issued cards for Tuesday afternoon, January 7, at 4 o'clock, 326 West Eighty-seventh street. Music.
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