Scan 27
Musical Courier 1902-02-12: Vol 44 Iss 1142, 1902
58 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 28. See the scan on archive.org.
1BOSTON, Mass., February 9, 1902.
3THE Cecilia Society gave the second concert of its twenty-sixth season on Tuesday evening, February 4, at Symphony Hall, B. J. Lang conductor.
5The program embraced "Sunrise," part song, by S. J. Taneieff; the "150th Psalm," César Franck, with organ accompaniment; recitative and aria from Tchaikowsky's opera, "Eugene Onegin," sung by A. Janpolski; "L'Archet," a composition by C. M. Loeffler for mezzo soprano solo, sung by Mrs. Julie Hyman; "Viole d'Amore," obbligato, played by the composer, and semi-chorus for female voices; a hymn, from the "Legend of St. Christopher," by Horatio W. Parker; a Motet, for mixed chorus, by Arthur Foote; aria for soprano, from the opera of "Azara," Prof. John K. Paine; "Love Plumes His Wings," for female voices, by Miss Margaret R. Lang; three songs, by Reynaldo de Hahn, "Infidèle," "Mai," "D'une Prison," and romance from Tchaikowsky's "La Dame de Pique," sung by Miss Wyman, and "Salamalsikum," from Cornelius' "Barber of Bagdad," baritone solo by Mr. Janpolski.
7The Taneieff part song, unaccompanied, of unusual scope in this class of composition, was very well sung under the direction of Mr. Lang, who is at his best in this sort of work.
9The music of Franck's setting of the "150th Psalm" is of that serious, earnest character that pervade the most part of his composition. In order to do this composer justice, who indulges no effort to attract attention through superficial means, the most exacting attention should be paid to the marked expression.
11Mr. Lang too often fails to accomplish much in the item of shading when encumbered with the care of an orchestral accompaniment, but usually in pure vocal work he meets with success. The dynamic contrasts were not sufficiently marked, however, in this performance to accord the intended effect.
13Besides that the organ desk was placed at the back of the stage on one side, and in a position where the player could not comfortably see the conductor's beat; this resulted in the voices and organ not being together always, an unnecessary blemish that would have been avoided had the desk been directly in front of the conductor's stand where it belongs.
15Franck has a happy faculty in handling voices in concerted form, and this composition presented this facility with admirable success.
17Mr. Loeffler's composition, "L'Archet," dwelt in that weird, melancholy mode that distinguishes so much of his music. The music is of rare poetical delicacy, the outpouring of an imagination that if it deals with the gloom of sadness, nevertheless avoids morbidity. It requires a fine touch in its reading to preserve the balance of its refined and varied expression, and the chorus succeeded admirably, except toward the end, where the viola l'amore should have prevailed dominantly, and not been overborne by the voices.
19Mrs. Wyman's effort with the solo part was that of the genuine artist, whose conception and delineation went hand in hand with exceptional unity.
21The poem by Charles Cros tells the story of the lover and his mistress, the latter, through the intensity of love's strength, dying of "a sickness that crept upon her soul," bequeathing her hair to her lover to make a bow with which to charm other ladies when he played his violin. This he did so charmingly that the queen and he fled in the moonlight, only to die because the bow reproached him mournfully each time he touched it. The dead mistress took back her hair.
23Other than Mr. Loeffler's artistic playing of the viole d'amore the voices are unaccompanied.
25The piece was sung in French.
27"Love Plumes His Wings," by Miss Lang, whose delightful songs are found in the repertory of our best singers, and who has had success with many larger compositions, proved to be a pretty song well set for the voices, although the chorus sank constantly from the diapason of its beginning, much to the detriment of its performance; neither was there any variety of expression in the singing.
29Mr. Foote's Motet was a specimen of good writing, for he is an excellent musician, but it is not among the more original and interesting of his compositions. The fugal part was skillfully managed and the final portion of the work effectively carried to conclusion. Courtesy, undoubtedly, gave him the baton, but the effect of the music was not enhanced thereby.
31The aria from Professor Paine's recently composed opera "Azara," sung by Mrs. Rice, is from the beginning of the third scene of the second act, where Azara sits upon the bank and listens to the murmur of the forest and the sea, a situation in the delineation of which this most eminent of American composers, in the orchestral scoring, has wrought with rare beauty and skill in its poetic charm.
33It was given with piano accompaniment, played by Mr. Lang delightfully and appreciatively.
35One could but imagine its effect, however, under these conditions.
37Mrs. Rice exerted herself to meet the requirements of its strains, but it demands the capacity of a Nordica, or Gadski, at her best, to encompass the nobility of its melodic flow and the breadth of its masterly conception.
39What a wonderful libretto is the book of this opera, the inspired effort of the composer himself. In both lyric and dramatic value it is of surpassing excellence.
41The number from Mr. Parker's "St. Christopher" was the best effort of the chorus during the evening as regards expressive interpretation. The elevated character of the composition was finely displayed in its best light.
43An item of the performance that gratified the ear of the critical listener was the highly artistic singing of Mrs. Wyman.
45It is well in these degenerate days of the noble art that the true vocal artist appears, if only occasionally, to admonish the screaming, screeching and voice scraping vocalists and to advise them through practical demonstration concerning the degraded level they operate upon in the pursuit of their adopted calling.
47The nobility of this artist's style, the sustained flow of the vocal movement, the repose and the confident grasp of the composer's purpose, be it in a gentler or more passionate mood, the display in acute delineation of the most subtle intent of the inspiration that underlies the more evident intention of the music, all these excited the appreciative listener with a feeling of extreme gratification and encouraged him to believe that the art is not entirely lost in our day.
49The attempt to be dramatic, the effort to display passion that inherently or artificially is identified with the singers of to-day, in which the intention is torn in tatters, found no place in the genuine vocal display of this exceptionally superior artist.
51Let singers, both great and small in prominence, observe and imitate this, the true art of vocal performance.
53Mrs. Wyman sang everything in French, a most reprehensible custom, or affectation, before an American audience, a custom that must soon stand in the light of a public affront on the part of the native whose impertinence permits his addressing his countrymen in a foreign tongue.
55The English language is still sufficient to convey to Americans the sense, import, passion, or what not of the poet.
57Translators are at hand with eminent ability to preserve in the idioms of our native tongue the poetical and musi-
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